Stephen Deason was in his first year of sales when a presentation went badly. He failed to connect the company’s offer to the prospects’ needs, spilled hot coffee into the CFO’s lap, and threw up in a hall bathroom. His boss was unhappy. The questions that stayed with Deason were blunt: “So what?” and “Who cares?”
Later that same year, Deason stood onstage and received an achievement plaque from the CEO. The questions survived the change in his fortunes. They asked him to explain why the offer mattered and identify the person who would value the answer.
In his Mission Matters chapter, “So What, Who Cares, and Why It Matters,” Deason connects those questions to purpose and service: “If I can answer those questions, then I'm on a mission.”
An owner can use the same questions when deciding what a service company should promise a customer.
So what?
Imagine a company that repairs equipment. A customer asks for a visit before the next shift begins. The schedule is already full, and accepting the request would require changing an existing appointment or arranging additional paid work.
Start with the consequence of the request. What happens if the equipment stays out of service? What would an earlier visit allow the customer to do? Ask the customer to explain the difficulty before promising a solution.
The answer might reveal a production stoppage, a task that can wait, or a problem the customer can resolve with instructions from a technician. Each answer gives the owner a different decision to make. The customer’s intended outcome gives the conversation a concrete purpose.
Write that outcome in ordinary language: “The customer needs the equipment operating before the next shift.” Confirm the description with the customer, including any uncertainty about what the repair requires.
Who cares?
Now name the people affected by the possible answer. The requesting customer wants working equipment. The customers already scheduled expect their appointments to happen. The technician needs a workable assignment and clear terms for any additional hours.
Ask what each possible choice would require from those people. Moving an appointment changes another customer’s day. Adding a visit requires a technician’s agreement and the company’s approval of the expense. Offering the next available appointment requires a clear explanation to the customer waiting for help.
The owner can then choose an action with the consequences visible. If a technician agrees to an additional paid visit, confirm the time, the scope of the work, and who will update the customer if the repair takes longer than expected.
Give the manager the reasoning alongside the answer. The manager can carry the same questions into the next request: what difference would the response make, and who would experience that difference?
A visible cue
Deason also discusses the fly etched inside urinals at Amsterdam’s airport. The image gives users a target to aim at. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein use the example in Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (2008) to illustrate how the setting can guide behavior. (Nudge, Yale University Press; Thaler’s account at Chicago Booth)
A service company can apply the idea of a visible cue to its own work. Put “So what?” and “Who cares?” beside the space where a manager records an unusual customer request. The prompts give the manager somewhere to record the customer’s intended outcome and the people affected before approving a promise.
Choose a current request. Write the answers to both questions, confirm the proposed action with the employee carrying it out, and tell the customer who will respond and when.
Related book
By Stephen Deason and Adam Torres. Published by Mission Matters Media.