Tear down those silos

by Tom Reilly

Value-added selling is a team effort. The sales force sells the first experience with your company, but it is the total experience with your company that brings customers back: "We is greater than me."

It is the synergy of people, committed to a common goal, working tirelessly and selflessly toward that goal that creates magic. That magic is the experience customers have when they do business with your company.

This magic cannot happen if your company has silos. Silos are the walls that exist between people and departments. When one group views another group as the enemy, silos result. What happens next is destructive competition between people and departments for precious resources and attention.

As negativism is a complete waste of the creative intellect, competition between people in the same company in the form of a silo is a complete waste of competitive energy. With all the competition your company faces on the streets, do you really need competition inside your walls? Do you have unlimited time and resources to squander on pettiness? Do you put forth your best effort when fighting turf battles with other departments?

We don't have to visit The Tao of eastern philosophy to realize there is interconnectedness among people. We don't need to re-visit the "collective unconscious" in western psychology to understand we share common ground. We don't even have to re-read Lincoln's famous House Divided speech to realize "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

Of course, he wasn't the first to say that. And we don't have to look to business leaders like Jack Welch who said, "None of us is as strong or smart individually as we are collectively."

If you and those around you share the same logo on your paychecks, you're on the same team. The sales department is not the enemy; management is not the enemy, HR is not the enemy, IT is not the enemy, finance is not the enemy, operations is not the enemy, and research is not the enemy. It is not your company or my company; it is our company.

Silos exist because someone in an organization thinks it's a good idea for departments to compete with each other. That thinking destroys the team dynamic that creates success.

If you're a team member in a silo, don't play the "gotcha game" with other departments. If you're a manager and your department views other departments as the enemy, show some leadership and tear down those silos.

Excerpted from Tom Reilly's Sales Bytes e-mail newsletter. Visit him online: www.TheYoungEagle.com.

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