For the product nerds out there, “building solutions that scale” might be a phrase you here rattled off regularly. In my sales background, this was not a phrase I really heard until I joined the LinkedIn Global Sales Organization in 2018.

At LinkedIn, they called this concept “Leverage”. It was one of our key performance metrics not only for our technical folks, but throughout the entire organization. You were expected to not only hit your result and be a leader on your team but also to scale your success 10x within the organization to bring your colleagues up with you.

Being pushed to apply this principle outside of my engineering background fundamentally changed my success at work and beyond. I’m writing today in hopes of convincing others to also adopt this mindset, especially those in Sales.

So you’re an Engineer…

You’ve probably heard this mindset a lot then. Every single course I’ve taken in computer science and engineering focuses on the importance of understanding the customer problem, building “clean” code / solutions, and providing adequate documentation for the end users as well as future engineers. To build a solution that scales these are all vital.

Understanding a customer or end user’s problem, needs, and wants is always the first piece. The more you know about the full customer profile, the more you are able to predict future needs. This allow you to build your solution in a way that it can grow with the customer vs. fixing it for today’s problem.

Building “clean” code or solutions stems from that clear understanding. I always think back to the old trope from sitcoms of the husband refusing to hire the handyman, fixing something with duct tape, then ending up with far more damage in the end and a bigger bill from the handyman. Solutions to complex problems can be the same. Build and fix your code in a way that allows you to continue upgrading and using your initial framework. Otherwise, you may end up throwing out the whole kitchen sink instead of just replacing the pipe when someone new to the problem tries to fix something.

This leads into the documentation piece. Building solutions that are well documented helps not only your end user utilize that tool more effectively but also helps your future product team maintain and upgrade your solution well past your time working on it.

As an engineer, the one thing more satisfying than seeing your solution put into practice is seeing your solutions evolve and improve well into the future. Keeping the customer problems in mind, providing clear fixes to those problems, then documenting that for future users and engineers provides your solution the framework it needs to scale and reach this goal.

So you’re a Sales rep…

If you’re reading this as a Sales rep, you’re probably like, “I’m not programming or building solutions – what does this have to do with me?” I thought the same thing, so I encourage you to think about what you’re doing every day as a Sales rep. You’re consistently solving customer problems, and you’re also likely working with numerous other reps.

The quickest way to make yourself indispensable as a Sales reps is to adopt this mindset and find ways to scale your solutions for your customers, for your own sales process, and beyond by 10x.

Let’s think about customer solutions first. Finding a way to perfect your pitch to a science is scalability. Creating a sales pitch that fits an industry, role type, persona, customer pain point, etc. allows you as the rep to then take that pitch and find several more customers that fit that same profile and sell them similarly. Though you should treat each of your customers as individuals, you should also find ways to pitch your solution to different personas. This can expand your addressable market, increase your productivity, and improve your confidence in your solutions. When you sell one customer, start thinking about how you find 10 similar customers to sell in the same way.

This leads us into productivity. If you want to be the best sales rep as well as help those around you be their best, you should constantly be thinking about how you do more with less. Sales enablement tools and CRMs exist solely to scale Sales processes, but there’s still a long way to go in scaling the great things that great sales reps do. My entire role in Revenue Operations exists to do just that! Find ways to take your best customer interactions, most productive resources, etc. and use them with every customer interaction. This will save you time, create stronger customer interactions across the board, and make you a lifesaver for the entire team you work with.

There’s an entire industry built around scalability in Sales. Finding ways to implement it day-to-day, even as an individual rep, will make you a top performer and an indispensable resource to your entire organization.

Focus on the Future

Sales teams, Product teams, and organizations as a whole need people who can think for the future and build solutions around that. It will not only make you more effective in your current role but will also set yourself and others up to take your successes and improve on them well into the future.

If you can take one thing from my “jack of all trades” experience, I hope that it is to use the “building solutions that scale” mindset and apply it to every role and every situation you encounter in your day-to-day. You’d be surprised how much time and energy it will end up saving you in the long run, despite your role.