Sales Tip: Importance Of Driving For Results

Training helps you become a superstar. What does it take to be a superstar sales professional? It’s not easy. Indeed, to excel in sales, one has to become dedicated to improving daily. There are at least 51 competencies for which a sales rep must excel in order to produce stardom. Reviewing 51 competencies is overwhelming so let’s narrow our topic down to one. Before talking about a single one of the 51 competencies, let’s first define a competency. A competency is one aspect or quality of a person which if possessed will cause that person to excel in a position within a company. The competencies are the behaviors that, outside of results, help the sales professional “get the job” or the yearly “merit raise”. Knowing and understanding competencies will help the sales professional improve their career. The one top competency that comes to mind is the “Drive for Results”. We will define this competency, along with discussing what it means to overuse the skill. Finally, we will define what you can do to leverage the competencies in your favor both during your next review and your next interview.

Drive for Result... What picture comes in mind when you think about driving for results? You may think about driving a huge truck down the road with the petal to the metal. This competency is about staying focused on pursuing a goal. A person who drives for results is able to appropriately set priorities dismissing items that might distract him or her from achieving the goal. In achieving goals, the person who drives for results can be counted on for hitting goals consistently. This person is highly prized by his company and by the competition.

Be careful because it is possible to overuse the skill of driving for results. Movies are made up of people that overuse the skill of “Driving for Results”. You can picture the person who pursues goals, getting things done, but run over people in the process. There are plenty of dead bodies in the wake of this person pursuit of the goal. In addition, this person shows no regard for processes, constantly shortcuts processes and causes problems for others to clean up along the way. I’ve managed these types of sales reps in my career. At first I was happy that we were getting sales in the door. The results were great, however, the dead bodies were piled up to the point where I couldn’t ignore that we had an issue. Soon after discovering the dead bodies, I found there were tons of broken promises made to customers. The sales rep that overused the “Drive for Results” had promised services we could not deliver; the customers were unhappy and became disenchanted with our company as a result. Not good.

Okay, say you do not over use the ability to “Drive for Results”. In fact you posted double digit growth for three years in a row through staying focused and building teams around you that are dedicated to the same goals you are. How do you leverage that skill to your benefit? First, keep track of your stories. Collect stories illustrating the goal you were after, what you did to stay motivated to hit the goal, what you did to stay focused, how did you use others to help you hit your goals, your results, and how you celebrated. It’s important that you collect these stories in real time so that you are able to recant the most important elements of the story. Next, remind your manager of the stories when it comes to employee review time as these stories will help your boss obtain the best raise for you. In addition, collect these stories for your brag book so that should an awesome job opportunity come your way, you can present the stories during your interview.

By: Devynn King

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Devynn King is dedicated to helping sales professionals meet their sales career potential. Helping people meet their full potential not only requires sales excellence, it also requires the ability to dream for more and ask for more. Would you like to learn more about how to transform your career? Start by claiming your free gift by clicking the “Sign Up to Get Your Bonus Gift” button. With this free gift you take the 1st step to making your dreams a reality. Go to salesexperttrai