Eight Words that Can Limit Your Career: “Let Me Get Back To You On That”

As executives there are certain things we are expected to know — in our heads — about our jobs and our functions.  Sometimes I call this “the 3:00 AM test” because someone should be able to wake you up at 3:00 AM in the middle of a sound sleep and you should be able to answer questions like:

• What’s the forecast for the current quarter? (Sales, Finance)
• How many MQLs did we generate last week?  (Marketing)
• How many customer bugs are outstanding?  (Engineering)
• What’s the monthly PR retainer?  (Marketing)
• What’s the ending cash forecast for the quarter?  (Finance)
• How many unique visitors did we get on the website last week?  (Marketing)
• What are the top three deals in the current quarter?  (Sales)

In another post, I playfully called these the other kind of in-memory analytics, but I was focused mostly on numbers that you should be able to recall from memory, without having to open your laptop, without having to delegate the question to your VP of Ops (e.g., salesops, marketingops), and without having to say the dreaded, cringe-worthy, and dangerous eight words:  “let me get back to you on that.”

The same logic that applies to numbers applies to other basic questions like:

• What’s our elevator pitch against top-rival?  (Marketing)
• What’s the structure of the sales compensation plan?  (Sales)
• Which managers are the top 2-3 hot spots in the company?  (People)
• What are the top three challenges in your department and what are you doing about them?  (Any)

You see, when you say the dreaded eight words here’s what everybody else in the meeting is hearing:

“I can’t answer that question because I’m not on top of the basics, and I am either not sufficiently detailed-oriented, swapped-in, or competent to know the answer.”

And, worse yet, if offered unapologetically:

“I’m not even aware that this is the kind of question that everyone would reasonably expect me to be able to answer.”

Here are three tips to help you avoid falling into the eight-words trap.

1. Develop your sensitivity by making a note of every time you hear them, how you feel about the specific question, and how it reflected on the would-be respondent.
2. Make a list of questions you should be able to answer on-the-spot and then be sure you can.  (If you find a gap, think about what that means about how you approach your job.)
3. If you feel the need to say the dreaded eight words see if offering a high-confidence range of values will be enough to meet the audience’s need — e.g., “last week’s web visitors were in the 10,000 to 11,000 range, up a few percent from the week before.”

And worst case, if you need to say the dreaded eight words and you think the situation warrants one, offer an apology.  Just be mindful that you don’t find yourself apologizing too often.