Attributes of Sales 5s include the following:

1. Co-own the sales goal for the business with marketing.
2. Practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.
3. Have implemented The Sales Engine℠ and resourced it to produce predictable sales results.
4. Link sales compensation to KPIs.
5. Have shared KPIs with marketing to encourage alignment and shared outcomes.

Sales 5s are Black Belts in The Culture of Commerce℠ because they've fully adopted it as an organizational way of life.

Attributes of Sales 4s include the following:

1. Co-own the sales goal for the business with their marketing counterparts.
2. Practice 3 to 4 of the 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.
3. Have implemented The Sales Engine℠ and resourced it to produce predictable sales results.
4. Link sales compensation to KPIs.

Sales 4s have high standards, are well managed and have committed team members. They have a path to becoming the Gold Standard IF they decide to fully adopt The Culture of Commerce℠ as an organizational way of life.

Attributes of Sales 3s include the following:

1. Don't work within a cohesive framework with marketing but do have a cooperative relationship.
2. Sales 3s practice 3 of the 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.
3. Sales 3 have a few elements of The Sales Engine℠ in place but have not fully resourced it to produce predictable sales results.

Sales 3s are average. They're decent at new customer acquisition and customer retention. Sales 3s are a customer-centric organization but their organization has gaps that need to be addressed.

Sales 3s have a decision to make. Do they commit to becoming The Culture of Commerce℠ and change the trajectory of their business or continue to be average?

Attributes of Sales 2s include the following:

1. Practice several elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠.
2. Have no sales engine and the atmosphere in which they sell and deliver creates friction throughout the customer lifecycle.
3. Have passive leaders willing to accept status quo and the organization is misaligned with no standard to aspire to and align around.
4. Sales 2s produce mediocre sales results, poor customer experience and have frustrated salespeople.

The only upside for Sales 2s is that they're not fully diseased. They have a choice to transform their culture for the better or begin their descent to become 1s on Life Support.

Attributes of Sales 1s including the following:

1. Practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠.
2. Have no sales engine and the atmosphere in which they sell and deliver creates friction throughout the customer lifecycle - company resources are at odds with each other.
3. Spend more time selling internally than externally.
4. Sales 1s produce mediocre sales results, poor customer experience and have frustrated salespeople.
5. Their business is spiraling down.

Attributes of Marketing 5s include the following:

1. Have a holistic view of marketing and co-own the sales goal with The Sales Team.
2. Work with The Sales Team to convert lead generation activities into new customer relationships.
3. Have shared KPIs with The Sales Team to encourage alignment and shared outcomes.
4. ROI and data-driven, so they invest in activities that have a measurable return.
5. Provide leadership in digital strategy, content marketing and social selling to ensure investments have high impact.

Marketing 5s practice all 5 principles of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Marketing 4s include the following:

1. Have a holistic view of marketing and co-own the sales goal with The Sales Team.
2. Work with The Sales Team often to convert lead generation activities into new customer relationships.
3. Have shared KPIs with The Sales Team to encourage alignment and shared outcomes.
4. ROI and data-driven, so they invest in activities that have a measurable return.
5. Provide leadership in digital strategy, content marketing and social selling to ensure investments have high impact.

Marketing 4s practice 4 of the 5 principles of The Culture of Commerce.

Already high performing, they can grow further if they decide to fully adopt The Culture of Commerce as an organizational way of life.

Attributes of Marketing 3s include the following:

1. Don't work within a cohesive framework with sales but do have a cooperative relationship.
2. Practice 3 of the 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.
3. Have pieces of content marketing, social selling and search marketing in place but have not committed or fully resourced them to win.
4. Will their way to making good things happen. They build assets for The Sales Toolbox and provide marketing leadership but do so outside of an overarching plan and without support from leadership.

Marketing 3s practice some elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠ and some elements of The Culture of Commerce℠ and, as a result, have a decision to make. Do they commit to becoming The Culture of Commerce℠, backslide to The Customer Prevention Culture℠ or remain average?

Attributes of Marketing 2s include the following:

1. Treated as a contracted service inside their organization rather than an asset to drive demand generation and a conduit to the market.
2. There is no holistic mindset employed for marketing and sales to drive demand for the business.
3. Engage in one-off projects like print collateral, tradeshows and digital marketing endeavors, all of which create lackluster results.

Marketing 2s are silo'd and practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of Marketing 1s include the following:

1. Marketing 1s generally have limited internal or subcontracted resources to perform ad-hoc services like building out website content or other marketing assets as needed.
2. Marketing 1s believe marketing is about building brochures, attending the occasional tradeshow or redesigning the company logo every other decade.
3. Rather than employing a holistic mindset around marketing strategy and working with the sales team to drive demand for the business, Marketing 1s live in an alternative reality.
4. Often Marketing 1s are a result of leadership's inability to see value in the marketing function.

Marketing 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of Customer Service 5s include the following:

1. Follow a structure when fielding inbound calls to ensure a consistent customer experience.
2. Have both individual KPIs and shared KPIs with Internal Customers Upstream and Downstream of Them (e.g., Joint KPIs with Sales, Marketing and Operations).
3. Characteristics of team members include a positive attitude, hard-wired for serving, resourceful and responsive. Also have a high quality-orientation to meet expectations of external and internal customers. Customer-centric to the core.

5s are Customer Service Rock Stars and practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Customer Service 4s include the following:

1. Follow a structure when fielding inbound calls to ensure a consistent customer experience.
2. Have both individual KPIs and shared KPIs with Internal Customers Upstream and Downstream of Them (e.g., Joint KPIs with Sales, Marketing and Operations).
3. Characteristics of team members include a positive attitude, hard-wired for serving, resourceful and responsive. Also have a high quality-orientation to meet expectations of external and internal customers. Customer-centric to the core.

Customer Service 4s practice 4 of 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce. Already high performing, the gold standard awaits if they decide to fully adopt The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Customer Service 3s include the following:

1. The Customer Service Team may or may not utilize an inbound call structure which leads to an inconsistent customer experience.
2. There are some KPIs to drive accountability and measure team effectiveness. But leadership doesn't have the will or awareness necessary to build a customer-centric culture and align customer service with the rest of the organization.
3. Characteristics of team members. Leadership hires the best people available and expects they'll rise to the occasion. Beyond hiring good people, there isn't a philosophy for talent acquisition.

Customer Service 3s practice elements of The Customer Prevention Culture and The Culture of Commerce, making them average.

Attributes of Customer Service 2s include the following:

1. The Customer Service Team doesn't utilize an inbound call structure and therefore every call is an adventure.
2. There are some KPIs to drive accountability and measure team effectiveness. But leadership doesn't have the will or awareness necessary to build a customer-centric culture and align customer service with the rest of the organization.
3. Characteristics of team members: None have been identified to shape the hiring process and align people with company culture.

2s have a planned approach to working with customers but lack a sold-out approach to building culture and customer experience.

Customer Service 2s practice several elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠.

Attributes of Customer Service 1s include the following:

1. The Customer Service Team doesn't utilize an inbound call structure and therefore every call is an adventure.
2. There are no KPIs to drive accountability, measure team effectiveness and align customer service with the rest of the organization.
3. Characteristics of team members: None have been identified to shape the hiring process.

Rather than employing a mindful approach to hiring, 1s fill open positions.

All activity is highly reactionary, and every day feels like survival rather than a planned approach to working with customers.

Customer Service 1s practice all aspects of The Customer Prevention Culture℠.

Attributes of Tech Support 5s include the following:

1. Whether the customer's entry point to a conversation is pre-sale or post-sale, Tech Support 5s are ready to help get customers up and running, provide application support or simply answer questions.
2. Tech Support 5s aim to build customer confidence with every interaction.
3. Tech Support 5s follow a methodology to direct customer conversations, understand the issue at hand, gather background information before offering up a solution or path forward.
4. Characteristics of Tech Support 5s include responsiveness, resourcefulness, technical/industry knowledge and resolution-orientation.

Tech Support 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Tech Support 4s include the following:

1. Whether the customer's entry point to a conversation is pre-sale or post-sale, Tech Support 4s are ready to help get customers up and running, provide application support or simply answer questions.
2. Tech Support 4s aim to build customer confidence with every interaction.
3. Tech Support 4s follow a methodology to direct customer conversations, understand the issue at hand, gather background information before offering up a solution or path forward.
4. Characteristics of Tech Support 4s include responsiveness, resourcefulness, technical/industry knowledge and resolution-orientation.

Tech Support 4s practice 4 of the 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Tech Support 3s include the following:

1. Consistently inconsistent.
2. May or may not understand their role in the customer life cycle.
3. Sometimes build confidence and at other times break confidence during customer interactions.
4. Are inconsistent in how they help get customers up and running, provide application support or answer questions. They have a methodology to follow to direct customer conversations, understand the issue at hand, gather background information and provide the solution but don't always use it.

Technical 3s practice some elements of The Culture of Commerce and The Customer Prevention Culture which makes them average.

Attributes of Tech Support 2s include the following:

1. More reactionary than planned in their approach to supporting internal and external customers.
2. Tech Support 2s have no formalized methodology to handle each customer contact and therefore inquiries across the entire Tech Support Team have inconsistent outcomes.
3. Tech Support 2s have no sense of their role in the customer lifecycle because leadership has not developed a holistic view of the customer experience. As a result, each call is an event as opposed an opportunity that contributes to a greater cause.

Tech Support 2s practice many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of Tech Support 1s include the following:

1. Completely reactionary.
2. Tech Support 1s answer customer inquiries but not in a proactive and consistent manner.
3. Tech Support 1s have no formalized methodology to handle each customer contact and therefore inquiries across the entire Tech Support Team have inconsistent outcomes.
4. Tech Support 1s have no sense of their role in the customer lifecycle because leadership has not developed a holistic view of the customer experience. As a result, each call is an event as opposed an opportunity that contributes to a greater cause.

Tech Support 1s contribute to The Customer Prevention Culture℠.

Attributes of Service Tech 5s include the following:

1. Have an enormous impact on customer loyalty due to their contact with customers post-sale. Their ability to get customers operational in a downtime scenario or provide preventive maintenance creates big value for customers.
2. Service Tech 5s are undoubtedly part of The Sales Team.
3. Service Tech 5s understand their customer touchpoint can build or break confidence and they rarely miss their opportunity leave a lasting impression. Service Tech 5s can be such game-changing differentiators for companies.

Service Tech 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of Service Tech 4s include the following:

1. Have an enormous impact on customer loyalty due to their contact with customers post-sale. Their ability to get customers operational in a downtime scenario or provide repair/maintenance creates big value for customers.
2. Service Tech 4s are undoubtedly part of The Sales Team.
3. Service Tech 4s understand their customer touchpoint can build or break confidence and they rarely miss their opportunity leave a lasting impression. Service Tech 4s can be such game-changing differentiators for companies.

Service Tech 4s practice 4 of the 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of Service Tech 3s include the following:

1. They are consistently inconsistent because they practice both elements of The Culture of Commerce and The Customer Prevention Culture.
2. Service Tech 3s may or may not understand their customer touchpoint can build or break confidence. Some team members see their role narrowly and believe they exist to go out on service calls. Other team members that see their role in a larger context and understand they can be game-changing differentiators for the organization.
3. Service Tech 3s may or may not see the interdependencies and interconnectedness of their workflows on the greater organization.
4. Service Tech 3s may or may not feel see themselves as part The Sales Team.

Passive leadership is at the root of their averageness.

Attributes of Service Tech 2s include the following:

1. Have a job to do and go out on service calls - nothing more.
2. They don't understand the bigger picture of customer loyalty and why their interactions with customers present meaningful opportunities to cement the relationship.
3. Service Tech 2s cannot be part of The Sales Team because it hasn't occurred to anyone in their organization to think that broadly.
4. Service Tech 2s practice too many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠ and, as a result, their interactions with customers break confidence.

Leadership readily accepts status quo rather than leading their team to a better, future state.

Attributes of Service Tech 1s include the following:

1. Have a job to do and go out on service calls - nothing more.
2. They don't understand the bigger picture of customer loyalty and why their interactions with customers present meaningful opportunities to cement the relationship.
3. Service Tech 1s cannot be part of The Sales Team because it hasn't occurred to anyone in their organization to think that broadly.
4. Service Tech 1s unknowingly contribute to The Customer Prevention Culture℠ and, as a result, their interactions with customers break confidence.

Attributes of Quality 5s include the following:

1. Quality 5s at the leadership level drive quality standards, training and tools down to the lowest level of the enterprise.
2. Quality 5s are fiercely committed to repeatable processes, systems and the team's compliance to them.
3. Quality 5s build quality into enterprise processes because they know it's critical to the customer experience.
4. Quality 5s don't have systemic quality issues but may experience isolated events from time to time.
5. Quality 5s are huge assets to the team because they teach the entire enterprise to stay focused on key Quality KPIs so they understand how workflows and customer outputs are affected.

Quality 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of Quality 4s include the following:

1. Quality 4s at the leadership level drive quality standards, training and tools down to the lowest level of the enterprise.
2. Quality 4s are fiercely committed to repeatable processes, systems and the team's compliance to them.
3. Quality 4s build quality into enterprise processes because they know it's critical to the customer experience.
4. Quality 4s don't have systemic quality issues but may experience isolated events from time to time.
5. Quality 4s are huge assets to the team because they teach the entire enterprise to stay focused on key Quality KPIs, so they understand how workflows and customer outputs are affected.

If they fully adopt The Culture of Commerce as an organizational way of life, they'll become an unstoppable force.

Quality 4s practice 4 of the 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of Quality 3s include the following:

1. Quality 3s are average so leadership doesn't think in terms of driving quality standards, training and tools down to the lowest level of the enterprise. Instead the quality team is silo'd.
2. Quality 3s aren't fiercely committed to repeatable processes, systems and the team's compliance to them. Instead quality issues surface, go away for a time and then resurface. Consistently inconsistent is the theme.
3. Quality 3s don't know how to institutionalize best practices in quality management systems. As a result, they do not build quality into enterprise processes.

Quality 3s practice both The Customer Prevention Culture and The Culture of Commerce, resulting in mediocrity for both their organization and the customer.

Attributes of Quality 2s include the following:

1. Are reactionary problem solvers. Rather than building quality into their processes and workflows, they address quality events as they surface. Furthermore, they don't address quality events with corrective actions to address the root cause systemically.
2. Quality 2s break confidence in a big way. Company Leaders have not fully committed to quality and their investments in people, process and technology reflect it.
3. Quality 2s do not drive quality standards, training and tools down to the lowest level of the enterprise. Instead quality goals remain the job of a few and has no chance of being institutionalized.

Quality 2s practice too many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Passive leadership and fixed mindsets are pervasive in this environment.

Attributes of Quality 1s include the following:

1. Are reactionary problem solvers. Rather than building quality into their processes and workflows, they address quality events as they surface. Furthermore, they don't address quality events with corrective actions to address the root cause systemically.
2. Quality 1s break confidence in a big way. Company leaders have not fully committed to quality and their investments in people, process and technology reflect it.

Quality 1s do not drive quality standards, training and tools down to the lowest level of the enterprise. Instead quality goals remain the job of a few and have no chance of being institutionalized.

Quality 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of Operations 5s include the following:

1. Ops 5s are highly customer-centric and it comes out in their day to day behavior and actions. They find ways to support customers at every opportunity, both in systemic improvements and at the order level.
2. Their KPIs are aligned with their team members in different functional areas and their compensation has variable components linked to KPI performance.
3. Ops 5s have fully adopted The Culture of Commerce and are clear on the interdependencies and interconnectedness of their workflows on the customer experience. They know their role in the enterprise is to fulfill what's been promised to customers by their sales and customer service counterparts. They are One Team - One Goal.
4. Ops 5s understand, they too, are part of The Sales Team and their attitudes reflect it.
5. Ops 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Operations 4s include the following:

1. Ops 4s are highly customer-centric and it comes out in their day to day behavior and actions. They find ways to support customers at every opportunity, both in systemic improvements and at the order level.
2. Their KPIs are aligned with their team members in different functional areas and their compensation has variable components linked to KPI performance.
3. Ops 4s are clear on the interdependencies and interconnectedness of their workflows on the customer experience. They know their role in the enterprise is to fulfill what's been promised to customers by their sales and customer service counterparts.
4. Ops 4s understand their job is to support the sales team and that, retaining customers, hinges upon the Ops Team's abilities to fulfill on-time with zero defects to the customer's expectation.
5. Ops 4s are high performing but have not fully adopted The Culture of Commerce as an organizational way of life.

Attributes of Operations 3s include the following:

1. Ops 3s exhibit facets of The Customer Prevention Culture and The Culture of Commerce which is why they're average. They do many things well and many things poorly which results in them being consistently inconsistent.
2. Ops 3s have KPIs to keep them aligned with enterprise priorities but lack the internal will to commit to The Culture of Commerce.
3. Ops 3s may or may not be clear on the interdependencies and interconnectedness of their workflows on the customer experience, depending upon the day.
4. Ops 3s need to get serious about adopting The Culture of Commerce or they will put their organization at risk with their half-hearted performance.

Attributes of Operations 2s including the following:

1. Ops 2s operate in tribes and silos, separated from the rest of the organization.
2. Ops 2s behavior suggests The Customer is NOT King and more of a nuisance.
3. Ops 2s have KPIs but they don't foster a spirit of "we all have a customer"" where different functional areas cooperate to improve customer experience.

Ops 2s practice too many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture which is why they're laggards and contribute to the friction-filled customer experience.

Attributes of Operations 1s including the following:

1. Ops 1s operate in tribes and silos, separated from the rest of the organization.
2. The Customer is NOT King and is more of a nuisance.
3. They've forgotten that their role is mission critical to why the enterprise exists.
4. They contribute to a friction-filled customer experience.
5. There are no KPIs to align Ops 1s with the rest of the organization.

Ops 1 practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of Engineering 5s include the following:

1. Engineering 5s serve their organizations in a technical role, interfacing with both internal and external customers. Engineering 5s may also be involved in product development, process routings, product configuration, design and build of plant floor equipment and a whole host of activities that leverage their unique, technical skill set.
2. Engineering 5s have an oversized customer-centric mindset and understand the interdependencies of their workflows on the rest of the organization.
3. Engineering 5s can not only talk to customers but they do it really well. They've been initiated into The Sales Team and enjoy that part of their job. At times, they will even chat with engineers in the customer's organization to support a project or situation. The Sales Team enjoy taking Engineering 5s into see customers because they are huge assets.
4. Engineering 5s have fully adopted The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Engineering 4s include the following:

1. Engineering 4s serve their organizations in a technical role, interfacing with both internal and external customers. Engineering 4s may also be involved in product development, process routings, product configuration, design and build of plant floor equipment and a whole host of activities that leverage their unique, technical skill set.
2. Engineering 4s have a customer-centric mindset and understand the interdependencies of their workflows on the rest of the organization.
3. Engineering 4s interface with customers and do it really well. At times, they will talk with engineers in the customer's organization to support a project or situation.
4. Engineering 4s are high performing but have not fully adopted The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Engineering 3s include the following:

1. Engineering 3s serve their organizations by performing product development, process routings, product configuration, design and build of plant floor equipment and a whole host of activities that leverage their unique, technical skill set.
2. Engineering 3s have a customer-centric mindset and, at times, understand the interdependencies of their workflows on the rest of the organization. At other times, they relapse into poor patterns of behavior that hurt the enterprise.
3. Engineering 3s are all over the map in terms of their support of The Sales Team and their willingness to interface with customers. At times they are helpful and, at times, not so much. They need to buy-in to One Team - One Goal and the concept of shared organizational outcomes. Otherwise, their average performance and inconsistent behavior will continue.
4. Engineering 3s are average because they practice facets of both The Culture of Commerce and The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of Engineering 2s include the following:

1. Engineering 2s are super smart and have deep technical knowledge that's valuable to the enterprise. Unfortunately, their knowledge and skill set aren't made available to the people or workflows that need it most.
2. Interacting with Engineering 2s is painful for internal or external customers because they behave as if they've forgotten the customer is king and have no clue their workflows actually matter to the rest of the organization.
3. Engineering 2s are not the greatest communicators, operate in tribes and silos, and getting them to engage is like pulling teeth.
4. Engineering 2s may understand that all customer touchpoints build or break confidence but their interactions with internal or external customers don't go particularly well.
5. Engineering 2s practice too many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture and contribute to the friction-filled customer experience.

Attributes of Engineering 1s include the following:

1. Engineering 1s are super smart and have deep technical knowledge that's valuable to the enterprise. Unfortunately, their knowledge and skill set aren't made available to the people or workflows that need it most.
2. Engineering 1s have forgotten the customer is king and have no clue their workflows actually matter to the rest of the organization.
3. Engineering 1s are not the greatest communicators and they operate in tribes and silos.
4. Engineering 1s are oblivious to the fact that all customer touchpoints build or break confidence and their interactions with internal or external customers generally leave a poor impression.
5. Engineering 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture and contribute to the friction-filled customer experience.

Attributes of Shipping/Receiving 5s include the following:

1. SR 5s prepare products/services for shipment which often is the final workflow before a customer's package is shipped through a 3rd party logistics provider or in-house transportation method. On the receiving side, SR 5s are the gatekeepers to products coming into their organization. They can get involved to ensure what's received is to spec, code or compliant before placing it in inventory.
2. If a company uses their own trucking methods, then drivers on the SR 5 team are additional salespeople. They have contact with new parts of the customer's organization which provides opportunities to build customer loyalty and customer experience.
3. SR 5s understand the interdependencies of their workflows on the rest of the enterprise and work hard to ensure customer shipments are accurate, packaged properly and exactly what the customer ordered. They understand their workflow is the final step of fulfillment and an important part of the process. If not, all of the cumulative work in the value stream is erased in one single step. SR 5s get it!
4. SR 5s have a healthy and open relationship with their organizational counterparts and work together to improve the customer experience.
5. SR 5s have fully adopted all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Shipping/Receiving 4s include the following:

1. SR 4s prepare products/services for shipment which often is the final workflow before a customer's package is shipped through a 3rd party logistics provider or in-house transportation method. On the receiving side, SR 4s are the gatekeepers to products coming into their organization. They can get involved to ensure what's received is to spec, code or compliant before placing it in inventory.
2. If a company uses their own trucking methods, then drivers on the SR 5 team are additional salespeople. They have contact with new parts of the customer's organization which provides opportunities to build customer loyalty and customer experience.
3. SR 4s understand the interdependencies of their workflows on the rest of the enterprise and work hard to ensure customer shipments are accurate, packaged properly and exactly what the customer ordered.
4. SR 4s have a healthy and open relationship with their organizational counterparts and work together to improve the customer experience.
5. SR 4s are high performing but have not fully adopted The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Shipping/Receiving 3s include the following:

1. SR 3s prepare products/services for shipment which often is the final workflow before a customer's package is shipped through a 3rd party logistics provider or in-house transportation method. On the receiving side, SR 3s are the gatekeepers of products coming into their organization. They ensure what's received is to spec, code or compliant before placing it in inventory.
2. If a company uses their own trucking line, then their truck drivers have the potential to be additional salespeople but SR 3s likely wouldn't be aware these enormous opportunities exist to build customer loyalty and enhance customer experience.
3. SR 3s may or may not understand the interdependencies of their workflows on the rest of the enterprise and, at times, may be apathetic to ensure customer shipments are accurate, packaged properly and exactly what the customer ordered.
4. SR 3s are average because elements of The Customer Prevention Culture and The Culture of Commerce exist in their organization. The results in misalignment and inconsistent performance.

Attributes of Shipping/Receiving 2s include the following:

1. SR 2s ship products out the door and receive products in - that sums up their role and their mindset.
2. The idea that their workflows are interdependent and interconnected with the rest of the enterprise isn't a thought for them. Their work product is a hair more than the minimum.
3. Leadership responsible for SR 2s also bear responsibility because they haven't pitched shared organizational outcomes and the concept of One Team - One Goal.
4. SR 2s practice too many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture and contribute to the friction-filled customer experience.

Attributes of Shipping/Receiving 1s include the following:

1. SR 1s ship products out the door and receive products in - that sums up their role and their mindset.
2. The idea that their workflows are interdependent and interconnected with the rest of the enterprise isn't a thought for them. They do the minimum.
3. Leadership responsible for SR 1s also bear responsibility because they haven't pitched shared organizational outcomes and the concept of One Team - One Goal.
4. SR 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture and contribute to the friction-filled customer experience because they work in isolation from their counterparts.

Attributes of AR 5s include the following:

1. AR 5s utilize a combination of finesse and command to generate results. AR 5s have KPIs to measure effectiveness such as average days outstanding, delinquent accounts and turnover ratio.
2. AR 5s extend open credit terms to new customers, make sure customers stay within terms and reconcile discrepant invoices.
3. Although AR Teams have to set the occasional boundary with customers, AR 5s work with The Sales Team to get results. Rather than damaging the relationship by operating in isolation, AR 5s understand the customer is king and recognize the goal is to build, not destroy, customer relationships.

AR 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of AR 4s include the following:

1. AR 4s utilize a combination of finesse and command to generate results. AR 4s have KPIs to measure effectiveness such as average days outstanding, delinquent accounts and turnover ratio.
2. AR 4s extend open credit terms to new customers, make sure customers stay within terms and reconcile discrepant invoices.
3. Although AR Teams have to set the occasional boundary with customers, AR 4s work with The Sales Team to get results. Rather than damaging the relationship by operating in isolation, AR 4s understand the customer is king and recognize the goal is to build, not destroy, customer relationships.
4. AR 4s see the interdependencies and interconnectedness of their workflows on the organization and embrace their contribution to organizational outcomes. As an example, AR 4s impact organizational working capital by keeping customers within terms. Additionally, AR 4s recognize their communication is a customer touchpoint that, when done thoughtfully, builds confidence.

AR 4s practice 4 of the 5 elements in The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of AR 3s include the following:

1. AR 3s have both moments of greatness and moments of mediocrity. At times, they see the higher purpose of the organization and their role within it. At other times, they exist to make collection calls or open up credit terms for new accounts - nothing more.
2. AR 3s may or may not have KPIs to measure effectiveness such as average days outstanding, delinquent accounts and turnover ratio.
3. AR 3s may or may not work with the Sales Team to get results. AR 3s understand the customer is king but don't always view their customer communication as an opportunity to build relationships within the customer's organization.
4. AR 3s may or may not see the interdependencies and interconnectedness of their workflows on the organization and embrace their contribution to organizational outcomes.

AR 3s practice both elements of The Culture of Commerce and The Customer Prevention Culture, which produces their average and inconsistent ways.

Attributes of AR 2s include the following:

1. See themselves as clerks making collection calls - nothing more.
2. They don't see customer communication as a customer touchpoint that builds or breaks confidence or as an opportunity for their enterprise to gain additional relationships within the customer's organization.
3. AR 2s don't see the interdependencies or interconnectedness of the organization's workflows and, as such, are silo'd. To them, every functional area has a job to do and shared organizational outcomes is a foreign concept.
4. If you're an internal team member dealing with AR 2s, it feels like an adversarial relationship.
5. AR 2s practice too many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of AR 1s include the following:

1. See themselves as clerks making collection calls - nothing more.
2. They don't see their contact as a customer touchpoint that builds or breaks confidence and, more importantly, don't understand the customer is king.
3. AR 1s don't see the interdependencies or interconnectedness of the organization's workflows and, as such, are silo'd.
4. Salespeople cringe with every customer communication from AR 1s and the thought of them talking to customers creates anxiety.
5. AR 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of AP 5s include the following:

1. AR 5s see themselves as an integral part of the organization and, although they have mostly internal customers and external vendors to service, they know their workflows ultimately impact customer experience.
2. AP 5s work with internal team members, primarily purchasing/supply chain, who they consider to be their customer, to ensure suppliers, vendors and service providers are paid in a timely basis. This ensures the flow of materials, services and supplies needed to run the organization are not interrupted.
3. AP 5s also answer to finance and accounting to ensure they meet compliance and audit guidelines. However, AR 5s can only be 5s because their leadership has given them latitude to make their internal and external customers their #1 priority. All other responsibilities are deprioritized behind their primary customers.
4. AP 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of AP 4s include the following:

1. AR 4s see themselves are an integral part of the organization and, although they have mostly internal customers and external vendors to service, they know their workflows ultimately impact customer experience.
2. AP 4s work with internal team members, primarily purchasing/supply chain, who they consider to be their customer, to ensure suppliers, vendors and service providers are paid in a timely basis. This ensures there is no interruption in the flow of materials, services and supplies needed to run the organization.
3. AP 4s also answer to finance and accounting. However, AR 4s are tasked with servicing their internal and external customers first and foremost.
4. AP 4s practice 4 of the 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce because they have not fully adopted it as an organizational way of life.

Attributes of AP 3s include the following:

1. AP 3s may or may not see themselves are an integral part of the organization and, although they have mostly internal customers and external vendors to service, they're not aware their workflows consistently impact customer experience.
2. AP 3s are puzzling because, at times they seem to understand the interdependencies of their workflow on the enterprise and, at other times, simply go through the motions.
3. AP 3s are average in every way because of their inconsistencies and the fact that they practice elements of The Customer Prevention Culture and The Culture of Commerce.

AP 3s can only exist with passive leadership.

Attributes of AP 2s include the following:

1. See themselves as clerks paying invoices - nothing more.
2. No vision to understand their contact with suppliers, vendors and service providers acts as a touchpoint that serves their internal customers and ultimately affects customer experience.
3. AP 2s don't see the interdependencies or interconnectedness of the organization's workflows and, as such, work in their tribes and silos. The idea of One Team - One Goal and shared organizational outcomes isn't part of their thought process.
4. AP 2s practice too many elements of The Customer Prevention Culture which hurts internal customers and the enterprise as a whole.

Attributes of AP 1s include the following:

1. See themselves as clerks paying invoices - nothing more.
2. They don't see their contact with suppliers, vendors and service providers as a touchpoint that serves their internal customers and ultimately affects customer experience.
3. AP 1s don't see the interdependencies or interconnectedness of the organization's workflows and, as such, work in their tribes and silos.
4. AP 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of IT 5s include the following:

1. IT 5s have an oversized customer-centric mindset and oversee all information technology to ensure enterprise workflows are supported to produce mission critical outputs. This makes IT 5s highly valuable because they're able to quickly work with their teams to remove friction from the organization when it's rooted in technology.
2. IT 5s consider the functional areas they support as internal customers.
3. IT 5s work closely with their Quality and Engineering Team because, together, they have highly specialized problem-solving skills the organization relies on to improve workflows and continuously improve customer experience.
4. IT 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of IT 4s include the following:

1. IT 4s are high performing because they're team players and understand the impact of technology in the business.
2. IT 4s have a strong customer-centric mindset and use technology enablers to improve workflows and customer experience throughout the enterprise.
3. IT 4s work closely with their Quality and Engineering counterparts to identify root cause issues causing friction within workflows. As a result, their problem-solving skills and ability to work together is huge for the enterprise.
4. IT 4s practice 4 of 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of IT 3s include the following:

1. IT 3s are consistently inconsistent. At times, they use technology to improve workflows and, at times, view their team members as customers. At other times, they're reactionary.
2. IT 3s don't take a leadership role with their Quality and Engineering counterparts to improve workflows that support the enterprise.
3. IT 3s are likely living in an organization with passive leadership and fixed mindsets with no vision for a better, future state.

IT 3s practice some elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠ and some elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of IT 2s include the following:

1. IT 2s are laggards so there is no thought leadership being brought forward to the enterprise.
2. Status quo, fixed mindsets and self-preservation are the common themes with IT 2s.
3. Because IT 2s practice 4 of 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠ their company-centric mindset prevents them from considering how technology shapes workflows and, ultimately, customer experience.

Attributes of IT 1s include the following:

1. Reactionary in every way possible.
2. They don't look to improve or replace legacy systems or consider how IT can improve workflows within the business.
3. IT 1s don't view the functional areas they support as customers.
4. Status quo and fixed mindsets are typical attributes of both team members and leadership.

IT 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠.

Attributes of HR 5s include the following:

1. HR 5s are the Chief Talent Officers whose job it is to attract and retain talent. They also work with functional area leaders to anticipate their future talent requirements as the organization evolves.
2. HR 5s are hyper-focused on alignment and actively involved in guiding leaders as they establish KPIs to support the interdependency of enterprise workflows.
3. HR 5s know that people are an organization's greatest asset and, when aligned, cultivated and properly placed, can be game-changing.

HR 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.

Attributes of HR 4s include the following:

1. HR 4s are high performing and understand people are their company's most important asset. They know talent wins the day and are consistently meeting with functional leaders to support the business with the best talent available.
2. HR 4s spend a lot of time with their extended leadership team establishing KPIs to align the entire organization.
3. HR 4s practice 4 of 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠. Should they decide to fully adopt The Culture of Commerce as a way of organizational life, they will become an unstoppable force.

Attributes of HR 3s include the following:

1. HR 3s are very average and carryout the duties of HR with an inconsistent approach that's somewhere between a staffing exercise and talent acquisition/retention.
2. They view people as important but haven't developed the internal wherewithal to make people a central component of their growth strategy.
3. HR 3s establish some KPIs to align the organization but haven't fully committed to lead the conversation internally around the interdependence and interconnectedness of workflows.
4. HR 3s practice a few elements of The Culture of Commerce℠ and a few elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠ which is why they are average.

Attributes of HR 2s include the following:

1. See people as transactional. They view the HR function as a staffing exercise more than a talent competition. They want to retain their good people but lack a plan to make it happen.
2. HR 2s think people only work for money and don't consider other contributing factors such as culture, professional development, career path and being a part of larger purpose.
3. Because HR 2s are laggards, helping align the organization through KPIs isn't a thought for them. This is a leadership trend across all functional areas.
4. HR 2s practice 4 of 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture ℠.

Attributes of HR 1s include the following:

1. See people as transactional. They view the HR function as a staffing exercise and nothing more. People aren't assets, they're simply necessary. They may or may not benchmark compensation in the marketplace and their culture reflects that fact.
2. Helping to establish KPIs to align the organization isn't part of their mindset and they don't look ahead to anticipate the needs of the business.
3. HR 1s are reactionary in every possible way but, then again, so is their entire leadership team.

HR 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture ℠.

Attributes of Purchasing/Supply Chain 5s include the following:

1. Epitomize One Team - One Goal. They understand purchasing and supply chain issues support a larger business outcome affecting sales, customer service, operations, aftermarket service/on-site technicians and, ultimately, the customer.
2. Purchasing/Supply Chain KPIs are established to align their function with the balance of the organization.
3. Purchasing/Supply Chain 5s are not just buyers and material managers, but key team members integral to the organization.

Purchasing/Supply Chain 5s practice all 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce.

Attributes of Purchasing/Supply Chain 4s including the following:

1. High performing and practice 4 of 5 elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.
2. Purchasing/Supply Chain 4s understand their activities support a larger business outcome affecting sales, customer service, operations, aftermarket service/on-site technicians and, ultimately, the customer.
3. Their KPIs are relevant, customer-centric and align them with the rest of the organization.
4. Purchasing/Supply Chain 4s haven't fully adopted The Culture of Commerce as an organizational way of life.

Attributes of Purchasing/Supply Chain 3s include the following:

1. Average in that some of their practices support the organization and other actions diminish the organization. That's because they practice elements of The Customer Prevention Culture℠ and elements of The Culture of Commerce℠.
2. Purchasing/Supply Chain 3s understand purchasing and supply chain actions support larger business outcomes in the organization, but misalignment and sub optimized resources cripple their efforts.
3. Purchasing/Supply Chain 3s have the ability to become 5s but also may slide back to 1s. They're at a crossroads - do they have the internal will to become better or is status quo acceptable?

Attributes of Purchasing/Supply Chain 2s include the following:

1. 2s have a glimmer of hope because the team understands their functional area is systemically out of sync with their internal customers and, ultimately, external customers. However, because they're battling cultural norms and defensive caretakers of people, process and technology in their dysfunctional, misaligned organization, they're part of the problem rather than change agents.
2. Purchasing/Supply Chain 2s are generally given KPIs from their superiors that further misalign the organization rather than co-developing KPIs with team members that would support a healthier, aligned version of the organization.
3. Purchasing/Supply Chain 2s practice 4 of the 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.

Attributes of Purchasing/Supply Chain 1s include the following:

1. Operate in tribes or silos. They don't view the individuals and teams they serve as internal customers and don't integrate purchasing/ supply chain actions into larger business outcomes affecting sales, customer service, operations, aftermarket service/on-site technicians and, ultimately, the customer.
2. Purchasing/Supply Chain 1s either have no KPIs and, if they do, the KPIs don't align to the organization's interdependencies.
3. Purchasing/Supply Chain 1s practice all 5 elements of The Customer Prevention Culture.