History of the Seven, now my eight “C”s.

Years ago, when I was thinking about leaving my first job out of college, I thought to myself, “Why should I leave my present employer or why shouldn’t I just stay.  So, I made a chart listing all the reasons to either leave or stay and they basically boiled down to four categories, my initial 4Cs or as I called them, my decision bread-crumbs (there’s a bread crumb company with that name, hence the name).  I used those four Cs as I switched or thought about switching jobs over the years. 

Then, when I became a Presales Manager, I thought about what my management style should be and decided to use the 4Cs as an outline. I needed to develop an approach of “give” to “get”.  So, if I focused on giving the 4Cs to my SEs what should I expect from them.  That’s when I developed the 3 additional “Cs”.  Since then, I’ve used the 7Cs as my performance management process; am I helping you achieve your goals and are you helping me/our company achieve our goals.

So, let’s sail my Seven C’s together.  

Over the last 25 years managing a presales organization, I’ve always had a very stable, tenured team.  I believe this is partly due to my 7Cs philosophy.  For example, the average tenure of my SEs in my current company is almost five years.  After all, when an SE is happy, sufficiently paid, continually challenged and is growing, they don’t really have a good reason to leave.  Employees leave because they are not satisfied with one of these four elements.  Of course, sometimes there are things out of your control; they move, they receive a major equity position or there is no room on your team for growth.

Compensation.  Are they sufficiently compensated for their efforts?  You should perform industry salary analysis to ensure your SEs are at the right level commensurate with their contribution, tenure, experience and knowledge.

Challenge. They should be challenged by the opportunities presented by you.  They should be learning everyday through discussions with peers, customers they meet and working with businesses they are involved with.  Have them take advantage of these opportunities.  They should be learning new technologies, they should be improving their soft skills.  Without challenge, they get bored.  Boredom leads to job searches.

Sir Richard Branson says “Train people well enough so they can leave; treat them well enough so they don’t want to”.

Content.  They should be happy to come to work. A job should be a fun and rewarding place to work. Celebrate wins!  Celebrate growth!

Career focused.  Everything they do at their job should help the company achieve its goals as well as helping the individual achieve their career goals. If they aspire to grow, they should work with you to build a plan to provide the necessary training and guidance to achieve their goals.

Remember it’s a two-way street…give to get.  What should an SE do in return?  In return, an SE should:

‍

Be Cooperative with you as their manager, do what is asked, within reason of course.

Be Competent.  Strive to be the best resource in the company for any and every activity.  Learn their job, do it as best as they can.

Be Consistent.  Do the job well, EVERY DAY.

‍

I intentionally kept it to 3Cs in the “get” column.  My belief is we should give more than we receive.

In order to achieve this, you should always communicate, not just during performance reviews, as frequently as your normal 1-on-1 cadence.

Communicate. Goals on both sides should be discussed on a regular basis.  Don’t assume, ask them about their 4Cs.  Talk with them about their contributions and where they need to improve.

Sail the 7Cs, er, 8Cs, and arrive safely at your port of call!  Happy employees create successful companies.

‍

Frank Tisellano is ex VP, Global Presales @Kaseya, Regional Sales Engineering Manager @Splunk and an overall force in the PreSales community. Frank "Does whatever it takes" to get the job done and his door is always open.

History of the Seven, now my eight “C”s.

Years ago, when I was thinking about leaving my first job out of college, I thought to myself, “Why should I leave my present employer or why shouldn’t I just stay.  So, I made a chart listing all the reasons to either leave or stay and they basically boiled down to four categories, my initial 4Cs or as I called them, my decision bread-crumbs (there’s a bread crumb company with that name, hence the name).  I used those four Cs as I switched or thought about switching jobs over the years. 

Then, when I became a Presales Manager, I thought about what my management style should be and decided to use the 4Cs as an outline. I needed to develop an approach of “give” to “get”.  So, if I focused on giving the 4Cs to my SEs what should I expect from them.  That’s when I developed the 3 additional “Cs”.  Since then, I’ve used the 7Cs as my performance management process; am I helping you achieve your goals and are you helping me/our company achieve our goals.

So, let’s sail my Seven C’s together.  

Over the last 25 years managing a presales organization, I’ve always had a very stable, tenured team.  I believe this is partly due to my 7Cs philosophy.  For example, the average tenure of my SEs in my current company is almost five years.  After all, when an SE is happy, sufficiently paid, continually challenged and is growing, they don’t really have a good reason to leave.  Employees leave because they are not satisfied with one of these four elements.  Of course, sometimes there are things out of your control; they move, they receive a major equity position or there is no room on your team for growth.

Compensation.  Are they sufficiently compensated for their efforts?  You should perform industry salary analysis to ensure your SEs are at the right level commensurate with their contribution, tenure, experience and knowledge.

Challenge. They should be challenged by the opportunities presented by you.  They should be learning everyday through discussions with peers, customers they meet and working with businesses they are involved with.  Have them take advantage of these opportunities.  They should be learning new technologies, they should be improving their soft skills.  Without challenge, they get bored.  Boredom leads to job searches.

Sir Richard Branson says “Train people well enough so they can leave; treat them well enough so they don’t want to”.

Content.  They should be happy to come to work. A job should be a fun and rewarding place to work. Celebrate wins!  Celebrate growth!

Career focused.  Everything they do at their job should help the company achieve its goals as well as helping the individual achieve their career goals. If they aspire to grow, they should work with you to build a plan to provide the necessary training and guidance to achieve their goals.

Remember it’s a two-way street…give to get.  What should an SE do in return?  In return, an SE should:

‍

Be Cooperative with you as their manager, do what is asked, within reason of course.

Be Competent.  Strive to be the best resource in the company for any and every activity.  Learn their job, do it as best as they can.

Be Consistent.  Do the job well, EVERY DAY.

‍

I intentionally kept it to 3Cs in the “get” column.  My belief is we should give more than we receive.

In order to achieve this, you should always communicate, not just during performance reviews, as frequently as your normal 1-on-1 cadence.

Communicate. Goals on both sides should be discussed on a regular basis.  Don’t assume, ask them about their 4Cs.  Talk with them about their contributions and where they need to improve.

Sail the 7Cs, er, 8Cs, and arrive safely at your port of call!  Happy employees create successful companies.

‍

Frank Tisellano is ex VP, Global Presales @Kaseya, Regional Sales Engineering Manager @Splunk and an overall force in the PreSales community. Frank "Does whatever it takes" to get the job done and his door is always open.