Everything You Do Matters!

Credit: Bill Gillespie

Her Ladyship is not a complainer. If she says, “I don’t feel quite right” it’s time to call 911. I watched her deliver our daughter in 2.5 hours without so much as an aspirin. I was so impressed I caved and let her name our little girl. I liked the name anyway.

Me? If I’m sick everyone in NW Georgia knows. I get that from my dad. I actually think discomfort is worse for us Gillespies than some others, but I digress.

Why this intro? Because how you manage things makes a difference. How much work do you create for others? Let me start over.

What you do matters! Everything you do matters! Every conversation matters! You leave every situation you encounter better than you found it, worse than you found it or the same as you found it. Two of those options will do you harm. I’ve employed lots of reps.

I’ve employed even more staff and production personnel. I’ve enjoyed and been surprised by thousands of conversations. It is impossible to be prepared for everything you might encounter. People will introduce you to some funny, never saw that coming situations.

If you take time to listen, people will show you who they are. Over time, you’ll get a sense of who you can depend on and who you can’t. You’ll also learn which people come to you giftwrapped and which are draped with thorns. This wrapper affects your value.

Let me share a sales example.

A while back I led a team of 16. We had reps of all shapes and sizes. We had two that enjoyed almost identical sales. Both hit the cash register for just over $1.6 million.

Rep #1 let me know every time she wrote an order. She kept me, and others, updated on every development. Alterations, problems, frustrations and anything in her way made it to my desk.

Some of these things needed my attention. Some did not. Sharing her opinion of what it took to sell was important to her. Stress was her “love language.”

Rep #2 managed his work in silence. He asked for help when needed but otherwise he was invisible. He worked with the same people but somehow the hurdles got managed. It wasn’t uncommon for me to learn of a sale when it billed.

Which rep would you guess sold at the higher margin? Which rep would you guess migrated to more valuable accounts? Which rep would you guess earned preferential treatment when conflicts came up?

If you’re guessing Rep #2, you’re correct. His $1.6 million felt like nothing going through the plant. Rep #1? Her $1.6 million felt like $3 million. It just wasn’t worth as much.

A day of managing Rep #2 included debate about how we were holding her back. She spent time complaining that she could have spent selling. No accommodation provided was the right answer. Nothing we delivered helped her sell more.

Rep #1 constantly came to me with “what if” conversations. The work he sold was the result of a solution he cooked up. He was great about asking, “if I can make this happen will you back me up.” It was impossible to say no because he turned everything into profitable work.

What you do matters. How you manage production, estimating, client service and opportunity says who you are. Coworkers see problems or excitement when you walk into the room.

How do they see you? I was like rep #1 until I became a manager and discovered what a pain I had been.

Photo? The dog is convinced that if she can’t see me I can’t see her. She doesn’t want me to know she’s under the bed with my glove. BUSTED! Everything you do is seen and matters.