We can all benefit from engineering value: for ourselves, our customers and our colleagues. The root of the word “engineer” comes from the Latin word “ingeniare” which means to devise. Whether you see yourself as a Seller or a Doer, your ability to create, devise, design, collaborate, instigate, manufacture, implement and deliver profitable and valuable outcomes is critical to business success.
How successful are you at engineering value?
Many of us work with engineering teams on a daily basis. Perhaps you feel your collaboration with your engineering colleagues is less than optimal. Let’s work through some of this mythology.
We know all engineers are not the same. Not all people are the same. Or else the world would be an extremely uneventful place. Everyone brings a little something different to the table. So even in companies full of engineers and IT folks, those engineers aren’t all cut from the same mold. The corporate engineering value arsenal is full of engineers and IT specialists who won’t see the light of day unless there are special circumstances. Some engineers are the day-in-and-day-out individual who brings consistency, but perhaps not creativity or increase in revenue, to the table. Yet everyone is focused on bringing engineering value to the business table.
Not all sales people are the same, either. Everyone brings a little something different to the customer’s table. Some sales people are prolific at acquiring new business – but you wouldn’t ever want them maintaining that account for renewal. Some sales people are excellent at maintaining existing customer bases and growing accounts – but are reluctant to learn what it takes to land new customers. Some sales people aren’t intimidated by working with engineers. Those sales people are literally engineering value to their company and customers.
What’s your strategy for engineering value to your customers and your company? How do you utilize the resources available to you at your company, in order to grow revenue and enhance your own career?
It may start with evaluating your own professional toolkit. How do you let others (professors, employers, colleagues, customers) understand your skill sets. How well do you play with the other folks around the business development table. How do you strategically, as well as tactically, engineer what you bring to the table, consistently over time?
What are your strategies for engineering value into your skills and deliverables? In today’s competitive global economy, simply doing one’s specific job isn’t sufficient for you to keep your job or retain your client base. What you learned in school is theory; real world teaches you all about practical application. While we may not have complete control over where we lend our skill sets, we do have control over how we can augment what we bring to the table.
That’s what engineering value for your company, your customers and yourself is all about. Something to think about this week?
Babette N. Ten Haken, Founder & President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, brings entrepreneurial mojo and business- and revenue-producing collaboration and communication tools to small and mid-sized Seller-Doer businesses, corporate divisions, and startups. Her book, Do YOU Mean Business, is now available in eReader format!
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