Setting the Bar

“It’s not what you preach. It’s what you tolerate.” Jocko Willink made this statement in regards to standards. Sales success hinges on setting and enforcing standards. This applies to both personal and organizational standards.

Standards establish how we treat others and how we expect others to treat us. Standards also establish how well others will adhere to the expectations of an organization. As sales is an ethically driven profession, high standards are not a bad thing.

Clients are going to expect that sellers behave ethically. How we do one thing should be how we do everything. If you are cutting corners behind closed doors, it is likely that you are cutting corners everywhere.

This is where standards come in. Standards form the basis of the acceptable behavior that you will tolerate from yourself and others.

Monkey See Monkey Do.

Jocko’s statement is right on the money. The standards that we tolerate are the standards that surround us. People will copy the behaviors that we demonstrate.

Show up late one time and it can be seen as a mistake. Show up late continually and people will understand that punctuality is not important to you. Being tardy will now be accepted behavior.

Actions set the precedent for what is acceptable around us. Do what you say that you are going to do and others will expect that from you. They will also treat you the same way you treat them.

In short, don’t talk about it. Be about it.

Like Attracts Like.

Sellers attract similar buyers. We all want to interact with the things we find familiar. If you have good standards and are following them, this can be a very good thing.

If your standards are lacking, attracting familiarity can be a fairly bad thing. A seller without standards is likely to attract a buyer with poor standards. The buyer doesn’t care about their own standards, so they will not have applicable standards for the people they do business with.

This is a recipe for disaster. Expect a very sloppy sales process and massive frustration on both sides.

From a leadership perspective, this is one reason that standards are important. Your standards will extend to the clients that you do business with. Sloppy sales reps will not only hurt your brand. They will attract the clients that you do not want.

The more clear personal and organizational standards are, the more those standards will carry forward into the business that is being conducted. Just like sloppy sellers attracting sloppy clients, professional sellers will attract well put together clients.

Marking the Benchmark.

Standards should be high enough to be respected and be commonly achievable. It is good to have high standards. Go too high and they become unrealistic.

For example, if you sell a wellness product, you may want to portray a fit image. That is a good standard. Requiring yourself to run five miles every morning could be going too far. Especially if you are expecting a team to follow suit.

Once you have standards in place hold to them. Again, the behavior that is tolerated is the new standard.

Let people show up late without consequence and that is now an accepted standard. It only takes one or two times and it will be normal.

From a personal perspective, a lot of sales is the first impression. Make the most out of it. Most things are with in our control. Show up on time. Look professional. Treat people with respect. Speak with confidence.

Be serious and you will be taken seriously.

Take Aways.

Standards are the behaviors we tolerate from others. On both a personal and an organizational level, we can set standards that shape the way we sell and the way we are treated. Once the standard is set, hold to it. Letting things slide will change your standards and culture in a fraction of the time it took to create them.