Quite frankly, Robert Caldwell never saw himself as a silver-tongued pitch deliverer.

What he discovered instead to be a silver bullet in his sales career was an orchestrator’s baton.

As such, Robert didn’t just win the sales transaction for the day – he secured it for the future. Over time, he developed a very systematic and thoughtful way on how he orchestrated both his own business and the way he helped customers find solutions. Robert started his career with Businessland in 1985, with a sales quota like anyone else. He sold micro-computers, the first Macintoshes, and early Novell servers inside the Dallas/Fort Worth marketplace, for a company that was on pace to become the second-fastest company in the US to hit $1 billion.

“Much like here at Datamax, Businessland was not a manufacturer or a software developer, and related solutions we represented were not uniquely ours. Essentially, we were a value-added reseller; a company whose value was their know-how — how they developed, implemented, and supported IT solutions,” Robert said.

What Robert discovered was that when it comes to value, maximizing a customer sales proposition was a three-pronged attack, conveying the value in the manufacturer, conveying value in his company, and then demonstrating the value he alone contributed to the sales process.

“In the course of a tightly contested battle, you often need more. Many people stop at two-pronged attacks and don’t necessarily consider what they individually can and must offer value-wise,” Robert said. 

What value was HE bringing individually? How was HE going to differentiate? Robert wanted to dig deeper, so he attended Learning International’s “Added Value Selling” class soon after his start in sales. The contents of this course changed his thinking. It transformed him from a sales rep to a strategic orchestrator.

“When I figured out what I specifically could offer value-wise, I was going to be hard to beat,” Robert said.

Indeed, he was. All three years Robert was at Businessland, ending as a Senior Marketing Representative, he earned the 100% Percent Club, the equivalent to Datamax President's Club today. 

Robert just kept learning. In the course, Learning International revealed three fundamental ways a salesperson can add value – three roles they can fulfill.

• A long-term ally: add value by demonstrating your commitment to your customers’ success.
• A business consultant: add value by developing your business knowledge and using what you know to identify needs and solve problems.
• A strategic orchestrator: Add value by coordinating all selling and service-related activities and facilitating communication among key players.

So what is a strategic orchestrator?

First, what’s an orchestrator?

An orchestrator takes a composer's musical sketch and turns it into a score for orchestra, ensemble, or choral group, assigning the instruments and voices according to the composer's intentions. An orchestrator must have an in-depth knowledge of all the different instruments in the ensemble.

1. An orchestrator must be in tune with two things:
2. He or she must know the specific intentions of the composer (i.e. customer).

He or she must also know and understand the responsibilities and the perspective of every instrument on the stage ( aka, the many others players around him or her, internally and externally, to properly communicate and facilitate the delivery of a solution).

A strategic orchestrator engages in these practices:

• Involves company’s decision-makers in their customers’ businesses
• Knows the responsibilities of their colleagues who are not salespeople
• Helps coordinate the efforts of colleagues in all functions
• Seeks assistance and guidance from others in their company
• Facilitates communication between customers and others in the company
• Adopts a problem-solving approach to production, delivery, and service problems
• Anticipates customer needs and initiates the coordination necessary to meet customers’ future and current needs
• Weighs the costs and benefits associated with various value-adding activities and asserts the value of his or her own time and effort
• Values, emphasizes and promotes cooperation

“What I found internally was that, when I was doing those things, I didn’t have to work as hard at getting coworkers to responsively support my pre-sale and post-sale needs,” Robert said. “I knew that getting company colleagues to go the extra mile for me wasn’t going to happen if I made everything about my needs, at the expense of everyone else. That wasn’t going to inspire the kind of extra effort I needed from my colleagues to support me and, most importantly, my customers.”

How does a Strategic Orchestrator add value?

A few practices include:

• Display their efficiency and willingness to work on a team
• Promote communication among key players in both companies
• Develop good working relationships with people in their company’s administrative, logistics, and service functions
• Honor and support company systems and processes.
• Coordinate their own efforts with those of others
• Help colleagues achieve their own successes in their respective roles — and then celebrate them!

For Robert, adding value comes down to two things:

1. It’s about results. And with that, he opens The Little Blue Book sitting on his desk. “What we do for customers has to produce results. Building and orchestrating solutions that produce measurable value (page 18 of Little Blue Book), that is what a valued partner would do,” Robert said.
2. It’s about what the customer truly values. Consider this:

“We know that 79 percent of buyers 79% of business buyers say it’s absolutely critical or very important to interact with a salesperson who is a trusted advisor — not just a sales rep — one who adds value to their business (Salesforce Research). As you evaluate your own sales activities, I would pose a challenge, a question ...”

Robert pauses, and then he pointedly asks us the same question he asked himself 35 years ago, as a rookie sales rep trying to launch his career.

“What kind of value do you, individually, add in your sales role, or any other role in the company?” Robert asks. “That’s a question worth asking every day, at every transaction.”

Basically, you need to learn your instrument. Take your seat. And join the ensemble.