In working with sales professionals for the past 21 years – as a business consultant and sales force development expert in Milwaukee for the last six years and in various sales, sales management, and market development roles before that – one of the skills that distinguishes top producing sales people from middle-of-the-pack sales people is their ability to hold themselves accountable.  Highly successful sales people reach for a higher standard than regular sales people by constantly asking themselves:

• Am I focused on the right activities today?
• Is there anything I should start doing to improve my sales results?
• Is there anything I should stop doing to improve my sales results?
• Is there anything I used to do that produced good sales results that I stopped doing for some reason?  Do I remember why?  Can I start doing it again?
• What am I doing to improve my sales skills and learn?
• Is there anything I could have done differently to produce a better result (after losing a sale)?

Top producers ask themselves these types of questions on a regular (sometimes daily) basis.  Average and below average sales people rarely explore these types of issues and instead look for opportunities to blame someone or something else for their lack of results.  They produce excuses instead of sales results.

Can 2011 be different?  Instead of just making the usual New Year’s Resolutions, can you bring focus to it by creating a 2011 Sales Accountability Plan?  If you’d like a free copy of the template we use with our clients, click here and we’ll be happy to send it to you.  Good luck and good selling in 2011!