Successful salespeople are disciplined. Leaders are disciplined. Successful business people are disciplined.
Regardless of your position, to be successful you have to be disciplined.
Disciplined people know there are always things to work on. This is why I say, “Today’s expectations are tomorrow’s norms.”
If you’re reading this and you’re a sales manager, I want you to think about areas where people who work for you are operating at a sub-optimal level.
What are your expectations?
What do your people expect of you?
Once you begin expecting more and coaching them on how to achieve more, then in time what you expect becomes routine — thus it becomes norm.
One of the best examples I can think of is expense reports. For many salespeople, doing expense reports on time and accurately is a real problem.
If you’re a sales manager who believes doing expense reports on-time is the norm, then that is what you have to expect today. Expect today and in time it will become the norm.
High-performing people understand this and practice it themselves.
What are some items you need to work on?
What are your expectations for what you want to accomplish?
Once you begin to expect and then perform, it soon becomes norm. In watching high-performing salespeople and understanding what make them high-performing, this process is one of the ways they motivate themselves.
Regardless of what you do, always plan on having at least one area where you are expecting more. Make that your focus and in time allow it to become normal behavior.
One of the easiest ways to put this into practice as part of your sales motivation is by selecting one item in your sales process you want to improve. It might be the number of sales prospecting calls you make or it might be the speed with which you follow-up with customers.
Just pick something and then set the new expectation. Focus on the expectation and what you’re doing about it, and in time it will become normal behavior.
Copyright 2014, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
