Care About Relationships is part of the Vicasso Way. The 29 fundamentals of the Vicasso Way describe the values and behaviors that are the foundation of our culture. It explains how we work with everyone. It is who we are and what drives our success.
Each week, an Vicasso team member messages the company to share their perspective on the fundamental of the week. Professional Services Manager, Mark Budzyn offers his insight on the value of approaching consulting from a place of WE.
My use of “We” has been a Journey.
We. For such a small word, it carries so much meaning and weight.
Without sounding melodramatic, my use of ‘we’ has been a journey.
As a former Salesforce administrator, I managed fairly large and complex orgs. As an internal team member, it was always ‘we.’
When shifting to my current role as a consultant, I found myself automatically thinking about my client’s Salesforce instance as my org–subconsciously. Sometimes I’d catch myself doing it and then second guess myself, thinking it wasn’t the right approach as a consultant; and concerned about what the client would think.
Looking back, not once has a client ever called my use of ‘we’ out. Most importantly, using ‘we’ shifted the dynamic: the client’s pain points, business priorities, and technical challenges became mine. This shift in thinking cemented my investment in the client’s success. That was my ‘a ha’ moment, and a win-win for everyone.
“We” unifies the dynamic of a relationship.
I use it with every client interaction I have, like this one:
“Really? We don’t have all that survey data visible?” I said in a meeting, immediately thinking: “That’s a problem–how can we make decisions if that data is buried?”
Of course, data visibility is a problem for most businesses, and the data I’m referring to above isn’t actually ‘mine’ or my organization’s. It actually belongs to a client. I am a Salesforce consultant.
It’s my job as a consultant to put myself in my client’s shoes and uncover the best solution. This wasn’t just about them, it was about us and our mutual success. Using ‘we’ establishes a level of trust that ‘we’ are in this together.
Building on the value of “We”.
I am committed to embracing the use of ‘we’, which allows me to continue to build long-term relationships; relationships that allow for better sharing of knowledge, a commitment to everyone’s success, and no hesitation in recommending more robust and scalable solutions.
I wanted to offer up this kind of thinking to our Professional Services team, and so I shared my journey with them up to this point. Without realizing it, many Vicasso consultants were already using ‘we’ and subconsciously inserting themselves into client orgs. This realization has created a shift in the team’s mindset to recognize and build upon the value of ‘we.’
