We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.
–Archilochus
These days I work in sales operations. And the one thing I find having gone through several hundred sales opportunity bid processes is you need to be prepared from a process end. Yes, sales involves emotions and creativity, but underpinning all that is a support process, in terms of having current assets, collateral and accessible information that is organized in a manner that can be searchable and relevant for use.
This is the training I keep telling colleagues and direct reports on my team to undergo and make a habit to be mindful of and practice. In general, I strongly feel this is something that people need to cultivate and it doesn’t have to be restricted to the sales world. At minimum, know where relevant information and assets are that you rely on and failing that, know WHO to ask for the right things when you are faced with an assignment with not much to go on and not much time to complete. Along the way, over time, you end up figuring out how things work and that adds context and understanding about why things are done the way they are. And that can put you in a position to do your job more effectively.
