Start with Yes!

“I work in sales.”

That means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

“I work with customers and prospects to find and eliminate challenges in their organization that can be solved by using the product that I sell.”

That’s a better definition, but it doesn’t fully cover it.

“I work with customers and prospects to find and eliminate challenges in their organization that can be solved by using the product that I sell. I also work with customers to ensure they get the most value from their investments and use my products in line with best practices. I help validate governance models and ensure team staffing meets the needs of managing my products. I provide a second set of eyes on proposed projects and provide insight on what other customers may have seen. I translate contracts to actual capabilities and track usage to ensure they stay in line with contracted capabilities and limits.”

That’s a mouthful, and still doesn’t address everything that I am asked to do.

“I enable organizations to succeed.”

I like this way better. Short and poignant. To help these orgs succeed, we must start by being open to navigating the challenges we have encountered in ways that work for the organizations we support. I use a royal we, in that everyone who engages to support my customers or me is part of that we. We must be open to saying yes when asked. I challenge all of my peers to think the same way. What I have found in the years that I have been doing this work is the opposite in many cases. I know peers who search for and find all the things that might prevent success, and instead of presenting them as opportunities to educate on how best to proceed, they are used to pause, delay, and hinder the very success they purport to support. I see them focused on finding an mitgating risk to the point of dysfunction. They rely heavily on defined processes, and deviations create challenges. They create boundaries around their role and are quick to call out when something extends beyond their chartered scope. Too often, I hear “that’s not what I do” or “I’m not sure how to address this.” All of this activity creates the impression that we don’t want to help the same customers and prospects we dedicated ourselves to helping succeed.

I lead with yes. Need help with that? I realize I may not be the one to do it, but I will help you find the person who can. You asked me, so I will also take ownership of that ask until it is complete. Complete means YOU, as a customer, feel like you can succeed. If you ask a question I might not know the answer to, I will make sure the folks who do know the answer are engaged and provide you with the appropriate feedback to answer it. Even when the answer is one you don’t want to hear or may not fit your expectations, I will provide a path to success, not just a stopping point. When I start with yes, I need to know that my peers will do the same. Though we all have different roles, and are expected to deliver different things at different times in different ways, the customer only sees us as our product, and the success they achieved by using it.

Go ahead…ask me to help. I’ll say “sure, glad to” and then start working on getting there with you.