Hi
Strong cross-functional collaborator.
You’ve seen it on every job description. Maybe you’ve written it on your CV too.
What nobody tells you: it often means running a one-person influence campaign inside your own company. Begging and pleading for help, promising favours, just to get things done.
Every day. Just to do the job you were hired to do.
The annoying bit isn’t that it’s hard. It’s that it feels like it shouldn’t be. Same company, same goals... so why does every ops conversation feel like procurement has already said no?
The reason isn’t what you think. And it’s closer to home than most of us like.
POV: Me starting to wonder if we work for the same company.
You Read Rooms for a Living. Just Not This One.
You're good at this. Really good. You can walk into a client meeting and know exactly who makes decisions, who's worried about budget, and which relationship is starting to wobble. Before anyone's said a word.
So here's the bit that stings a little:
When did you last read the room like that in your own office?
You switched off the moment you walked in
I've had this chat with a lot of account managers and CSMs. It usually goes the same way: customer complains, ops is dropping things, finance is slow, product misses deadlines, and they want to scream, “Why does nobody get it?”
Then I ask what they know about those teams right now. What their month looks like. What’s under pressure.
And there’s a pause.
A long one.
It’s not laziness. It’s just how we’re wired
Honestly, this is normal. We all do it:
With clients, missing signals feels dangerous. Internally, the risk feels lower, even when the consequences aren’t.
Clients feel like stakeholders. Colleagues feel like “our people,” so care gets replaced by familiarity, and familiarity can slide into contempt.
Familiarity kills curiosity. We see the same people every day, so we stop really seeing them.
Translation: you’re bringing your A-game externally and winging it internally.
Three ways it plays out. Same mistake each time.
You ask ops for help framed around your client’s urgency. They don’t move, because you never connected it to their priorities.
You escalate to someone with job-title authority, not decision authority.
You only speak to ops when something’s already on fire, so every interaction starts in defensiveness.
Same mistake, different disguises: you’re in the system, but you’re not reading it.
What it quietly costs you
Most of us run internally on goodwill, favours, and personality. It works until it doesn’t.
When delivery slips, clients don’t usually explode. They start quietly questioning whether you’re in control.
Trust erodes in small, boring moments that no one logs in a CRM.
By the time renewal feels harder than it should, the damage is already underway. Accounts rarely disappear in one event. They drift.
A tool I actually use
If you're going into that internal meeting, you want to be listening. Not scribbling. Otter.ai captures everything so you can stay in the conversation and go back to the detail later. I use it for client calls, internal catch-ups, even voice notes on the go.
One thing worth trying this week
Pick one internal relationship you need for account success.
Not the easy one. The one that makes you brace every time you need something.
Ask for 30 minutes. No agenda. Just:
"I’d love to catch up. I want to understand what’s on your plate and where we can help each other."
In the conversation:
Go in curious, not persuasive.
Learn what they’re measured on before you ask for anything.
Change one behaviour afterward, and keep it consistent long enough to be noticed.
This won’t fix broken processes. But most friction isn’t process, it’s perspective.
👉 Hit reply when you’ve booked it and I’ll cheer you on.
🎙️ TL;DR Listen to the 10-minute episode
Are you the only one who actually cares about the customer? This week’s episode tackles the same problem from a different angle and might help you see your colleagues (and yourself) through a new lens.
The skills that make you great with clients — reading people, understanding what they care about, and spotting where decisions really get made — work just as well inside your own building.
The room is the same. The people are just wearing lanyards instead of visitor badges.
(And now you know the true meaning of “internal collaboration.”)
Until then, stay Account Minded.
Warwick Brown
Founder, The KAM Club
Publisher, Account Minded
👋 Let’s connect on LinkedIn
💬 Hit reply - I read every message
If You Want to Go Deeper
Not just my take — here are three outside perspectives worth your time.
📗 Power dynamics at work → Read: The 7 Rules of Power
Practical reality check: performance alone doesn’t create influence.
🎙️ Influence without authority → Listen: Agile Mentors, Ep. 113
Strong on understanding what internal stakeholders actually care about.
🎬 Giving without burnout → Watch: Adam Grant TED
Great lens on how to stay generous and still protect outcomes.