Years ago, essayist Robert Fulghum wrote, “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten”. It was an imaginative way of taking the things of childhood and applying them to everyday life. This inspired the Star Trek adapted “All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek” by Dave Marinaccio. As a child in the 1960’s, the original Star Trek television series captured my imagination and greatly influenced my life. Seeing people from different backgrounds work together toward a common goal as equals and using amazing technology to accomplish it really impressed me. The future is here and we have really cool tools to help Capital Markets sales and marketing people align to reach greater heights of revenue generation. If you’ll kindly indulge me, I’d like to apply a bit of the Star Trek approach to our continuing mission:
Seek out new life and new civilizations.
It’s all about finding and building relationships.
Non-interference is the prime directive.
Get out of the way and let the customer articulate their need.
Keep your phaser set on stun.
Don’t overwhelm customers with your script. Listen and respond to customer need as part of a conversation. Then, work to create vision around your solution.
Humans are highly illogical.
B2B customers are human. Buying can be a highly emotional and risky thing. Be patient. Be flexible.
Enemies are often invisible, like Klingons, they can be cloaked.
Often in a sale, there are hidden agendas and hidden competitors. The obstacle could be an unseen competitor or customer-side internal politics. Marketing and sales should be prepared and work together to strategize around this.
Infinite Diversity and Infinite Combinations (IDIC).
Appreciate the difference in everything. Embrace new approaches. Be creative. No two solutions are exactly the same, although at first glance they may seem to be. Find what makes yours unique and embrace it.
When your logic fails, trust a hunch.
Don’t be afraid to take risks. That’s what made Captain Kirk such a great leader.
Insufficient data does not compute.
Just as insufficient market data can adversely affect a trade (remember the “Flash Crash”?), marketing and sales need to be in constant communication about goals and lead qualification.
Even in our own world sometimes we are aliens.
Often within the same company, sales and marketing can seem like aliens to one another. That’s okay. When everyone sits down to work things out together, the sky’s the limit.
There you have it. If you let these principles guide the team effort, success will be achieved at warp speed. Live long and prosper!
Illustration courtesy of Douglas E. Graves (http://deg3d.biz/). Star Trek is a trademark of CBS Studios Inc.
HA, love it, Phil! And of course I agree with every word! Well done! And happy to help contribute to sharing Trek’s peace-based philosophies.
peace and long life | deg
Ps. I of course have the All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek poster on the wall.