My Job Description

Every once in a while, it’s a really good idea to take a look at your own job description. I don’t mean the thing that’s printed on your business cards – some title that’s designed to give you a sense of purpose whilst simultaneously reminding you that it’s totally meaningless.

No, I’m talking about what you are actually paid to do. Those tasks which make up the bulk of your day, along with those ‘lesser’ tasks which are clearly less important, but must be done none the less.

When you look at it, it’s really quite a long list isn’t it? Mine certainly took up more than one side of a packet of Swan Vestas, so I’m rather pleased. However, that was not the real task, nor the purpose of this blog.

Now, grab a second box of matches and start writing down all those things which you’re asked to do which are NOT your job. Now I’m not talking about making cups of tea or occasionally helping out in other departments – we all have to chip in when we can. No, I’m talking about those things that customers ask you to do that you really should not have to.

I’ll tell you what prompted this blog. A few days ago I answered the phone to someone who told me that they were ‘just carrying out a costing exercise’. A costing exercise? What exactly is that? Yup – just what I thought, you essentially want me to tell you my prices so that you can phone around three or four more people, check my prices against theirs and then check all of our prices against your current supplier.

My role is to sell merchandise, and not to help my competitors to do the same. The person calling has openly admitted to me that they – a) base their decisions primarily on price and b) show no loyalty to their suppliers once they have them in place. Just how interested would you be in taking on a customer like that?

We are all of us told to be as helpful as we can to every new enquiry, because we never know where it might lead, but we all know that this enquiry was not going anywhere, and you can call me a cynic if you want to, but then if you’re a regular reader of this blog you will have formed that opinion a long time ago!

But how to turn this otherwise negative blog into a positive one? Well, once we know what our job isn’t, what do we do with the information? Do we start by telling people what we don’t do? Absolutely not. What we do is start to form relationships with companies and people who do perform the jobs that we don’t.

How powerful would this conversation be:

“Hello, I’m looking to get 6 T Shirts made up for my mate’s stag night on the weekend”.
“Sorry, our minimum order is 50”

Not very powerful at all, and certainly not very memorable. How about –

“Well I’m afraid that our minimum order is 50 Shirts but don’t worry because I can still help you. It just so happens that we’re partnered with Logo Shirts in the high street and I know that they can turn around an order like that on the same day if you’d like – let me just get you their telephone number and please do tell them that we sent you”.

Everybody wins, and perhaps most importantly, you’ll feel better knowing that your time went from being wasted to making someone’s day – not bad.

We all of us have a very long list of the things that we don’t do, but there are people out there who do do those things. They’d be grateful for the referrals and they’ll almost certainly find a way to return the favour, so try it out and see.