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Six Cs for Successful Interactions2

Enhance your inter-personal relationships and communication for higher success.

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Parag
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15 views4 pages

Six Cs for Successful Interactions2

Enhance your inter-personal relationships and communication for higher success.

Uploaded by

Parag
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Six Cs for Successful Interactions

Parag Bhalerao

SVP & Senior Executive

Human interactions is the most critical aspect of our lives. Every person is different and so
the type of interaction. Oxford dictionary defines interaction as reciprocal action. How
many times do we pay attention to the reciprocal part of it?

In many dealings, business or personal, we see examples after examples of failed


interactions. We often struggle to make other person understand our point of view. If we
are in sales or executive position, effective interactions can make or break our entire
career.

Why are some people able to interact successfully while others struggle? We often think
that we were well prepared and we gave so much convincing information to the other
person, but why did it still not work?

Well, in this article we will discuss some of the aspects that will help us make our
interactions successful.
We are all set, all the documents are ready, presentation slides are beautiful, we have
studied our offering inside out and we are on our way to the meeting. Our side is well
covered, but what about the other side? Who are we meeting, why, what do they want,
what do they have, what do they like? Rarely we spend time preparing ourselves about the
other party. The six Cs discussed here will help us prepare for the other party and make our
interactions more and more successful.

1. The First C – Collect: Collect? What do we collect? Let’s collect as much information
about the other party as we can. Study the company, financial statements, roles of people,
their backgrounds, their interests, and so on. With Social Media tools, we can find so much
information about people. Based on this information, we can come up with few points that
will appeal to the other person. Things like their hobbies, interests, native places,
school/education, etc. can trigger interest. We need to be careful and respect people’s
privacy while collecting information from them. It should come natural without appearing
invasive.

2. The Second C – Connect: All the information we collected, is now useful to connect
effectively with the other person. Irrespective of the background and many differences, we
can find at least one common thread between us and the other party. With practice, we
can leverage that thread and build upon that, to connect with the other person. Trust is
established, barriers break down, skepticism melts and the other person becomes more
receptive, making interactions easy and successful. It is not just a good idea, but it is
absolutely critical to connect with the other person before we start talking about our
proposal. This is the phase where you will start seeing wonders. I have met most skeptical
prospects who had agreed to a very short meeting, but once we connected well, the
meeting went much longer, and the prospect gave all the time that I wanted.
3. The Third C – Communicate: Communicate is all about talking, showing features of
our product and convincing the other person, right? Wrong… communication is rather
opposite. Communication is more about listening. Now we have connected with the
prospect. We have his/her ears, and s/he is receptive. Now the setup is ours to win or to
lose. As we communicate, we need to pay careful attention to the other person.
Understanding their concerns, pain points, requirements, environment, etc. is important.
Even if we have prepared a message to deliver, we need to adjust the message to address
these points and make it appealing and relatable to the other party. During this phase, our
focus should be benefits and value to the customer and not over features and functionality
of our product/offering.

There are several books that talk about communication styles, techniques, verbal
communication vs. body language and so on. These are good books to learn good
communication skills.

4. The Fourth C – Collaborate: This is also an important step that many people skip. We
collaborate during the project or engagement, but we need collaboration before that as
well. Once we presented our offering, we need to collaborate with the other person to
adjust it to meet his expectations. He/she should feel that it is his/her proposal. Then
he/she can become our advocate for internal stakeholders. Collaboratively with frequent
iterations this can be accomplished.

Remember, best way to convince anyone on our (or any) idea is to make them feel that it is
their own idea.

5. The Fifth C – Contribute: We need to take genuine interest in client’s needs. With or
without formal engagement, we need to explore ways to contribute to activities that may
not even be our responsibilities. This is the great value add that will help us strengthen the
bond with the customer.

Clients should feel that we are part of their team and that we are on standby for any help
they need.

6. The Sixth C – Cultivate: I have seen many people who don’t keep regular contact with
the client once the deal is done (won or lost). Remember, this will not be our last
interaction with the client. We need to continue to cultivate the relationship through
ongoing interactions. Seasonal greetings, occasional touchpoints, product/service
updates, topics based on his/her interest, etc. are great ways to keep the interaction live.
Remember, out of sight is out of mind.

As we cultivate, we collect more information and use it to connect even better and the
cycle continues. These six steps continue in cyclic manner neverendingly.
A couple of years back, I was supposed to meet a manager at one of my clients to handle a
tricky matter. I had heard that he is very rude. I had never interacted him before. It was a
known client but not a known person. Before meeting, I checked his professional social
profile and found out that he is doing few certifications that I have done. When I met him, I
struck a conversation related to those certifications. During rest of our meeting, we talked
only about those certifications, how tough those are to get, how to prepare for those, etc.
As we were finishing the meeting, that tricky matter was no more a big deal.

These techniques have helped me and I am confident that these will help you as well.
While I have written this article with professional life in mind, these techniques apply to our
personal life and personal interactions as well.

As you apply these techniques, please leave comments on how these helped you.

Parag Bhalerao
www.intexp.net

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