I had a great run selling for a large fortune 500 company and was lucky enough to be there through their ground breaking rise to the top and the slow fade into mediocrity. As the company went up and down and sales incentive programs changed with the wind, I was able to maintain strong sales and high margins. I had a great reputation for performance.

I was often approached by other sales people trying to break into my clients business and they were constantly asking me how I did it. They were in awe when they would approach a high level IT leader for a meeting and told to go meet with me first. I was asked to participate in a team building event with my customer and in preparation for the meeting they asked me the key to my success. For the first time I really, really, I really thought about it and came up with the following:

1. Put your customer first
2. Put your company second
3. Put yourself third

I approached all situations with this formula especially if it didn’t make sense for my wallet. I was ferocious when I thought my customer had been wronged, I stepped on some toes at my company but I had my customers undying devotion and that was all that mattered.

As I’m no longer working for a company but working for myself I had to ponder if #2 needed to be removed. It doesn’t, it’s more important than ever.

Liz Elam is the owner and #3 at Link Coworking.