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Blog
Speaking with One Voice – II
February 26, 2008
I recall one challenging sourcing effort, years ago, where the supplier sales rep was arrogant and smug when dealing with the sourcing team. And he had reason to be over-confident – he had contacts throughout the customer’s organization: from the corporate office to plant locations, from the general manager level to the loading dock. This supplier rep was literally “plugged in” to the customer’s organization. As a result, he knew more about the company’s current activities and near-term plans than the sourcing team.
It took a while for the sourcing team to realize what was going on, and why it was having difficulty with this supplier rep. But once it did recognize the issue, it went into action. It identified, over the course of several weeks, all of the internal contacts that the supplier rep had in his network. And then came the brilliant move: it explained to each of these fellow employees that the supplier rep was “using them” to collect information for its negotiations advantage. With that awareness created (step 1), the sourcing team then explained the value of “Speaking with One Voice” (step 2). Finally, it requested that these fellow employees abide by some simple “One Voice” rules, and also help deliver certain carefully-scripted messages back to the supplier. In a short period, the once-arrogant sales rep lost his smugness, and began to work constructively with the sourcing team.
It may sound easy, but creating that One Voice awareness and buy-in throughout a multi-location company is a lot of work. One of the best practices that I have seen is to create a short DVD program, explaining what can happen when you don’t speak with one voice. This is done via short scenes or vignettes, based on actual experiences. And it’s distributed to the organization with the explicit support of top management.
If you’d like to see what I’m talking about, you can view an excerpt from Greybeard Advisors’ “Speaking with One Voice” proprietary program.
If you have a flair for writing screenplays, and also have a budget, then you can create your own, unique “One Voice” video for use within your company.
Posted by Robert A. Rudzki on February 26, 2008 | Comments (0)