Every day, Carew sales team members utilize the communication and relationship-building skills from our flagship sales training program, Dimensions of Professional Selling(DPS), to drive their sales effectiveness with customers and prospects. For those familiar with our DPS program, we teach a process model called the JADIK Matrix. The JADIK Matrix is a visual representation of the customer relationship journey. It provides a means of understanding how specific activities help sales professionals cultivate customer relationships and improve their position. The model graphically illustrates the need for balance in building quality, long-lasting business relationships.
It’s no secret that quality business relationships are important, especially for the bottom line. The more sales professionals communicate with their customers, uncover needs, and present relevant solutions, the more likely they are to retain them and grow revenues.
When you think about great quality business relationships, what are some words that pop into your mind? Maybe trusted advisor or win-win. Utilizing the concepts represented by the JADIK Matrix will accelerate the development of customer relationships to attain qualities like the ones that just popped into your mind.
The JADIK Matrix is designed to help sales professionals:
- Assess their sales style
- Balance communications with customers
- Optimize their sales approach
- And, most importantly, accelerate the development of customer relationships
The JADIK Matrix features four quadrants:
- Common Ground. When two people meet and share knowledge, they create a Common Ground region, which becomes the basis for the relationship and future interactions. Common Ground is information known to both the customer and the sales professional; it is mutually understood and shared data. In the initial stages of the relationship, the Common Ground may consist of only obvious, general information, such as the customer’s limited knowledge of the sales professional’s company and capabilities, or the sales professional’s basic knowledge of the customer’s company and potential needs.
- Blind Spot. The Blind Spot is information known to the customer but not to the sales professional, including the customer’s unmet needs, desired outcomes, attitudes, and motivations. The Blind Spot prevents salespeople from providing relevant and valuable solutions. Effective use of Carew’s Exploratory Process is the best way for sales professionals to minimize this quadrant.
- Unrevealed. The Unrevealed region consists of information known to the sales professional but not to the customer, including information about products and services, and their qualifications to meet the customer’s needs. Sales professionals must utilize a high-impact and engaging presentation process to share solution features, advantages, and benefits, thus minimizing Unrevealed information.
- Future Potential represents the future of the customer relationship; it grows in conjunction with Common Ground and at the expense of the Blind Spot and Unrevealed. Growth in the Future Potential quadrant reflects growth and strengthening of the customer relationship.
The JADIK Matrix is dynamic and capable of change, just as relationships are – because the horizontal and vertical lines that divide the Matrix into regions can be changed and moved. This movement represents the influence the sales professional and customer have in the relationship.
Ideally, the Common Ground grows at equal rates in both directions. This is accomplished through skilled and conscious use of an exploratory process, pushing back the boundary of the Blind Spot, and a presentation process, which pulls back the curtain of the Unrevealed.
To accelerate customer relationships, sales professionals can reflect on their own sales practices and how they might render in the JADIK Matrix. For example, are you utilizing research tools and social media to maximize the Common Ground prior to your first meeting with a new customer? Are you striking a good balance between asking thoughtful, GAP-finding questions and presenting solutions? Can you identify growth in your Common Ground or a reduction in the Blind Spot and Unrevealed after each customer interaction? Consistently working with the JADIK Matrix will keep your customer relationships moving in the right direction.
