A driver at full speed sees about four seconds ahead. Everything past that is a blur. From the cockpit, the track is only the next corner.
High above the circuit sits the spotter. The spotter sees the whole track at once: the wreck forming in turn three, the lane opening on the back straight, the rival closing two corners back. The driver cannot see any of it.
Consider this: the driver, the best in the world, hands over the radio. Not because the spotter is louder or more senior, but because the spotter can see what the driver can’t. That is strategic credibility, and it is earned the moment you show someone a hazard or an opening they couldn’t see for themselves.
Your customers drive their race from the cockpit. A busy clinician, an overloaded practice, a system under pressure: each sees only the next stretch of their track. They aren’t short on effort. They’re short on perspective.
You have the view. On any account, one team members sees the economics, another sees the demand, someone else sees the operations, another sees access, and another sees the science. Five spotters, each watching a different corner of the same track. Put together, they see the whole account in a way no one inside it can.
That’s what makes you worth listening to. Not a better pitch, a better vantage point. When you show an account a hazard ahead or a lane opening they couldn’t see from where they sit, they hand you the radio.
This is the difference between being a vendor and being one trusted team. Vendors talk about their car. A spotter talks about the track.
Today we move from the industry to one account. We are going to read its whole track: where volume is stuck, where it could open up, and what only we can see. Then we decide what to show the customer that they cannot see for themselves.
Don’t pitch the car. Spot the track.
6 Responses
This not only speaks to the importance of a TEAM – but also making sure each team has a different person who specializes in an area of focus.
Exactly, Mark. The team matters, precisely because each spotter is watching a different corner. If all five of you saw the same stretch of track, you would have depth in one place and blind spots everywhere else. Specialization is what gives the coalition the whole view; the economics, the demand, the operations, access, and the science. The real test this week is whether you pool those corners into one picture, so the account hears one spotter, not five separate voices calling different turns.
My team and I work together to address the entire account, so this article makes sense to me. Each of us plays a role, but we also depend on each other to get the job done.
That’s great, Angie! That dependence is the whole point. The full-track view does not live in any one of you; it only appears when your five views connect. That is also what separates a trusted team from a vendor: a vendor shows up with their own piece, while a coalition hands the customer a read of the entire track. So the question to carry into today is simple. What can your team show this account that none of you could see, or say, on your own?
I appreciate how this article encourages and emphasizes the importance of looking at the complete picture rather than the individual roles we are in. A great representation and perspective on how each of our roles are an important piece of the puzzle, but true success comes only when we work collaboratively together, aligned on the greater purpose/goal ahead.
Well put, McKenzie. The puzzle only becomes a picture when the pieces connect, and that is the whole shift here: five roles, five spotters, each watching a different corner of the same track. Alignment on the shared goal is what turns those five separate views into one clear call over the radio, so the account hears a coalition rather than five vendors. Carry that into this week’s work and the test gets concrete: what can your team, aligned, show an account that none of you could see alone?