What is 12boxes?
12boxes is an easy to apply framework for thinking about, planning and conducting conversations with clients that result in them commissioning profitable paid work. It puts the power to engage clients into the hands of people who want to find profitable applications for their expertise without turning them into stereotypical salespeople.
You can learn how to use 12boxes in four 90-minute sessions and begin to get immediate results. Optional coaching on demand before and after important meetings means that you will be able to sound out and refine your thoughts and find solutions to any problems you see ahead.
How does it work?
The 12boxes framework covers three areas: how the client thinks about
- their situation
- the problems associated with it
- the solution you are offering
Each of these has four levels of awareness – which is how we arrive at 12boxes. Each box is what we call an engagement effect. Getting a client to express engagement effects becomes a series of micro-objectives, so you always know where you are in a meeting and where you need to go next.
In advance of a client meeting, you develop a hypothesis about how the client will come to understand the value of your expertise and commit to purchasing it. You do this by asking yourself the questions associated with each of the twelve boxes. The answers can be summarised on one side of office paper which you can even use as a cheat sheet in meetings, without losing credibility.
In a meeting, you ask the client similar questions to the ones you have asked yourself and update your hypothesis as you go along.
Comfortable and purposeful for you and the client
The process means that you are never stuck for a question, your approach feels completely natural and purposeful to the client, and you never lose sight of where the conversation is going.
Sticking to the process, and checking your understanding as you go, means that you will not only make progress, but come across to the client as being totally client centred, even if you don’t see yourself as a ‘people person’.
At specific points you will offer information to the client, but the conversational nature of the process means that you never find yourself making a pitch. Once they have learned 12boxes, many consultants stop using slide decks altogether.
Understanding value before detailing solutions
A unique feature of the approach is that you never get bogged down in discussing the logistics and costs of your solution and then find yourself trying to justify its value in the face of scepticism. With 12boxes the client tells you the value of your solution before you explain what it is.
Of course, there comes a time when you do discuss your solution in detail, but that takes place only when there is a shared understanding of the value.
The 12boxes structure makes it much easier to summarise your offer to a client in a meeting and then to write confirmatory proposals because the narrative is laid out for you.
Benefits for the firm
Across your firm, the 12boxes framework is a very efficient way to share experience and expertise about client situations. It enables more experienced people to share their insights with others, and facilitates cross-selling so that you only introduce a colleague to a client when you already know there is a solid opportunity.
This means that people delivering projects to a client can uncover and begin discussing further opportunities without compromising their relationship with the client they are working with.
The method helped us understand what clients really want, so we now craft offers that are far more relevant. Proposals are sharper, shorter, and strikingly effective. We’ve closed deals in minutes simply by reflecting client priorities back to them.
Joanne Jacobs
Strategic Digital Transformation Leader | Expert in Innovation Programs, Commercialisation, & High-Impact Facilitation | Board Advisor | Speaker | Learning Designer | Facilitator for CSIRO programs. FRSA
“I find 12boxes of great help in learning from my professional experience.
“As well as being an elegant tool for client engagement and for understanding relationship building, it is also a wonderful lens for observing and learning from the way others interact with clients.
“I highly recommend 12boxes”
Most sales training is based on a linear sequence: first you to this, then you do that.
This is rather like giving someone travel directions to cross a city. In 12boxes we use linear sequences, but we also teach an underlying structure which is about how clients perceive their situation, the problems associated with it, and the available solutions.
This is more like a map. Having the map gives the seller many advantages.
Making experience accessible: The map is the way we take one person’s experience of client situations and quickly transfer the knowledge to others.
Client focus: The map is about the client’s perception. This means that the conversation is all about exploring the client’s perspective and developing solutions from their point of view. Even when clients give information ‘out of sequence’, it can immediately be placed on the map, and the resulting narrative summary tested with the client straight away. Buy-in is achieved because the client ‘owns’ the narrative.
Agility: The perceptions of the consultant and the client are constantly changing. It is very easy to update the map in the light of new information so that the consultant never loses control.
Scalable: Each client decision maker and influencer will have their own perspective. The map can be personalised to them. Maps can be quickly drawn up for meetings, projects, companies and even industries. Each gives rise to a coherent narrative.
Planning: Meeting preparation time is reduced. There is no need to waste time producing yawn inducing slide decks. Consultants can quickly plot a detailed hypothesis in advance of a meeting which can be tested and updated with the client. Solutions appear to arise from the conversation instead of being brought to the meeting.
Better proposal writing: The map generates the structure for the important part of the proposal where the consultant demonstrates understanding of the client’s situation and need. This narrative can be tested with the client and the consultant will only devote time to writing a proposal when there is a high probability of it being accepted.
One sheet of A4 paper: The 12boxes map enables the consultant to summarise complex situations in a way that carries the maximum information with minimal distraction from the task in hand.
- It provides a single framework for thinking through the opportunity, planning a meeting, engaging the client in purposeful conversation and structuring the proposal.
- Each box on the map is associated with an aspect of the client’s perspective, the questions that will elicit the required information and how the consultant should move the conversation forward.
- It offers a precise framework for reporting progress in terms of the client’s reactions and the achieved buying effects.
All client buying processes have a similar structure. 12boxes is a template for mapping it.
Using this template, we can draw on your experience to capture how each stage is typically expressed by your clients.
We can then teach the structure to other members of your team and show them how to move clients through the buying process in a way that is compatible with their personal style.
No. The templates we create based on your experience are just the starting point.
Your team members will test them with clients and adapt them to each circumstance.
This will give them the confidence to develop and test their own ways of delivering value to clients.
If techniques have been learned which work in the context of selling high-value complex services, they are likely to be compatible with the 12boxes approach.
12boxes has been described as by experienced consultants as a ‘deep structure’. As such, it explains how such techniques fit into the overall picture and why they work.
Both have their place.
Internal coaching is great for pointing to in-house resources and experience that can be drawn upon.
The confidentiality associated with external coaching means that participants are not concerned that any vulnerability they display during the learning process will count against them in terms of career progression.