Heal thy self: Improving your performance

Speaking with a very successful sales executive recently, I was asked a very simple question “How can I get better?” It was an interesting question that led to an even more interesting conversation. The bottom line is that this sales executive seemed to understand that as professionals, it is our responsibility to make sure that we are improving our skills and leveraging our talent every day.

Continuous improvement – we hear it, we may even talk about it, yet how many of us as individuals truly think we need to focus on improving? Many of us have become very astute at finding all of the reasons that our performance is not where it should be. Whether it’s the economy, the industry, the territory,or the product, often there is enough blame to go around as to why we don’t succeed.

How often do we look inside our own habits and skills to determine how we can change the reality facing us?

Some estimate that in 2009, in many companies only 50% of the sales executives are meeting or exceeding their quota. Either that fifty percent is lucky or they are doing things differently than the sales executives that are underperforming relative to their quota.

While we may have managers or coaches that can give us feedback and help with our barriers to performance, it may be a great time to evaluate your performance today and provide some self coaching.

Whether you are coaching yourself or someone else, there are some key steps to making your coaching positive, productive and effective.

Diagnose: The root of every performance problem is not always the same cause. The first thing we want to do in a self coaching situation is be honestly reflective and diagnose what that root cause or causes are that are our current barrier to success. Three key questions that you may want to ask yourself:

• Do you know what to do to be successful?
• Do you know how to do that to be successful?
• Do you have the habits of actually doing it to be successful?

Just as we operate in a sales cycle identifying problems we can solve – you can’t determine what you need to do differently until you determine what isn’t working for you through this diagnostic and reflective process.

Sift: There are many things that we have to deal with in our day-to-day lives that are outside of our control. Pricing, packaging, the amount of paperwork you are required to complete are just a few examples I hear every day from sales executives. If only our product were different! If only my territory were different! If only I had more collateral!

Your job as a self coach is to sift the uncontrollables from the controllables. You can only effect what you can control. So if your diagnosis yields all uncontrollables – either you need to find a new employer or go back and be a little more honest with yourself. A good coach focuses on what can be controlled. We control our time, our attitude, our skills, and can control and improve our skills.

Proactive: Once you have diagnosed the barriers to your performance and determined what you can manage or control. Get Proactive. What can you do today to improve yourself?

• Is it an attitude that needs adjusting?
• Is it environmental that is causing you to not succeed?
• Is there an opportunity to systematize aspects of your work and give yourself the gift of time?
• Are your sales skills rusty or have they not evolved with the new economy?

Seek out solutions that you can implement to fill the gaps. Get creative; are they others on your team that you can emulate? Can you shadow a successful rep and learn from him or her? Can you invest time learning new skills and find create new ways to improve your results. Your ability to be proactive will be one of the keys to your success in self-coaching.

Take Action: While being proactive is the beginning of change, it is not the end. Taking action and building new habits has to be ongoing to be sustainable and provide lasting POSITIVE results. Change is hard. Change is uncomfortable. Procrastination is often the path of least resistance.

One idea to help you with your self coaching is to find an accountability partner. Find someone you trust and who can provide you truthful feedback without annoying you and ask them to help hold you accountable. Maybe that person is your manager, but he or she could also be a colleague, friend, or even your partner.

No one is going to care more about you than YOU! Taking responsibility for our own development and improvement is required for each of us in this new decade.

From all of us at ValueSelling Associates, we wish you health, wealth, and good tidings during the holiday season and a wonderful 2010!

Joyeuses Fêtes! ~ Felices Fiestas! ~ Jie Ri Yu Kuai ~ Tanoshii kurisumasu wo!~ Buone Feste! ~ Forhe Feiertage ~ Prettige feestdagen ~ Hau’oli Lanui ~ Happy Holidays!