Customer management can take an unexpected turn when the team of your supportive sponsor underperforms. This requires advanced stakeholder management tactics, as CSMs can positively influence this situation.
Before tactics, let’s review the signs of underperforming teams:
Lack of knowledge hinders deployment and adoption of a vendor's solution. The team is unable to meet your expectations as a vendor and struggles to follow instructions
You may find one knowledgeable person who acts as a “single point of failure.” Dependency on one person most likely leads to delays in plans and timelines previously agreed upon. The rest of the team follows that person and cannot challenge them.
Lack of motivation. You may come across senior team members who wish to avoid changes and keep themselves in their “comfort zone.”
Highly talented professionals take advantage of their position to drive their agenda regardless of whether the solution you deploy will benefit their organization. Consequently, their team, albeit capable, is unlikely to challenge them.
Internal politics and a toxic culture where team members are not proactive and are used to pointing the finger at their colleagues.
The sensitive part is that your champion may not acknowledge the team’s performance issues. CSM's ability to spot any of the above will save valuable time and increase the champion's confidence as both can address this mutual challenge.
There is no one silver-bullet solution to improve an underperforming team. See below a few courses of action I followed before:
1️⃣ Identify with the champion potential “power users” in the team who are motivated and can be trained. Turning them into your supporters can overcome the “single point of failure” syndrome and bypass other team members who tend to reject changes.
2️⃣ Meet the “influential” team members/s driving a different agenda. Understanding their objectives is key to getting things done. I found in certain cases that they were not involved in the selection process and “waited” for someone to introduce them properly to the new solutions. In other cases, they had a specific technology preference, and I had to “win” them over (with my colleagues) as if we had to repeat the sales process.
3️⃣ Simplify existing processes if applicable. Sometimes, the team members don’t take the initiative as they expect a report or a process to fit their needs with zero effort on their side. Understanding their expectations and investing extra effort on the vendor’s side can make the team perform as expected.
4️⃣ You may also spot communication issues between your champion and the team. You may find that your assistance is needed in refining the messages and expectations from their direct reports. It can be in the form of an email, document, or slides which the champion can present to the team.
What are the best practices you employ when dealing with underperforming teams?
Customer may not be right or act professionally every time. However CSMs are capable of identifying these circumstances and act diligently to resolve them.
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