Success can be defined a hundred different ways by a hundred different people.
But, there are four factors that consistently get in the way of people achieving what they define as “success.” Whether you are leading a company, managing a sales force or in professional sales, these elements are critical to achieving higher levels of success.
1. Desire
This is the fire in the pit of your belly to want to be successful. Most sales managers and sales reps have desire. Who doesn’t want to be successful? However, the level of desire is a big indicator on how bad they truly want it. When analyzing over 61,000 sales reps in 2015*, the average “desire” (or want to be successful at selling) scored an average of 81 out of 100.
2. Commitment
One word separates desire from commitment—action.
One of my favorite definitions of commitment is: Doing what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in is gone.
How many times have you or your people said you want to accomplish X, yet you don’t put forth the true action or effort required? This illustrates lack of commitment.
The same 61,000 sales reps had an average “commitment” score of 58 out of 100. What does this data reveal? Simply put, it tells the story of why something didn’t happen even though the person wanted it to happen. High desire and low commitment is a recipe for talking a big game with mediocre results.
3. Responsibility
Do you look inward or outward when figuring out why something didn’t happen? Good responsibility means someone first looks inward to figure out what they didn’t do; Those who lack responsibility look for an external reason as to why it didn’t happen (e.g. the competition was cheaper, the prospect was happy with their current supplier, it’s a soft market, etc.)
4. Outlook
Do you see good things happening? If you don’t see good things occurring down the road, why would you strive to achieve them?
Take a step back and ask yourself, “If I or my team is not achieving the results we deserve, what factors are getting in our way?”
The follow-up question is: Who is going to help you through it? If you haven’t reached the level of success you deserve, it’s time to do something different.
*Data referenced comes from sales evaluations conducted by Objective Management Group.
