Significant Career Lesson From An Enterprise Account Executive At Wiz.io And DocuSign
Sami's most significant career lesson, gleaned from a former CEO, is the "triple A plan"— "actions, attitude, and answers"— for meeting preparation. This framework, involving pre-planning questions to ask, desired outcomes for the meeting's conclusion, and subsequent actions, ensures a productive and successful interaction, providing a key differentiator in their career.
Communication, Sales, Meeting Preparation, Strategic Planning, Professional Development
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Sami Khalil
Enterprise Account Executive
Wiz.io and DocuSign
University of Arizona
N/A
Accounting
Technology
Sales and Client Management
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Greek Life Member, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Always be prepared for meetings by creating a structured plan covering actions, attitude, and answers.
2. Develop a 'AAA plan' for each meeting, outlining desired actions, the attitude you want the client to have, and key questions to ask.
3. Proactive preparation, including anticipating client questions and desired outcomes, significantly impacts meeting success and career progression
Transcript
What is one lesson you have learned that has proven significant in your career?
Always be prepared for meetings. One of the best career pieces of advice I've received from my old CEO is to create a AAA plan. Essentially, a AAA plan is actions, attitude, and answers.
If you have three bullet points under each of those, you're going to have a really good outcome from a call. Let's put this into perspective. For answers: what questions do you want to ask them during your conversation that you want to get an answer out of? Write down those three questions.
Once you're asking these questions throughout the call, fill in the answers they provide. For attitude: what attitude do you want them to have when leaving that call? Do you want them to feel worried about your product, or excited to see the next demonstration? Do you want them to be excited to talk to a co-founder or a CEO?
Being able to have them leave the call with some sort of specific attitude is important. And then actions: what three actions do you want to take after this call? That can be setting up another meeting, introducing them to another executive, or providing a customer reference. It could be some sort of action you want them to take, like filling out a specific document.
If you can go into each of your calls having something like that, even if it's very simple and doesn't have to be super detailed, it's something in front of you. It’s like taking notes and being organized. If you can get that down, I think that's going to be a very key differentiator for somebody's career.