CHICAGO – In the business world, a C-level executive can be compared to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport:

1. Busier than almost anyone else in the country
2. Central to a functioning network of commerce
3. Taken for granted but holds a great amount of influence on the everyday lives of lots of people (especially when things go wrong)

Kurt Thaus, CIO of Telephone & Data Systems (the parent company of Chicago-based U.S. Cellular), is not unlike any other C-level executive in these respects. Where he differs is in his capability to use tools to better understand what his organization needs and how to deliver it. This can result in a higher level of success and fewer delays.

I recently sat down with Thaus in his downtown Chicago office to discuss the tools he used to land his job, win over new reports and overcome skepticism.

Paul Trout: How did you arrive at the level in the organization you are at now?
Kurt Thaus: I manage approximately 275 folks up in Madison, Wis. and have been here for 2.5 years. I did have to do a little bit of selling to get this job. I applied for the job and they picked someone else, but through a weird series of events, it didn’t work out and I applied again.

I thought the interviews all went well and actually got called back a second time to talk again with who is now my boss. I could tell when I met her the second time that I hadn’t sold her on something. I sensed she may be concerned because I wasn’t previously a CIO. I was the senior vice president of technology management at T-Systems (the sister company of T-Mobile).

To me, the transition to CIO was easy. Still, I didn’t have the title. I think there was a concern that for such a large company ($4 billion in revenue) the person coming in should have been a CIO in a prior life.

PT: Titles can get in the way of experience. Was she forthright in what her issues were?
KT: I’m hoping what helped in that situation is that I put myself in her shoes. I thought: “What is she looking for? What does she need to sell me internally?” Having that empathy for what she was trying to achieve really helped from an internal selling point.

PT: What approach would you suggest to someone who has a new boss or has inherited a new team?
KT: I can only tell you what I did here. I went around and tried to understand my constituents. I really didn’t know what I was walking into other than what other people were telling me. I had to either validate or refine that information by going around and getting to understand them.

I also asked myself: “What are people looking for? What do they really want?” At first, maybe they even just wanted me to stay out of their ways. You can never stop understanding your customer either internally or externally.

PT: Is that what they wanted?
KT: In some cases, yes. If I could demonstrate that I was listening to them and if I could affect certain situations where I legitimately helped them at the right time and followed through on their needs, that would build trust.

I needed to demonstrate and truly act as their advocate. You have to go to the folks you work with and draw information out of them. Don’t wait for them to come to you and ask for things or complain.

PT: Are you always challenging your own assumptions?
KT: You learn a lot through listening to folks and seeing how they talk about things, what they talk about and if they ask questions or if they make statements. The more observation you do, the more successful you can be at making the sale. I think listening is the critical skill probably more so in internal sales than external or retail sales.

Especially in a business environment, people are skeptical. I don’t say this in a negative way. There’s a good side to that because it makes people question things. I find that very healthy.

The more you can have people understand, the more you listen to folks and understand what they want. Also, the more they understand the things you are doing and that you’re being up front with them. It makes the situation much better and it improves your odds of success.

PT: How do you see becoming better at internal selling as helping people get over some of the skepticism that pervades business culture?
KT: If I went to my CEO or another CEO and I told him that he was being “sold to,” he might not take that the right way or he may not be very comfortable with that.

On the other hand, if I went to him and said “I want something from you or I want to do something and I want to lay out the facts of why it’s going to be good for you, why it’s going to help all of us out and I’m going to seek a decision from you,” that’s very different.

I think there would be a higher level of skepticism if I told him I was going to sell to him or he was going to be sold to. I’ve gone around and around about the whole sales thing from absolutely abhorring salespeople to appreciating how incredibly hard it is to be successful at sales.

At the end of the day, what a salesperson tries to do is overcome the word “no”. If they can get to “yes,” they are successful. What we’re talking about here is achieving a higher level of and a more consistent degree of success. How good you are at internal selling has a direct relation to a person’s success.

PT: So, the better you sell, the more successful you are?
KT: Yes.