The idea behind the Win-Win Philosophy is that I get what I want by helping others get what they want and vice versa.  In a true Win-Win sales transaction, both parties come away feeling very good about the deal they have just concluded.  Both are likely to follow through on their respective promises, to look forward to doing business together again in the future, and to refer others.

For example, a senior vice-president of a bank for whom I was doing some consulting came to me one day crying the blues.  His concern was that some of the competing banks had decided aggressively to go after some of the large depositors who did business with his branch banks located in several wealthy retirement communities.  The way in which these competing banks were trying to lure these wealthy customers away was by offering them significantly higher interest rates if they would switch banks.  The senior vice-president went on to say he felt that the only way he could hang onto these very important customers was to match or beat the higher rates being offered by his competitors.  He was reluctant to do this, however, because it would be expensive and it would probably trigger a price war that would eventually result in none of the competitors making any money.

I suggested that if he didn’t want to lose these valuable customers, he’d have to give them a reason to stay.  I went on to tell him that matching the competition on interest was one way to do this, but it was probably not getting at the real reason these people were leaving.  I pointed out that wealthy people like to be treated in a special manner that singles them out.  And I suggested that probably all of these people already had more than enough money to last them for the rest of their lives, so a few dollars more was not likely to be a long-term motivator of their behavior.

I suggested he give these wealthier depositors some very special attention and basically ignore the interest rate increases being offered by the competition.  We came up with a program to organize gala events for these people on a quarterly basis—elegant afternoon tea parties, for example.  These parties were announced to the targeted customers using engraved invitations.  The tea and hors d’oeuvres were served with fine china and silver.  In addition, the president , of the bank or one of the officers was on hand at each of these events to mingle with the guests.

These tea parties have been a smashing success.  Instead of losing any of these wealthy customers, the bank actually began to attract new customers as the result of referrals from people who had attended some of the parties.  This was truly Win-Win in action:  The customers got what they wanted—special treatment that appealed to their egos—and the senior vice-president got what he wanted, in that he was able to hang onto these customers without having to match the interest rates being offered by the competition.  The cost of the parties was insignificant compared to the cost of meeting the competition’s higher interest rates.