Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
I noticed two things in my travel yesterday. As the digits approached $60 to fill up my tank, I noticed the 9/10 of a cent that I always see but never think about. As a teenager, I understood why, when gas was 18 cents a gallon, stations used the 9/10 of a cent. It made the gas appear to be one cent lower than the station next store, a better deal. But with gas at 3.25 for premium, is there truly a purpose for the 9/10? Can't we just round it up to the next 1/10 of a cent? Will people really be upset if it costs $60.20 instead of $60? The 9/10 of a cent has outlived its usefulness. Same thing goes for the safety message on the airplane. I'm guessing that these days, more people travel by plan than by bus or train. Most of us have heard that message so many times that we haven't actually heard it in years. It's outlived its usefulness.
Speaking of outliving its usefulness, how about sales managers allowing salespeople to underperform? Are we truly that desperate for warm bodies that underperforming salespeople get to remain in their jobs while anyone else in a company who underperforms gets a pink slip? I think we have developed the tools to demand more however our expectations are lagging far behind. It is not OK to merely meet goals - that's what we're being paid to do. Salespeople, all of them, should overachieve and anything less - be it 88% of goal or 98% of goal should be considered failure.
(c) 2006 Objective Management Group, Inc.
