Insight, It’s Not Just For Customers!

Over the past 3 years, Insight has been one of the top discussion issues for sales and marketing professionals. We’ve all been immersed in the importance of changing how we engage customers. We know we have to talk to them about their problems, opportunities, areas in which they can improve. We know we have to teach customers–not about our products/services, but about how to improve their business. We know we have to bring Insight!

While we’ve focused on the customer (which is a good thing), all the lessons we learn about Insight have many other applications. The tools and methods we leverage to provide Insight to customers can be leveraged in other areas.

Insight is about teaching–and learning. To perform at the highest levels; to grow, outpacing competition requires continued learning and improvement.

As managers, we have a responsibility to provide Insight to our people. It’s not about telling them, it’s about helping them discover–opportunities they are missing, things they can improve, things they should stop doing. Teaching, engaging them in collaborative discussions, helping them learn is critical if they are to maximize their performance and reach their full potential.

As sales, marketing, and business professionals, we have a responsibility to provide Insight to our peers, colleagues and to our organizations. In many cases, our companies learn about the customer through our experience. We are often the Voice of the Customer, and can help teach our colleagues about their problems, challenges, needs, and their experience.

We can share our experience and ideas, with our peers, mentoring, coaching, learning from each other. It makes no sense to reinvent things for ourselves, when we can learn from the experience of our colleagues.

Insight is important, it’s about continued learning and improvement. It’s valuable to our customers, but too important to restrict just to customers. What Insights are you providing your people? What insights are you providing to your company, colleagues, and peers? What Insights are you looking for yourself?