People in our sales and marketing teams used to take turns to sit in with the customer support team as they talked to customers. Just to get a sense of what were the typical topics customers would call/email us about. This is imperative if you want to understand your customers.

I really don’t think we, as professionals, need to set up barriers as to what our jobs are or aren’t. At the end of the day, our primary job is to take the business up a notch, and we are all directly or indirectly responsible for that. And you can’t do that sitting in a cocoon, completely shielded off your consumers.

There is one aspect of SAP that I love and admire. It doesn’t matter who you talk to in the company, you’ll realize that they are all salespeople. Yes, even the techies. At least they are clear about the objective. The objective to sell, no matter what kind of an interaction you are having, and with whom you are having that. You are always selling.

I’m proposing something similar. Be a company that’s around customer delight. Every single one of the employees in every single team.

PS: As someone who has been known to describe himself as “Alfred to Batdog”, I must say, I am intrigued about Balanced Blends, John Giacomoni. All the best!