Never compare yourself to mediocrity. Don’t ever put yourself in a position to justify your poor performance. I say this, because I’ve heard hundreds of sales reps throughout the years justify why they are having a poor month. When asking a sales rep, “why are your numbers down?,” the answer is, “they are not down — I am beating three other people this month.” The sales person has just been caught in what I call “stinking thinking.” You have to always know what’s expected of you, what the goal is and what performance parameters you are measured on. If you are a top-performing sales person, you are in competition with yourself — not with others.
I equate this to a baseball game. Let’s say your team made five errors in the game. You are a team that has brilliant defense, and you win most of your games, so playing poor defense is not the norm. A reporter asks why you guys performed so poorly, and a player responds, “We didn’t perform poorly, we won the game!” You can win and still perform poorly; you could have left your best effort on the field.
You have to always compare yourself to your best. So when things are down, see what you have personally done in the past, and see what the team did in the past. Understand that if you did 50 sales last January and you are on pace for 35 this January, that it’s not about what everyone else is doing — it’s about how you are performing compared to the same month last year.
Set your goals well in advance of each month, have a game plan written out and go over it with your sales manager weekly. Do a worksheet daily, challenge yourself to excellence and never accept anything but your best. You will find that people who always perform at a high level, always find ways to get the job done. But, one thing they won’t do is make excuses or justifications for falling short. They will find a way to win, month after month after month.
Go get ‘em!
Chuck Hall is the executive director at Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs.
