I used to think that giving something back to the business community was
a responsibility of my successful career, but I was wrong.
It wasn't a responsibility of my success - it was responsible for
my success.
It seems that every time I give something back to the business community
without expecting anything in return, startlingly good things seem to
happen to me. I've heard this phenomenon described as "doing well
by doing good."
Learning about Lean (also known as the Toyota Production System) put
me on the right track to improve my own company’s processes, but
speaking on Lean at industry events introduced me to like-minded individuals
whose insights increased the trajectory of my own Lean Initiative.
My search to fully exploit the power of Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) software led me to develop a system that captures every detail of
every sales call my salespeople make. Making that system public (100%
CRM Compliance: The Cohon System) triggered valuable feedback from the
CRM community that helped me to further refine my system and earned me
a complimentary article in Selling Power Magazine (Ideas That Pay: Automated
Reports Boost Sales Productivity).
My experience suggests that whatever risk I might have taken by making
my best ideas public was far outweighed by the benefit I enjoyed by participating
in the productive discussions that making those ideas public triggered.
Hikers have a saying about picking up another hiker's discarded candy
wrapper: "Leave the trail better than you found it." I hope
I've left the business community a little bit better than I found it,
and that my experiences will give encouragement to others in the sales
community to join me in doing so.
