Making The Lessons Fit

A young man, with whom I have the pleasure of discussing yearly his work and progress, has left me with great inspiration which I must share with my readers.

Justin is a 30-something Millennial, a graduate in Civil Engineering, with two young kids, happily living in suburbia. I have followed his progress since he entered university. We love our annual chats which now tend to become brainstorming. One of the first to read my book Be Ready To Dance With Your Customer, he had much to ponder. This is his story:

Straight out of school, he became part of the team at a local small engineering firm. There, he spent many years doing good work and earning a solid reputation. The sole owner wished to groom Justin to someday buy the business when he was ready to retire. That day never came and the job became stagnant. Soon, another in his field reached out to Justin for possible placement within their firm.

It was a rather large corporation, complete with various other departments/support that was excitingly different to him. Justin took the leap, knowing this was a great opportunity for him for his future. He was also aware that he had a lot to learn to sync himself with the company and, more importantly, within his position which was relatively new to the firm.

Justin, therefore, head down and working hard, also spent his initial time observing and getting to know the other employees he would be working alongside. One aspect that was new to him was dealing with a whole sales team and not having contact with the end user. The ‘team’, a new dynamic to adjust to, held its own diverse knowledge and effort but from a different point of view of course.

While at the previous company, Justin had willfully applied my fundamentals towards exceptional customer service. Here, however, he was not engaging directly with them. On what is no doubt one of his best decisions this year, he asked himself this: What if I applied all I knew about servicing the customer to my interaction with our sales team? What if I saw them as my ‘Customer’, and treated it accordingly? Brilliant. Guess what happened?

Initiating the basic principles, Justin was able to capture their attention and dedicate himself to satisfying their needs. We are all working towards the end goal, right? Yes. For most of us, the all-too-familiar trials and tribulations between sales and other departments is a hard sea to navigate at times. Naturally, it worked. What’s more, Justin’s initiatives and dedication did not go unnoticed, as he worked through developing strategic meetings to bring gleaned information forward. I believe he has been approached by his superiors with the possibility of him becoming an “Associate” of the firm. Well done. And not surprising.

Where some are simply plodding along, there are those that are thinking, always, and developing. Ideas, Innovation, Investigating Opportunities, Learning AND APPLYING….what have you learned today that can help you in what you endeavour, how does it work, how or what can you change that just may revolutionize how your business is being done? Those are the questions. Up to you to find the answers. That is, if you consider Success to be one of your goals. Remember, success comes in many forms, it’s how you interpret it.