Intent is far more important than technique

It’s the simple question of ‘why?’.

It’s the culture of value creation.

What would we like to achieve? What is the purpose of this meeting? This software? The actual intent is usually a few steps above what you think it is.

A client may be replacing spreadsheets with a CRM to be more ‘modern’, but what their actual intent is is to reduce expenditure by 15% to save their business. If you’re not focused on this intent, not only will you not achieve it, you may go the other way, as I’ve witnessed in a dramatic example where one company thought that moving from a spreadsheet to a CRM would speed up a case resolution process, but it slowed it down significantly as it’s pretty fast to do everything in a spreadsheet, it also costs nothing. Had they first elevated the intent, reimagined the process with automation, empowerment and simplicity.

If you’re in sales, design or customer service, get deep into the intent and focus purely on that and things will go faster and your clients will be happier.