Fess up. You do it too. You compare yourself to others around you. What others are wearing, where they go on vacation, what they drive – it’s natural. And it doesn’t mean we judge or criticize, but are constantly looking for opportunities for improvement in ourselves and look to others for inspiration and ideas to help us move forward in areas of our lives we want to improve.
Comparing is not judging or measuring – its using others experience and ideas as a guide for how we can improve and add value and joy to our own lives
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This might be even more true in the workplace. I know I am constantly seeing how others do things and succeed in their careers – how they handle difficult situations (or people!), the ideas they come up with to solve complex problems, to how they somehow are able to make time for everything (you know those people too, right?). They are my inspiration for helping me adjust my vision of my work, career, and leadership style to be as satisfying and effective as it is uniquely mine.
If you can relate, check out our recently launched Sales Execution Index. It’s based off the Sales Execution Maturity Model, and indicates your current state. This feeds into our natural curiosity of how we measure up against others, but also it provides specific recommendations for improvement and movement up the model – allowing us to continuously improve and achieve the vision of our careers.
Here are some of the initial results from the Index:
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Half of respondents are only in second level out of the five – the Defined Level – indicating the majority of organizations have room for improvement in a number of areas.
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54% find their sales rep productivity inconsistent – many reps spend a lot of time on non-selling tasks.
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34% have sales content in many different systems, and another 24% say its accessible, but generic and requires customization.
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62% say their ability to forecast accurately is low or inconsistent. And only 19% feel it’s pretty accurate!
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34% say their up-sell/cross sell strategies are only loosely defined, with another 21% say they are defined but not used by sales. What’s worse? 15% say they are non-existent.
So, are you ready to see how you compare? Prepared to see where you lead the pack but also identify areas of improvement where others have succeeded?
