Internal Profiles: The Missing Link in Business Growth

You know the feeling: you’ve been through the tough interview process with all its anxiety, you’ve experienced the elation and relief of being offered the role you wanted, and you’ve made it through the first month, perhaps even the first three years.

We all know it takes time to get into a role – to work out how we will make our mark, to start building relationships with the key people, and to find out the best places for a great sandwich. As time passes, even if our role is stressful, we relax into it as tasks, processes, and people become more familiar.

How much we relax is the key point. Many people forget to continue to build their internal relationships, especially the ‘less obvious’ ones. Those who may influence their career or with whom there is the opportunity to collaborate on client work and develop cross-selling opportunities.

Often, the missing piece is that individuals don’t dedicate enough thought to their internal profile. They are focused on what they are doing (rightly so) and consider what their clients think of them (also vital), but overlook the importance of building broader relationships with colleagues.

Why does internal profile matter?

With some clients, there may need to be an obvious need to collaborate so the internal relationships make a real difference to how smooth that is and ultimately, the outcomes for the client.

However, the biggest missed opportunity I see in service businesses is the opportunity to do more work for existing clients. The opportunity to refer them to a colleague to help them with a different challenge, avoid a different risk, or bring a different benefit.

This often happens because individuals only think of their department rather than the wider firm, they don’t know how else their firm can help a client like theirs, and the cues to look out for and/or they don’t know, like and trust their colleagues in other departments. All is easy to resolve with time, planning, and effort!

What?

This means you need to be known internally and remembered as you become more senior. It is increasingly important that you are known across the firm, not just in your department or division.
This means you do need to prove yourself in your work, but also:

1. Be positively memorable

2. Be likable so that when people have the choice, they choose to work with you, rather than your peers.

3. Be consistent in who you are so your colleagues always know what they will get.

How?

To achieve the above does take some knowledge and skill, but the starting point is thinking about who you are, your environment, and what you want to be known for before how you will achieve it.
Most of all, be proactive about what you communicate and how to your colleagues about yourself, and work on a strategic plan on who you need to get to know in your firm. 

If you’d like to discuss how to develop a strategy and plan for cross-selling and think about profile building, contact me for a conversation.