Sales Training Article: Can excellence be achieved in a vacuum?
By John Holland, Co-founder & Co-author of CustomerCentric Selling®
At a recent reunion, I became reacquainted with a person who had been the state wrestling champion in his weight class for three consecutive years in high school. When asked how he fared in college, Doug smiled and explained that wrestling in the mid-west was far more popular and therefore more competitive than in New England. His college record was mediocre at best, causing him ultimately to choose not to compete his senior year. Based upon my image of his success in high school, this initially came as a shock. After some thought it didn't take long to realize that the "big fish in a small pond" analogy applied.
Having the ability to compare is a necessary part of setting aggressive goals and achieving at the highest levels. Running a mile in under four minutes was once thought to be humanly impossible. The world record of 4:01.4 had held up for over nine years. In May of 1954 Roger Bannister shocked the world by running the first sub-four minute mile. Just 46 days later, Bannister's record was broken by John Landy of Australia. This is one of many instances where belief that an outcome is possible is a major step toward achieving the desired result.
Self-imposed limitations often dictate and therefore limit what people can achieve. Throughout their lives people are encouraged by parents, teachers, and coaches to stretch themselves to achieve beyond what they may have believed was possible. This desire to excel carries through in careers that we choose, either from within or based upon the culture of the organizations we join.
Competition is a major contributor to outstanding achievement. It is hard to think of a superior salesperson that doesn't enjoy competing against other sellers for business. These salespeople also want to be measured against peers within their companies. Publishing a list of the top sales performers on a monthly basis fuels the competitive spirit for those who want to excel and be recognized. While selling is a difficult job to describe, it is remarkable that performance can be measured down to decimal points.
For most sales organizations, setting targets is an inward looking exercise with few guidelines as to what is possible. Objectives are set largely based upon past performance with an expectation of incremental versus radical improvement. Historical achievement can shape and limit future expectations. Achieving targets without comparing to other organizations creates the potential for self-proclaimed excellence (how big is the "pond?"). Revenue is the primary measure but there may be other variables not being monitored that could provide significant benefit if they could be improved.
CustomerCentric Selling® has partnered with Sales Benchmark Index to survey sales organizations and interpret the results to recognize outstanding achievement, identify and quantify best practices. By publishing the results, we can provide people the ability to compare themselves to world-class sales organizations. Our hope is that by benchmarking, expectations and results can be elevated. Over the coming months, newsletters will feature articles addressing specific areas covered in the survey that we'd like to highlight for your consideration.
CustomerCentric Selling® is committed to empowering its clients to achieve or exceed their sales objectives by implementing sales process. This collaboration with Sales Benchmark Index is consistent with our desire to help our clients achieve at the highest levels and we hope you will find future articles helpful. As always, your comments are welcome.
