What Do You REALLY Do?

In which we are reminded to focus on the bigger picture of what we create rather than the activities we do day to day.

There’s the apocryphal story about three people breaking and shaping rocks that leads to (cue organ music and celestial light) “I’m building a cathedral” (which, if you happen to be in Barcelona, gazing at La Sagrada Familia, people are still doing). Right? One of the people is breaking rocks, one is building a wall, and one is (encore music and lights) building a cathedral.

One of my favorite tools as a consultant is “five whys“. The idea is that you don’t really discover what’s going on in a situation until you have asked the question, “why?”, at least five times. This doesn’t always work, sometimes people take issue with repeated “why” questions (ask the parent of any three-year old), yet, there are times when it’s a useful technique.

A commercial banker in Los Angles asked me to review his go-to-market plan. We talked for a bit about his goals and portfolio and the like and, then, I asked him, “What do you do?”

“I’m a commercial relationship manager and lender with ABC Bank,” he replied, “and I do a lot of work with Korean business owners.”

“Is that how you introduce yourself to people?”

“Pretty much.”

“Hmmm,” I said, “I think we can broaden that. There’s a cathedral in there somewhere….So…. Why do you do so much work with Korean business owners?”

“Well, I’m Korean,” he replied, “and there’s a big Korean community here in LA. They trust me and they use a lot of real estate loans.”

“Why do they want the loans?”

“To acquire land and buildings.”

“OK, and why do they do that?”

“So they can expand their businesses.”

“Sure, and why do they want to do that?”

“So they can build wealth.”

“Great, and why do they want to do that?”

“So they can pass wealth down to the next generation and the next.”

“OK,” I said, “so you help them with that – the wealth creation. So, tell me again: What do you do?”

[Encore lights and organ …]

He said, “I help Korean families create and pass wealth to following generations by investing in real estate.”

Exactly.

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity's web site.