Page 53 - Make Work Great

It Starts with You

day, management made a strange request. Sales fi gures had dipped
in the past six months. Her supervisor sent an e-mail asking her to
investigate possible causes of the reduction.
At fi rst, Brenda was stymied. She understood why the problem mat-
tered to her company but had no idea how she could help. Was she
to interview salespeople and ask them why revenues were down? That
wouldn’t exactly further her relationship with her internal customers.
Should she look into the overall state of the industry and study economic
trends? This seemed like a stretch from her area of expertise. She decided
to start by talking with a salesperson with whom she had developed a
close professional relationship and ask what he would do in her shoes.
His answer was quick and encouraging. Strategic changes in the
company’s product line had led to smaller up-front capital equipment
sales and greater ongoing consumable sales. (Imagine printers that
cost less to buy but use more expensive toner.) Revenue calculated by
the sales performance software didn’t account for consumable sales;
these had traditionally been treated as irrelevant. The problem was
in the software, and the software was what Brenda knew best. Her
potential impact suddenly became obvious.
In a perfect world, the benefi t of each of your summary outputs
would be self-evident. In reality, overtness will probably be easier for
some items than for others. Ask, “What impact can I produce?” or
even “Why bother?” for each of your summary outputs and then come
up with brief and compelling answers. This will help you understand

Be Overt About Your Impact
ANSWER THE QUESTION “SO WHAT?”

• For each of your summary outputs, determine the benefi cial impact
when you’re successful.

• Articulate that impact in a concise way, using no more than a few
sentences.

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