Visualization

Some weeks ago, I was resposible for Telesales operation in a Brazilian telecommunications  carrier. By that time, one of the biggest problems I faced was that some products, specially the  most expensive ones, despite of a correct segmentation and the purchase power, weren’t  beeing apropriatelly sold. By that time, with all the qauntitative information I’ve got, I was not   able to figure out the main reasons for that situation. So, I gathered some salesperson and asked  them to tell me about their selling process and imagine the customer jorney, to write and draw   some phrases and pictures that represented their approach.

I chose visualization because of its simplicity and ludical aspect. Also, when representing their  processes, the sellers would be able to explore some emotions and intangible facts that would  be very difficult to obtain using other tools.

I asked for 10 sellers to come and join the visualization process. 5 os them were top salesperson,  specially in selling high-value added products. The other 5, were not among the best salesperson  and basically couldn’t sell any of the expensive ones. So, with all the group together, I explained  what was the objective of the session. After a brief chit-chat, I noticed that, at first glance, that  was nothing  unusual with thir selling arguments. So, that meant that was something else, not  so clear by then, that I shall obtain with the visualization.

I gave them some paper, coloured pens, some stickers and old magazines and asked them to  provide detailes about their selling process using clipping, words and pictures. Finished the  creation, that was time to share will the group all what was developed. The result of the  visualization was very enrichful. All of them drew their processes in a ludical and eschematical  way that made very clear where was the critical point that made some salesperson better in  selling expensite products than others.

I knew that the regular salesperson didn’t make much money (some of them were in their firt  job), so they couldn’t afford some of the products they were selling. Having that in mind and  looking at the pictures and clippings, I could notice that the best salesperson used some images  related to experience and satisfaction. The not so good salesperson, on the other hand, didn’t  used positive images and also used some images that revealed some social distance between  the salesperson and the customer, as if the product their were selling was only for rich people,  away from their reality.

For me, the use of visualization made it possible to see opportunities in selling that with some  other tools wouldn’t be possible (or, at least, more difficult to realise). With the results, the  company decided to offer the product as a benefit to all salesperson so they could experience  and get closed to the customers. Since then, I have always used visualization and other design  thinking tools during my corporate daily life.

