- Dell it like it is: Michael Dell quickly discovered that not every employee can articulate what the business does
How many people in your company help you to sell more? Just the sales team — or maybe marketing as well?
Of course the answer is, all of your people help you sell more.
By creating company evangelists in your business, you have a whole bunch of people who just want to talk about how great you are.
But the big challenge is making sure that they say the right things about your business.
It reminds me of the famous (probably apocryphal) story of Lyndon Johnson’s visit to NASA. He asked a man wearing overalls and holding a broom what he did, and the man replied: “Me sir? Well, sir, I’m helping to put man on the moon.”
I heard another, more recent version of this lesson. Michael Dell visited one of the regional offices of the company that bears his name.
On entering the reception area, he walked straight over to the receptionist and asked her to describe what the company did.
Unfortunately, she was unable to provide a satisfactory answer.Dell then instructed the local management team that he would re-visit the company in six months and that he when he returned he would expect every single employee to state, with confidence and understanding, exactly what it is that the company was about.
I don’t know if he returned. I do know, though, that within two months of his first visit every single person in the company could articulate what made the company special.
But why did it need the might of the company founder to make this happen? Why wasn’t it just part of the company’s DNA? The fact is that Dell is far, far from alone.
We develop our business in silos and while the good folks in marketing might be able have a fair stab at the why-we-exist and the sales guys will have their own interpretations depending on the deal they are trying to land, my guess is that most other employees in most other departments haven’t got a clue.
And when you consider that a company’s employees are the best evangelists you’ve got, then that’s a real shame.
