The Executive Directors working in Consulting at Tele Tech seem to be onto something, as they use research to analyze the importance of building customer relationships and how relationships between colleagues to Sales Leaders can tell us what is needed to create great leaders who drive sales. Listing emotional intelligence as a necessary requirement, for building customer relationships and a nurturing culture between team members, is something worth thinking on and executing. Yet, as a Customer Service Specialist , I realize that there is so much more to it. Let me explain. Everyone has to have a role and sometimes roles, and the duties that go along with them, do not always clearly define the scope of training of one individual. That is where culture comes in and also where it becomes obvious that we have to learn to define our own roles in relation to those we are working with on any given day. If we are effective at doing it, we can change the Customer Experience through efficiency and actually get the support we need from our clients. Will they support us and buy in on the things we recommend? I think yes!

As I scrambled through the Tele Tech Blog, this question, "Want a Stronger Sales Culture", stood out to me and I wanted to read on so I did. Then I saw the avatar and thought about Mrs. Creighton, my Typing Instructor in Middle School and instantly I felt thankful that she had nurtured and motivated me to type at my best without regard to speed. Speed was not a guiding factor in my performance, even as a 7th Grader, as I worked to learn the keystrokes and correct posture positions. She used a progression games that had a starting point and a finishing point to encourage students to not only learn and stay motivated while focusing on achieving less typos. What I learned later and didn't realize much at the time was all of the aforementioned. Later I also learned that less typos would eventually make me faster and better than all the other students participating in the typing game. I won.

I'm confident that Sales Leaders can get better and keep their colleagues motivated and clients coming back for more, even if sometimes they seem to be unaware.  Believe me, at the right time things just start to work the way they are suppose to even when roles are ambiguous and some employees seem unaware.

Self awareness is necessary if not for more than a litmus test used to identify ones own shortcomings in elevating Customer Experiences and sales improvements throughout an organization. The financial crissis may have been the very thing needed to shock Sales Leaders into a new competitive reality. For me, its more about wanting to be prepared and professional while connecting various pieces of my personal and professional life so that my issues and my stories are tools of the sales trade. I use them to share my personality and background with the clients I encounter everyday during interactions. My chatter may seem unnecessary and unreal to you, if you are looking in from the outside or standing behind the person I am engaging in line but I promise, listening only takes a minute. When it happens to me, I try to think, thy patience. If I can let the clients I encounter know that I see and hear them, maybe they will listen a little more when I make recommendations, as i tell them about how Ive eaten goat or wondered how my Great Aunt hunted possums and then cooked and ate them.

Really, what I know is: performing my duties in such a way, may not help me seem more human but hopefully I will be successful at encouraging someone to try new foods or listen a little more attentively when their elders are talking about their life adventures over and over.

Tag you're it!