A Lesson in Layering

For my entire life, I have lived in the Chicago area where winters are unpredictable. We Chicagoans have endured years when it snowed so often, we didn’t ask ourselves “if” it was going to snow but “when” it was going to snow. This year, Mother Nature gave us a huge break at the winter’s beginning, and we enjoyed the outdoors without frigid temperatures and icy streets, all we needed to do was layer. It seems like a simple and logical thought, yet so many Midwesterners aren’t that good at layering. You know who they are. They're the ones who live in a climate that is at some point in the year going to be cold and then complain about the cold. There’s a quote by Alfred Wainwright, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just unsuitable clothing.” When you think about it, it’s not just weather that applies here, that quote rings true for more than just clothing.

Wainwright’s quote gave me cause to ponder my early days in sales when I hadn’t learned to layer my internal relationships within the businesses of my customers and prospects. I thought once I acquired an account, I was “golden.” It wasn’t until one of my golden contacts decided to improve his life as a plant manager at what was my biggest account, to a general manager position at another company. There I was with a week's notice to build a new relationship or two before my golden guy departed. I was now facing an at-risk account. My attempt to build a quick relationship was futile. And no doubt, a patient competitor was waiting for the opportunity to quickly pounce and take full advantage of my inept strategy of creating one golden relationship. Sure enough, the new guy, who was hired from outside the company, was way too busy to see me and I didn’t have a relationship I could bank on internally, other than the memories of a few bags of bagels placed in the break room by the guy who had moved on. Looking back, it was narcissistic of me to think I could “bank” on any relationship. So many lessons learned

Moving forward, I made certain I layered my points of contact in all accounts. Not only was it a good business decision, but it was also fun. Instead of knowing only the plant managers or purchase agents, which was my comfort zone at the time, I was able to build relationships with people at all levels of the company. I found the easiest way to build relationships was by bringing lunch in for the company and sharing the meal with them. This didn't mean spending my time focusing on one or two people, it meant engaging with all sorts of people and having meaningful conversations.

Even if the executives didn’t attend, they were very aware that someone had done something nice for their team. I had often brought bagels or other bakery treats that were transported to the kitchens and break rooms by my singular contact. But the benefit of having them all in one room with the opportunity to build relationships was priceless, eye opening and enriching. There is not a negative associated with getting to know people and building relationships. It opened doors to lunches, dinners, and outings with groups of people from a company instead of just one.

In conclusion, I’ll take a stab at my own version of Wainwright’s quote: “There’s no such thing as too many contacts in the buildings of my customers and prospects, just unsuitable effort from the sales person.”