I found a thought-provoking post on Brad Feld’s Feld Thoughts last week (sorry, not able to link at this time). The post references another by Ted Rheingold, titled 10 Tips for Building a Profitable Business.
Brad highlights #4 as his favorite. This is a timely point to reflect on this question.
A person I once worked with used to say that we are all in sales (meaning everyone in the company, no matter what your job description). Her point was that everyone has a stake in the company’s success, and so we all have a responsibility to help drive revenue. This doesn’t mean that we all need to start making cold calls to prospective buyers. It does imply, however, that our efforts should be directed towards serving current customers or finding new ones. If you can’t determine how your efforts contribute, talk it through with your manager. If there is no connection, perhaps the company would be better served if you stopped doing it.