Bank Sales Corner

Assessing Your Own Sales Performance

  

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I recently asked a group of business bankers to think about what I call the “mirror questions.” We all know that it’s easy to kid ourselves about how well we’re doing. But when we have to look ourselves in the mirror, well, it’s another story.

Rather than giving the bankers the questions they should answer—a wily maneuver that consultants use all the time—I suggested that they come up with their own self-assessment. Specifically, I wanted them to devise a list of questions they could ask themselves each week to evaluate how well they had performed. It was, in essence, a personal report card that focused on their own critical sales behaviors.  

Now such introspection is not for everybody. But several of the relationship managers rose to the occasion. Here’s what one of the high-performers in the group wrote about the task: “The exercise was interesting; it forced me to redefine how I view a successful week.  I say interesting because I have always viewed success based upon what closed or is likely to close, but this exercise made me think more in terms of movement and progress, not just end sales results.”  

I’m not sure what he or the others will do with their lists of questions. They might forget about them—that’s what happens to a lot of things that fill time in sales workshops. Maybe they’ll pull them out after a long week and see how well they had performed using their own criteria—and get something valuable out of the process.

Or perhaps they’ll do something really bold. What if each banker had a trusted colleague, spouse or friend ask them the questions, holding them accountable each week for their critical behaviors? There would be only one rule: colleagues and friends could only ask the questions. There could be no disapproving glances, no tongue-lashings, no critical comments.

Management guru Marshall Goldsmith has 10 or 12 questions he uses to evaluate his performance each day. Each night he talks on the phone with a friend about his professional pursuits but also about whether he’s done his situps, eaten sensibly, done something nice for his wife and children, etc. It works for him.

Do you want to come up with your own questions? If you do, stop reading here. If you need some inspiration to get started, here are the weekly questions that the banker quoted above came up with:

• Did I define my specific objectives for the week? 
• Did I add names to my prospect list?  Where did those names come from?
• Do I have the right mix of businesses on my prospect list?
• Did I plan appropriately for each sales call?
• Did I develop a follow-up plan for each sales call?  Did I execute it?
• Did each of my pending deals move forward? 
• Have I reached out to an existing client this week?
• Have I reached out to a COI this week?
• Have I reached out to an internal partner for referrals this week?
• Did I prioritize my time/resources appropriately?  How can I improve in managing my time?
• Did anything unexpected happen this week? 
• Did I learn something about my sales skills?
• Do I know why all of the above are important to my success?

These are all good questions. But my bet is you could come up with a list that might be more appropriate for you. If you do, email them to me at nmiller@mzbierlyconsulting.com

Our next live webinar is on October 25 at 11 AM Eastern on “The First Two Calls on a Prospect: 5 Proven Techniques for Building Momentum.” You can register by going to http://mzbierlyconsulting.webex.com or by calling Whit Midkiff at 727-741-0766. If you can’t make the live webinar, a recorded version will be available roughly 24 hours after the presentation.