Letter on the Third — May 2024

Dear Datamax Family,

Growing up, my father used to tell this story about my brothers and me. If he said to go dig a hole, my brothers would run and grab a shovel, while I’d be searching for the nearest backhoe to get the job done. The point of my sharing is this: We all have different ways of attacking the same challenge. We all have unique skills and talents that make us great at what we do. We all have our forte.

If you’re in sales, your forte may be getting a meeting with a customer in less than two calls… others it might take 25. Some people are better at face-to-face meetings. Some technicians find their niche in extensive pre-arrival preparation, while others have a natural instinct for diagnosing issues.

If our mission as a business technology provider is helping customers focus on their forte… their business… then it becomes critical that we know our own individual talents; that we, too, are honing in our strengths. What’s your forte?

At Datamax, we WANT you to focus on your forte.

That starts with the Interest Analysis (IA) that you are asked to complete before you’re ever hired.  That begins to analyze what the job entails and sets the tone for putting the right person in the right job. From there, the question becomes, “Are you in the right relationship” with your manager? At Datamax, we never want to put anyone in a position to fail. Matching up your success profile with a specific role and finding the right professional relationship is our effort to empower you to use your forte to the fullest.

To find our forte, sometimes we have to fail forward.

Your forte is what makes you feel strong, empowered, refreshed, and victorious. However, finding such is a process. It takes time. To reach your full potential, you’ve got to learn how to fail forward. We’re all going to make mistakes. How do we learn from those occurrences and improve moving forward? Surveys collected from meetings or Best Places to Work applications are a great example of us as an organization learning what we did right, what we did wrong, and where and how to improve. Exploring outside your comfort zone can often help you uncover hidden talents and discover new passions.

What’s our forte as a company? It’s important to know.

We’ll never be the low-cost provider. So as a company, we have to know where we shine and that starts with bringing the utmost value to our clients. One of our major fortes is truly listening to what’s important to our customers, and monitoring and managing how we’re doing with those criteria. It’s like “Relevant Selling” author Jaynie L. Smith said: “If it’s not relevant (to the customer), it doesn’t matter.” Customers don’t care what our Net Promoter Score is if we’re not offering them an exceptional client experience.

Every job is important at Datamax. Every forte is a functional piece to the art of Creating Raving Fans. What’s your forte? Are you focused in on it? 

The Best is Yet to Be.

Your Raving Fan,