Sales & Sales Management Brew

I may have told this story before.  It isn't about sales, selling or closing a deal successfully.  Nor is it about an epic failure.

In high school, I was a 3 sport athlete:  football, basketball and track.  This is my track story.  I started my career in track running the mile. I set the school record my junior year.  My senior year, I switched to the half mile and decided to continue competing in the high jump, which I had dabbled in my junior year.  Eventually that year, I qualified for the state meet in the half mile with a time of 2:03:02.  It was just 5/10s of a second off of the school record and a very good time in the state qualifying rounds.  That year, I broke the Hammonton High School high jump record.  When I am in a seminar or sales training session, this is where I pause... and wait for someone to ask, "How high did you jump?"  I normally sheepishly reply 5'8".  You see, even though it was a record for our high school, the standard itself isn't very high at all in competitive high jumping at most any level.  Two years later, one of my former teammates set the record at 6'4".  Now THAT is a standard for small high school!

The point is that when you go about creating this business plan (that we have been working on in these last few posts), you need to start with the end in mind and identifying the metrics necessary to determine success.  Now we have to discuss the standards that you set for your outcomes and sales activity.  From my perspective, the standard should always represent your highest and best.  You should always shoot for extra-ordinary.

 This chart is an  example of how to go about the  exercise of setting standards.  You start by identifying your reachable goal as "good".  Next, you ask yourself "What would be an excellent year for this  metric?"  In this example, I  bumped the goal by 10%.  Now, here  is the 'tricky' part.  What would be "extra-ordinary"?  First, you have to define the word itself.  According to Dictionary.com, it  can be defined as the following:  very  unusual, remarkable, surprising.  In other words, don't think in terms of a percentage increase, but rather think in terms of the  definition of extra-ordinary.  Once you establish that standard, then I would simply ask you if that is what you want to achieve or will you settle for "good".  It's almost like an assessment test.  If you are the right sales professional for my team, I expect to hear "extra-ordinary".  Anything less than that then I know I have the wrong person on my team.  

You are not done yet.  You now have to identify the corresponding sales activities that will drive the sales result you've established and then identify those standards as well.  If you are committed, - truly committed- to your extra-ordinary, best version of yourself, then I promise you that this exercise will take your sales success to another level.