If you are going to thrive in selling, you must be prepared to do other people’s work. “Other people” here includes customers and colleagues —and anyone else whose inaction could stand between you and the sale. This is what taking ownership of the sale looks like in practice.
Before you object, let me explain.
The bank application form
The bank you sell for will insist that “customers must complete the application form themselves in their handwriting.”
Fine.
But experience will quickly teach you that if you insist on that, you will be heavy on potential sales but light on actual ones. And here’s the clincher: stating in your sales report that “customer yet to fill in the application themselves” as a reason for your wanting sales, will not shield you from the fire of admonition from the very bank.
By the same token, be warned. If ever there is an issue with the account and the customer says accusingly, “I never filled in an application form. This is not even my handwriting. In fact, this is proof of your fraudulent nature,” be ready for the fire of damnation that will come raining down on you— again, from the bank.
Read: Selling vs Business: What the Wells Fargo Bank scandal teaches us
Taking ownership of the sale
That does not take away the fact that if you are going to thrive in selling, you must be prepared to do other people’s work.
“Sio kazi yangu,” won’t take you far. Insisting that something isn’t your job—and explaining at length why you shouldn’t have to do it—may win you the argument but lose you the sale. And, you are the one that needs the sale not the customer. He has options – both of alternative products and alternative salespeople of your product.
So when something stands between you and the sale, the more useful question isn’t:
“Whose job is this?”
It is:
“What can I do to move this forward?”
That is taking ownership of the sale. And it applies whether you are selling to individuals or businesses.
Read: Sales incentives: how to sell without the brown envelope
Taking ownership of the sale doesn’t end at B2C selling
“Our proposal had gathered momentum across the decision makers but was now gathering dust at Finance. My insider told me that the Manager needed to do a business case to demonstrate the usefulness of our software and justify implementation. The problem is he was lazy.
“With this knowledge I roped in our Finance Manager and working with him and using simulations, developed a business case which then I asked to meet ‘Mr Lazy’ with. ‘’All I will need is for you to correct the figures as some may be inaccurate.’ It was a much easier ask and it helped that I assured him all credit would go to him.
“We did his unfinished task because it had become our sales obstacle. And if removing that obstacle required some extra work from us, so be it.”
Know the process by taking ownership of the sale
Doing other people’s work isn’t always about literally doing their work. Sometimes, it is about understanding their work well enough to move things along.
Sammy is an insurance agent. Once he submits an application for insurance premium finance—a loan to help a customer pay for insurance—he doesn’t simply sit back and wait for the bank’s promised 48 hours.
Experience has taught him it rarely does. Instead, he has mastered the process the application goes through and pushes it along. He even knows the process owners by name.
“Hiyo application imefika wapi?” he will enquire of the front office staff he submitted the application to.
“It’s at Credit department.”
“OK. Transfer me to Juma…”
He then asks Juma—with whom he developed a rapport for this specific reason—what the matter could be and how he can help.
Your colleague’s delay can become your customer’s problem
The same principle applies to colleagues.
If someone else’s inaction or workload is threatening your sale, do not wait. Step in, help, and push it through. if a file is stuck in some department internally, walk there yourself and find out why.
It could be something as simple as a missing document and the officer involved is overloaded and the customer’s file sits on his desk untouched.
Yes, you can complain to the sales manager that Operations is slow. But that wins you an argument and loses a client. And it’s not sustainable.
Read: 4 practical ways to resolve Sales vs Operations fights
The uncomfortable truth: customers experience you
The uncomfortable truth is that the sale is yours to lose or win, and the customer owes you nothing. He doesn’t care whose job it is and neither does the sale.
The form that hasn’t been completed, the document sitting in Operations, the application stuck in Credit, the colleague who hasn’t followed up—none of these things care about your job description.
Every delay, every incomplete form, every bottleneck in a back office is your problem to solve—not to report. The moment you shift from “that’s not my job” to “how can I move this forward,” you are taking ownership of the sale. And that is what separates you from the herd.
This does not mean you should cut corners or commit fraud. It means you should be willing to fill in the parts you can, guide the customer through the rest, and take ownership of the entire process.
Don’t break the rules—break the inertia.
So, the next time you are tempted to say “sio kazi yangu,” remember: the sale you save may be your own.
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