We once had an Executive Director who would hop on a plane to go out and visit with sales teams around the country. He was kind of like the company cheerleader. He loved to swoop in and get everybody fired up! Either before or after his "motivational seminar," he enjoyed sitting down with the management team to talk about their "troops." He would point out that, in addition to looking at the numbers, you can figure out very quickly whether or not a sales person is successful by ranking them on a scale of one to ten... in three key areas… Skills, Activities, and Attitude. Determine each person’s strengths along with their opportunities for improvement and then coach to it!

Skills:  I am a big believer in practice, repetition, and self-reflection. When I first graduated from college, I went into sports broadcasting… mainly play-by-play for high school sports and small college stuff. Driving to the games gave me a lot of time to think about and practice some of the key phrases and stories I wanted to share during the game. Over time, I learned a valuable lesson that has made a big impact on my sales career. Figure out what works… master it… and do it over and over and over again… making improvements all along the way!

Activities:  A teammate of mine and I were talking the other day. I told him that I was proud of him because he exceeded his goals for the first time! He had a big smile on his face… I mean he was gleaming with joy… and we were both giggling. He told me his next step was to figure out how to keep it going. I responded, "Sales is a lot like riding a bike. Not in the sense of ‘once you learn, you never forget,’ but more along the lines of… the faster you go, the easier it is to keep your balance!"

Attitude:  Zig Ziglar says, "Whatever you put into your mind becomes a part of the total you." Let’s think about what that means. There are so many elements to a person’s attitude… their attitude about themselves, about others, about their goals, about their career… about their life! Your attitude is your filter to the world. It not only creates your "self-perception" of reality… it becomes the image of how others perceive you!

Put your team to the test… rank yourself and each teammate on a scale of 1-10.

Recommended Scale
10 = Superstar!
9 = Very Good!
8 = Acceptable
7 = Let’s work on it.
6 or less = There’s a Problem.

Total Score: Develop your people to achieve a score of 24 or better!

What other quick and easy ways do you use to determine areas for coaching and developing your people?