“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I often reference this famous quote by Maya Angelou when talking about building relationships with current and future customers. However, it’s important to remember this concept when interacting with your teammates, particularly those who support you in making sales.
Although most people in sales will say they appreciate their support teams, my guess is they don’t put in the same kind of effort in helping those support teammates feel the love as they do with their customers. As an example:
· How many salespeople know their support teammates FORD (Family Occupation Recreation Dreams). Why or why not? The why not, is because they probably don’t ask, while I’m sure they ask customers about those items.
· When was the last time a salesperson sent a note to a support teammate like, “I saw this article on Barry Bonds, and knowing you grew up a big Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I thought you might like it”? However, salespeople send notes/articles like that to their customers all the time.
Showing your appreciation for teammates builds a positive work environment, which will in turn result in an increase in motivation for teammates to add value and overall, more sales. Here are a few quick ways to make teammates life easier and show you appreciate their work, which will in turn help them feel the love:
1. Communicate, communicate and then over communicate. Communicate early and often. Support teammates are there to help and add value, so provide context and allow them to do so!
2. Email is great but it can’t be the only form of communication. Call them over the phone or on the virtual platform your company uses to communicate. This allows for more personable interaction and presents the opportunity to learn something new about the teammate during your conversation.
3. Be grateful and show it – by writing a thank you note, expressing how you feel in person, and overall being a considerate teammate in return.
As it relates to this concept, I recently listened to a podcast by Patrick Lencioni that discussed the word love in the workplace. It’s worth listening to and continuing to help our teammates feel as good as our customers do after interacting with us (podcast link)!
