{"id":5177,"date":"2023-01-26T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=5177"},"modified":"2023-01-12T17:33:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T01:33:30","slug":"can-you-get-to-the-right-person-when-you-need-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=5177","title":{"rendered":"Can you get to the right person when you need to?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Can your contact solve real-world issues?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I recently experienced an amazing effort of outreach by a vice president of a large national<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4113\" src=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/TribalKnowledge2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"200\" \/> customer asking for a meeting with the product development team of a critical supplier, one of \u201cmy\u201d companies.\u00a0 The goal, the VP stated, was to \u201csee if these guys are battle hardened veterans that have dealt with the real-world product and delivery problems\u201d of a nationally important customer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>All I could say was \u201cwow.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The VP apparently has done this often enough to create real relationships with supplier teams, not just senior management.\u00a0 And according to his staff, the result is a cementing of relationships in which all members of the development team of the supplier feel a personal obligation to make efforts to meet the needs and satisfy not just the customer but the VP personally as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The executive \u201cpass the potato\u201d game<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>[Email readers, continue here&#8230;]\u00a0<\/em><\/span> \u00a0 Usually, executives meet with executives and promises are made then passed down through the ranks.\u00a0 But in this unusual case, the customer made a real effort to break through the usual chain and be comfortable with the full team in a critical supply chain environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the right contacts can do more than solve problems<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3534\" src=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/strategic-thinking1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"174\" \/>What could be construed as a threat to management of the supplier turned out to be a cementing of relationships between the two organizations.\u00a0 The worrisome risk that opening the meeting to those subordinate employees not prepared for such an encounter was never realized.\u00a0\u00a0 Problems that might have later created stress between the companies became mutual challenges worked on by the whole team \u2013 not just because they were directed to overcome a problem but because team members felt a personal obligation to the customer\u2019s VP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Have you experienced this frustration?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How often have you worried over having to be the protector of your team, the intentional barrier between team and customer?\u00a0 Most of us would be motivated to do so to promote team efficiency and to filter messages into a form all could understand and follow.\u00a0 Yet here is an example of personal outreach by a major customer that resulted in better outcomes for all.<\/p>\n<p>Sometime management must let its guard down to promote communication between those actually performing the daily work.\u00a0 In this case, the risk paid off.\u00a0 <em>Would you have taken that chance?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can your contact solve real-world issues? I recently experienced an amazing effort of outreach by a vice president of a large national customer asking for a meeting with the product development team of a critical supplier, one of \u201cmy\u201d companies.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=5177\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depending-upon-others","category-surrounding-yourself-with-talent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}