WORKWEEK

Think of the last time you felt inspired. What underpinned the feeling? Was it a person and the words they said or simply being in a new environment?

Whatever it was, you want to capture that feeling and commit to ensuring your sellers feel the same way every time you talk. Elite performance starts with a grand vision and mission that rallies your team around a unified goal.

It is not enough to simply demand high-performance, you need to establish what it looks and feels like by articulating this to your team.

This starts with standards of excellence which include viewing quota achievement as a minimum expectation. This re-conditions your team members not to see hitting their target as the goal, but instead the baseline for success.

High-potential sellers want to win, they want to excel and they want to exceed expectations. Raise the bar in everything you do, everything you share and everything you talk about to set a net standard of excellence.

Create Growth Opportunities

I was once taught that high-potential sellers want only 3 things, to:

• Learn
• Earn
• Grow

It really is that simple.

Learn: Top sellers have an insatiable thirst for new knowledge. To build a high-performance environment, you must create conditions where your team is able to learn something that helps them to be more effective regularly. 

One of my approaches: Enablement Fridays.  Every Friday morning we deliver dedicated sales training to help level-up the team. The format is 30 minutes, a focused topic, some slides and a host. It is important that you build a similar mechanism into your weekly operating rhythm that fosters continuous learning.

Earn: Best-in-class sellers want to earn a lot of money. Even if they claim it isn’t their number one priority, it will certainly be within their top 3. Your role is to ensure they have a clear path to realize their financial goals. 

Take the time to sit with each member of your team to walk through their compensation plan. Make sure they understand how incentives are broken down to give them the best opportunity to earn more. When they are winning more deals, they make more money which inherently reflects well on you as a leader.

Grow: Top-tier sellers want to grow in their careers. They want to get promoted fast, making it important that you work through career development plans so they understand what it will take to rise.

When working through a career development plan, make it as clear and granular as you can to ensure your seller is clear around expectations. For example, you may require them to hit quota 3 quarters in a row as a minimum requirement. Ensure this is known and document a plan as to how they can make that happen. 

Collaborate, Reward & Recognize

Open communication and collaboration are cornerstones of any high-performance culture. Foster an environment where ideas are exchanged freely, diverse perspectives are respected, and feedback, both positive and critical, is welcomed. This not only encourages innovation but also builds mutual respect and a sense of community between you and your team.

This should be combined with recognizing and rewarding top performers. This not only boosts the morale of those recognized but also encourages others on your team to aspire for more. Take the opportunity for rewards to go beyond just money alone. A heartfelt acknowledgment of efforts or public recognition can have a more significant impact than you even realize.

Next Week: The Art of Giving Feedback

Feedback is a vital cog in the machinery of high performance. How you deliver it can significantly impact your team’s morale and their drive to improve. Next week, we’ll explore effective strategies for delivering feedback that constructively drives improvement and solidifies your team’s cohesion.