This is an answer to a question that I get asked every now and then. “Troy, how do you get and stay productive?” I’ll be honest enough to say that my own productivity system has been a work in progress for most of my career, and it will continue to be so (I’m always learning). Some of the techniques have come from reading, most from practice, and many from my passion for building race cars and hot rods.

Yes, I said race cars and hot rods. It’s a hobby that has taught me a lot over the years about problem solving and work habits. There’s no such book as ‘Seven Habits of Highly Productive Gearheads,’ but if there were, some of the habits below might be in it.

Game-plan every day: This seems obvious – but many people don’t do it, and in fact, I didn’t do it for many years. Every day has a game plan for me. The obvious components of the plan are ‘live’ activities – appointments, speaking engagements, and the like – but I always have some phone calls to make, some tasks, and some work on at least one long-term project. I also plan in my personal projects (I still work on cars and motorcycles) and my workout time. Rigid? Yes. But planning all this is what gives me time for family, believe it or not.

Write it down: OK, call me a Luddite if you wish, but my game plan is always written down with a pen on real paper in a real (inexpensive) planner book. I’ve tried using the task management components of Outlook (I use Outlook for my contacts and appointments), but I find that it’s too easy – at least for me – to simply put a new date on an old task. Writing implies permanence and commitment (which are also reasons that handwritten thank-you notes are particularly effective, but that’s a different story). I like CRM and use it – but there’s still a place in my world for a pen and paper.

Make appointments with yourself: My phone calls are programmed into my day, including the time slot that I’ll be making them. Particularly for telephone prospectors, it’s vital that you block time into your schedule – ESPECIALLY for those parts of your job that you don’t love. If you don’t, it’s too easy to slide them off.

Checklists are great: I like lists. I like them a lot because they keep me focused. Admittedly my use of the word ‘checklist’ is a bit loose, since I’m a crosser-offer instead of a checker, but you get the idea. Again, this is a benefit of writing things down instead of using Outlook. For me there’s a satisfaction involved with taking a pen and crossing an item off my list.

Touch big projects every day: This is one that I learned from racing and hot rodding. Sometimes a car build can stretch out over years, and if you lose momentum on one….well, Craigslist is full of aborted projects being sold at a heavy discount. You lose momentum by taking one day off, then another, then another…..and soon your project is gathering dust and you can’t remember where you left off. When I’m working on a car, I touch it every day, even if it’s just to change a light bulb or do a little sanding on a fender. When I do this, I never lose momentum and I never lose track. This method has segued over to business projects, as well. To write “Sell Like You Mean It!,” I spent an hour every day working on the manuscript for six months. I’ve used the same method to write my new book, which you’ll be hearing more about soon.

Work ahead: If you’re making calls today for appointments tomorrow, you’re already sunk. Don’t be that guy or gal. Instead, work well ahead. This article was written two weeks before I posted it. Why? Because I was inspired, and my own history tells me that when I get inspired to write an article, I’d better go ahead and write it, even though I might have a couple of articles ahead of it in line.

Stop when you have to: One of the things that I’ve learned through painful experience with my cars is that, sometimes, it’s best to stop in the middle of a task or project if you’re thrown a curveball, and reapproach it with fresh eyes later. A couple of months ago it was late in the evening and I was installing a part on my bike, and I was determined to get it done that night. The problem was that a bolt hole wasn’t lining up and I was starting to cross-thread a bolt. Now, intellectually, I know that this is bad and that I should stop – but I didn’t. Instead I turned the ratchet harder (perhaps hoping that the bolt gods would smile upon me and magically make the bolt line up), and messed up the threads. At least now I stopped. The next day, I got a tap, recut the thread on the motorcycle frame, and as I was doing it, an easy method for making the parts line up popped into my head. Ten minutes later it was done. I could have saved myself quite a bit of time if I’d stopped when things started to go bad.

Find your idea time: We all have times during the day when our mind is unfettered and is likely to give us great (and, honestly, sometimes not so great) ideas. For me, that’s the last hour before bed. I need to keep my mind unoccupied with important tasks (so, no business work during that time), and I need to keep my planner handy so I can capture those ideas. What do I do during that time? I watch TV, I read something unrelated to business…..but I am ready to grab a good idea when it hits me. Find yours and use it.

Keep a diary: Okay, okay….if you prefer to call it a ‘journal,’ go right ahead. I suppose that’s more manly. On the other hand, George Patton called his a ‘diary,’ so I think I’m OK on that count. At the end of every day, I write a little summary of the day in the same planner book that I use to plan my day. I do this for two reasons: First, I want to see if I accomplished my mission for the day. Second, sometimes the big success of the day wasn’t planned, and I like to keep track of positives. I do this because it makes me my own accountability partner. I never want to write “pretty pointless day,” so I strive to make it a day that advances me somehow.

There’s one other aspect that I didn’t mention, because it’s highly individualized. Do what works for you. You don’t have to use all my nine steps; heck, you don’t have to use any of them if you have a system that really works for you. But you should have a system and you should faithfully execute it, day in and day out. Until I did, I often had days where I sat in the evening wondering where the day went and why it didn’t produce a result.

We used to think it was good news. “Hey, I got a call-in!,” we’d say excitedly to our boss/co-workers, and we’d eagerly schedule the appointment. And why not? After putting in hours of prospecting each week to set our appointments, a decent call-in felt like pennies from heaven. They didn’t all result in a sale, but they were a higher percentage than prospected opportunities.

Nowadays, however, call-ins sometimes produce more fear in salespeople than prospecting, and this is due to an oft-quoted statistic that “these days, 57% of the buyer’s process is done before they ever call you.” The stat comes from a survey of 1,400 B2B purchasing executives, and was conducted by a company who markets a ‘radical new sales approach’ – so it might be just a tad bit skewed. Still, I think we can agree that when a customer calls you, at least some of their buying process has been done without you – and in today’s internet driven environment, more of that process might have been completed than in yesteryear. So, as salespeople, what do we do to succeed in this environment?

Before we dive into this, let’s review the customer’s buying process for a moment:

Motivation: Something prompts the customer to realize that they have an unmet need that could be met by making a purchase.

Investigation: The needs are defined and product/service solutions are measured against the needs.

Evaluation: Price and terms are defined and measured for value, affordability, and timeliness.

Decision: The customer buys or doesn’t.

In most B2B environments, the call-in used to come after the Motivation step, which left us free to complete the biggest parts of the buying process. The bad news today is that, with product and service information so readily available via the Internet, your customer has probably completed all or part of the Investigation and perhaps the Evaluation steps. The good news is that you’re still part of the process.

This, however, is the moment that too many salespeople lose the sale. They do so by going to one of two extremes. Either they assume that the customer has done no research and treat the customers as unintelligent, or they expect tha the customer has done all their own research and attempt to move the process forward faster than the customer wants to. In both cases the customer is annoyed and likely buys elsewhere. Here’s what you must do when the customer approaches you:

Find out what parts of the process the customer has completed. This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Simple questions like, “What research have you done so for,” or even “how did you find us,” can get you a long way toward a common understanding with your customer. They show that you respect the customer’s intelligence and are willing to move forward with the customer and not against the customer.

Find out what gaps exist in the customer’s knowledge. By “gaps,” I mean that in many cases, the customer thinks that they have completed knowledge in a particular topic area, but thye have not. This isn’t uncommon, especially when the research is Internet driven. Understanding what the customer knows and what the customer doesn’t know is improtant. It’s also important to be diplomatic when filling these gaps.

Find out what the customer knows that is wrong.   If it’s on the Internet, it has to be true, right? I’m laughing right now. As you probably know, there’s a site called “Snopes.com” that exists to debunk urban legends. Sometimes I think we need a “Sales Snopes” to debunk false claims in selling. This is where your diplomatic skills really come into play, because the customer may be married to a piece of knowledge that is incorrect.

Pick your battles carefully. If there are gaps, or if the customer has an incorrect piece of knowledge, you have to quickly assess for yourself how important these issues are. For instance, if the customer has discovered a ‘fact’ on the Internet that isn’t a fact, BUT is inconsequential to the customer getting the result that they want and is inconsequential to the sale you need to make, you may want to let it go. There’s no need to provoke a contest that doesn’t matter in the end result.

Be efficient with the customer’s time. Your customer has done their own research in an effort to be efficient and effective with their time. When you cover ground that your customer has already covered on their own, you become repetitive and the customer gets bored. Remember, Comfortable Customers Buy. Bored customers aren’t comfortable. Simply pick up from where your customer left off.

Never be afraid of your customer. Fear is the enemy of all good things in selling. Few things can be scarier to some salesperson than an educated customer. Your customer hasn’t educated themselves in an effort to be your opponent – they simply want a higher level of participation in the buying process. Allow them that, and you’re going to win.

By the way, while call-ins will happen, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be expending significant efforts on a good prospecting effort. The earlier you get your customer, the better. If the customer sees YOU as a reference instead of the Internet, you’re going to be in great shape.

Last week, I answered a “Hot Question” about customers who make ‘wrong’ decisions. After considerable thought – and the realization that I am one of those customers who frequently makes ‘wrong’ decisions – I decided that the question deserved a full article.

To refresh your memory, here’s the question, which I edited down a bit for space: “Troy, I have a situation that is a bit unique. I’m an optometrist. Many of my customers come to me with a fairly large amount of spending capability on their health plans, but instead of spending all of it on a quality pair of glasses, they’ll instead buy the cheapest Chinese stuff available to them.  How can I get them to make a good decision with their money?” The questioner further elaborated that the customers would come in with a spending capability of up to $400 – enough to buy a quality pair of glasses from him – but instead would buy the cheap “3 for $99” deals you see on TV, leaving both quality and free money on the table.

On the face of it, that would seem like a very bad decision. Even I would agree with that. However, there’s a lot that we don’t know. To solve this problem, however, you have to understand one key facet of selling in the 21^st Century: Customers don’t make “bad” decisions. They make the decision that is right for them at the time. Let’s talk more about this.

Our optometrist is making one of the most common mistakes in sales: He’s viewing the customer’s decision through his own criteria for a successful purchase, not the customer’s. When you’re selling, the only criteria that matters is the customer’s. That means that we have to understand what the customer’s decision making criteria is, and then sell to that, not our own. Before I break down how to do this, let’s talk about another example of “bad” decision making.

A couple of days ago, I visited one of my favorite retail establishments: Barnes and Noble. I’m a book nerd (no, really, I am, I say to all of you, who are probably nodding right now). I love bookstores, both new and used, and I hit the magazine rack at B&N at least once a week. Barnes and Noble is really hardcore on their discount program. You buy a ‘membership’ for $25 annually and you get 10% off all products, and bigger discounts on best sellers. At least that’s how I understand it. As a loyal B&N customer, you’d think I’d have one of these, wouldn’t you?

I don’t.

I have two reasons for not having one. First is that in some things I stand on principle. I refuse to purchase a ‘discount.’ If B&N would like to reward me for being a frequent customer, they may do so (Borders used to without a fee), but I’m not going to pay for the privilege.

Second, I hate to carry discount cards. I’m a man. That means that I carry my wallet in my hip pocket, and the thinner it is, the more comfortable I am. Hence I don’t carry discount cards. Yes, they could look me up through my phone number, but then I’m back to paying. With what I spend at B&N, the card might save me $75-100 annually. It’s not worth it.

But I know that when I go to the cash register, I’m going to be asked if I have the card. I reply with a firm but polite “no.” Then I’m asked if I want to hear about it. I reply “no” again. At this point, if I’m lucky, the clerk will respect my wishes and ring me up. If not, the clerk might start by saying, “But, you would save $2 on this purchase…” or whatever. At that point, I get annoyed and ask if it’s OK for me to purchase magazines there. The clerk looks at me as if I’m stupid. Clearly I’m making the “wrong” decision. The trouble is that the clerk doesn’t know my criteria.

The optometrist is in the same situation. He’s looking at the value proposition through his own eyes and not the customer’s – but the customer is the one who will buy. The value proposition always makes sense to the salesperson. So, why in the world could a customer prefer cheap, badly made (he’s assuming) glasses in quantity over one high quality and more attractive pair of glasses, especially when there’s no cost to the customer?

There are reasons, much like my reasons for not getting a discount card. Perhaps the customer seldom wears glasses, but wants a pair in multiple locations (I have sunglass shades for my glasses, and I have multiple ones so I can have a sunglass in each car, for instance). Hence, quantity becomes more important than quality. Perhaps the customer doesn’t understand their own buying power. Or maybe they want multiple pairs of glasses with different “looks.”

The problem is that, usually, we don’t try to understand the customer’s criteria for the decision – instead we try to ‘educate’ the customer on the ‘right’ decision. That seldom works. It seldom works because WE say it, and it’s a transparent effort to ‘push’ things that the customer doesn’t want. There’s a better approach.

Ask, don’t tell. The customer’s words are always more powerful than yours; the key is to tease out of the customer what their criteria is, and ask questions that influence the conversation. Let’s take a look at our optometrist again, and how he might work questions into the conversation. Questions like:

“How often do you actually wear glasses?”

(If they don’t wear them all the time): “Do you carry them with you all the time?”

“What kind of impression do you want your appearance to make?”

“How important is it to you to be able to have different looks?”

At the very least, these questions would tell the optometrist if the customer is a good candidate to ‘upsell’ into better frames; at the most, there might be lead-ins to good selling.

So, if you want to succeed in this situation, you have to set up the criteria early, BEFORE you present. Here are the steps involved:

• Respect your buyer’s intelligence. Your customers (usually) aren’t stupid, so don’t treat them like they are.
• Be open to other viewpoints. This goes along with the previous step, but realizing that buyers have their own worldviews is vital.
• Set up the criteria by asking, not telling. Your customer’s words are the most important ones; ask good questions early in the process before you work toward a presentation.
• Ask “what if” questions to address or shift the customer’s criteria. The two most powerful questions in sales are “what if.” Use those words to your advantage by painting an advantageous situation.
• Find a way to solve the customer’s problem, not yours. The key to winning the sale is to get the customer’s agreement that your solution can solve their problem within their own criteria.
• Don’t argue. When you go down the road of believing that the customer’s criteria is ‘wrong,’ you’ve lost the sale. If you can’t get agreement on the criteria, it might be a better strategy to back off and preserve the relationship.
• Respect the customer. Remember, the customer is buying SOMETHING from you (in the case of the optometrist, it’s an exam). You don’t want to make the process so unpleasant by trying to upsell that they avoid you entirely.

Like anything else in sales, this won’t work all the time. NOTHING works all the time. This, however, will give you the best shot at succeeding when you think the customer might be “wrong.”

One of the things I’ve always prided myself in is that I am a student of those activities about which I am passionate. When I get involved in something and I get excited about it, I dedicate myself to learning as much as I can about that activity. It’s been the pattern of my life. When I was in the debate program in high school and college, I ate and slept debate (well, at least with the energy that didn’t go into chasing girls – I was a teenager, after all). I’ve been a student of cars and racing all my life (which has led to me being virtually invincible in games of NASCAR Trivial Pursuit).

More to the point, I’m a student of the three disciplines that make up my career (and are the reason you’re reading this): sales, professional speaking, and training. I’m amazed at how often there is crossover between the disciplines; when I learn something from one discipline, it often bleeds into another. Such is the case with this week’s article. A concept that I learned long ago in speaking has really crystallized a way that salespeople can become much more effective than they currently are, and it’s all summed up by three little words.

Those words are: “Do, Think, or Feel.”

When creating a speech, professional speakers always ask themselves, “After this speech, what do I want my audience to Do, Think, or Feel?”

That’s a pretty good question, isn’t it? What if part of your pre-call planning included those words? “On my next call, what do I want my customer to do, think, or feel?” The answer sounds obvious, of course. “I want them to buy!” But many times, and on many calls, that’s not realistic. Yes, some of you sell in an environment where it’s completely realistic to think that your customer can buy on the first, and every, call. Some of you, however, sell in environments where your sale is one of incremetal steps.

“Do, Think, Feel” can make a huge difference in these multi-step environment, and here’s why. It’s customer-focused; your attention is on what the customer does, not what you do. That’s vital. Too many sales processes get extended beyond the point of any viability because the salesperson continues to move things “forward” unilaterally when the buyer isn’t motivated to buy. I call that “pushing a rope uphill.” It’s a huge waste of time, and “Do, Think, Feel” can help you get away from that.

Try this as a way of definining your call objective (and keep in mind, every call should have an objective, or a reason for being – if not, it’s not a good use of your customer’s time or yours):

What do you want your customer or prospect to DO? “Do” always specifies an action, and the question asks what the customer will do, not you. Depending on where you are in the sales process, there could be many actions that the customer takes. They might:

• Set a next appointment.
• Gather data for your next conversation.
• Entertain a proposal.
• Give a referral.
• Make an introduction.
• Or, some other definitive action that advances the sales process or the relationship.

You might want your prospect to THINK something different after your meeting. This can be early or late in a relationship, and it usually involves a change in perception. For instance, your customer might:

• Accept you as a brand leader.
• Gain respect for you.
• Qualify you as a vendor.
• View you as a resource and not a salesperson.
• Have an elevated perception of your quality.
• Again, there are an infinite number of possibilities here. The key to remember is that “think” is an intellectual or logical acceptance of a fact or reality.

Finally, you might want your prospect to FEEL something after your sales call. In my own selling style (and frankly, my own speaking style), these moments are fairly rare; however, they do happen. My own style focuses more on “Do” and “Think.” However, there is room for “Feel” in the sales process. Some examples of what a customer might “Feel” after an effective sales call are:

• Comfort with you as a contact.
• An affinity for you or your company.
• Fear for the consequences of not taking an action.
• Again, there are numerous possibilities here.

It’s worth pointing out that “Do, Think, and Feel” are not mutually exclusive. You can have sales calls that target more than one of the three. For instance, you might want a prospect to qualify you as a vendor (“Think”) which results in beginning a sales process (“Do”). “Do, think, or feel” doesn’t have to be your approach to sales, but if you’re searching for a way to define your call objectives, this can be a great way to put reason to your rhyme.

There’s an awful lot of bad sales advice floating around out there right now. Sometimes I think that our profession is caught right between people advocating old-time sales tactics that just don’t work anymore, and other people trying to be ‘hip’ and ‘techno-savvy’ by focusing on social networking as the all-encompassing solution for everything – but that doesn’t work either.

A prime example of this is a recent column I read talking about the popular “when to close” topic. The author’s answer – fueled by his Xerox sales training and illustrated by a personal anecdote of his experience in 1976 – was that the salesperson should always be closing. This the old A/B/C (Always Be Closing) philosophy has done more to kill sales and irritate customers than anything else salespeople do. There’s a right way, though, and let’s find it, shall we?

It’s appropriate that the anecdote was from 1976; A/B/C is very much a 1970’s sales approach. For that matter, so is the Xerox approach. The old Xerox approach, heavy with tactics, pressure, and technique, worked back when Xerox dominated its market. Today? Not so much. Today’s customers are more savvy, more educated, have more information available to them, and ultimately have been trained by years of salespeople using heavy sales tactics, and are more capable than ever to resist. This means that today’s customer responds to an approach that is more customer-friendly and respectful.

First, let’s learn how to recognize when you have an actual opportunity to sell:

• The customer must be motivated; e. the customer has a need that he/she wishes to solve through a purchase. If your customer is not motivated to act, you can be the best closer ever and it won’t help.
• The customer must have investigated that need; the customer and the salesperson must both understand the need, and your product must fulfill it (and the customer must agree that your product fulfills it).
• The customer must trust you.
• The customer must believe what you say (i.e. you have credibility in the customer’s eyes).
• The customer must respect you.
• The customer must not dislike you (I know that conventional wisdom says the customer must like you, and certainly that’s a huge help – but I’ve found it’s better to seek respect and trust that is genuine than to seek a like and friendship that is phony).
• You must have presented a proposal that is to the customer’s liking.

The trouble with the A/B/C approach is that it interferes with several of these things. Closing is the part of the sales process where customers are most likely to put up defenses; if you are always in some phase of a close, your customers will be defending themselves too much to be able to give you the candid answers you need to be able to match your products to their needs. Closing too early will interfere with trust and credibility, as well; the customer will perceive you as reaching for their wallet. (Answer to the old question: Why do customers perceive salespeople as pushy? Because too many are.)

Instead, today’s salesperson must have patience as part of the selling/closing process. To assess motivation, accurately assess needs, present your product, check customer agreement, build trust, etc. takes time. Sometimes it can all be done within a single sales call, but even those sales calls can get long. It’s very important that you are patient enough to allow the customer to move through their buying process properly (see my book, Sell Like You Mean It!, for more on this) and get to the closing arena at the same time you do.

You have earned the right to close when:

• You have accurately assessed the customer’s needs, and gotten his/her agreement that they are the needs.
• You have presented a solution(s) to the needs, and gotten his/her agreement that these will fulfill the needs.
• You have presented a specific proposal, including price and terms.

Once you are at this point, the close becomes a natural part of the sales process, and how you ask for the business matters less than the actual asking. In fact, the simpler the closing question (“So, are you ready to buy?”) the better. Forget fancy closing techniques; what works today is clean, straightforward conversation. What’s better is that, by handling this in a customer-friendly manner, you are more likely to get invited back for repeat sales opportunities! Isn’t that better than a one-shot quick close?

Just because it worked for Xerox in 1976 doesn’t mean it will work for you today. Success in today’s selling arena requires a different approach.

One of the things that surprises a lot of clients is my insistence on doing formal annual written evaluations of salespeople. “But, they know how they’re doing,” I’m told. Nonsense. Annual evaluations are a great tool for improvement; unfortunately, too many of the evaluations used don’t really cover the important areas that salespeople should be evaluated on. Today, let’s talk about the most important evaluation you will ever have – your own self evaluation.

At the end of the day, you are responsible to your customers, your co-workers, your employer, and your family. Most of all, you’re responsible to yourself, and the best salespeople are able to accurately evaluate how they have fulfilled that particular responsibility throughout the course of the year. For those of you who have never really evaluated your own performance, never fear: I have a four-point evaluation structure that will help you develop yourself now, and in the future. This comes with one warning, however – it only works if you’re completely honest. To take your own personal “check up from the neck up,” click below and read on.

Criteria one – the numbers: Obviously, the most important measure of achievement is results. So, how have your results been? Compare your performance to your goals, and give yourself a 1-5 rating by the following criteria: Give yourself a 1 if you’ve never gotten close enough to your quota to see it. Give yourself a 2 if you’re usually under quota, but every now and then, you’ve had a breakout month and made it. Give yourself a 3 if you’re usually at or close to quota. Give yourself a 4 if you’re usually well over quota, but still miss every now and then. If you can’t remember the last time you missed quota (more importantly, neither can your boss), and you’re usually 20% or more over, give yourself a 5. Now, multiply this result by 2.

Criteria two – the funnel: You should have targets for your sales funnel activities; i.e. appointments, proposals, etc. Rate yourself 1-5 again, with this criteria: If you’re consistently 20% or more below your targets, give yourself a 1. If you’re usually below target, but sometimes make it, give yourself a 2. Those of you who almost always hit target should give yourself a 3, while those of you who always meet and sometimes exceed targets should give yourself a 4. If you’re always over by 20% or more, give yourself a 5.

Criteria three – customer relationships: In this criteria, we will evaluate the quality of your customer interactions and relationships, as this is a predictor of your future ability to make your numbers. For the purpose of this exercise, focus on those customers that generate your top 80% of business. We’ll rate your relationships in terms of your ability to retain this business in the face of adversity as well as your customers’ willingness to evangelize for you, again on our 1-5 scale. If 50% or more of your top customers are one service failure away from leaving, give yourself a 1. If 20% to 49% of your customer base is one screw-up away from leaving, give yourself a 2. If 0-20% of your base is one mistake away, give yourself a 3. If you can withstand a screw-up with all of your customers, give yourself a 4. If you can withstand failure with all your customers, AND at least 25% of them are willing to refer you or serve as testimonials, give yourself a 5.

Criteria four – internal relationships: Some people don’t believe that it’s important for salespeople to be good internal citizens of their companies. To that, I say B.S. If you’re a negative influence inside your company, you’re costing that company money in lost productivity from those who are negatively affected by your poor attitude. On the other hand, being well liked and respected can pay career dividends in many different ways. Rate yourself 1-5 again on this criteria: If a conference room or office clears within 2 minutes of your entry (because no one can stand you), give yourself a 1. If you’re usually afraid to ask co-workers or support personnel for favors because they’re not willing to grant them, give yourself a 2. If you have at least three “go-to” people that you can get favors and help from, AND have people that you avoid because you can’t, give yourself a 3. If you are nearly universally respected, and have at least three “go-to” people, give yourself a 4. If everyone is your “go-to” person, give yourself a 5.

By now, you should have a feel for the criteria. 1 is awful, 2 is bad, 3 is average, 4 is good, 5 is superstar-level. We double-weighted sales results because, frankly, that’s the most important criteria. But it’s not the only criteria. In any criteria that you ranked yourself a 1 or 2, you have work to do. Seek help from co-workers, customers, and your boss to develop yourself. Overall, here is the scale:

25 to 30: You’re either a superstar or on the edge of superstardom (or at least you think so).

20 to 24: You’re good, a cut above average, and unlikely to have job worries anytime soon.

13 to 19: You’re average. Very, very average.

7 to 12: You’re below average to the point that you’re a constant worry for your boss.

1 to 6: Unless you’re brand new with no experience, in this category, you need overnight change of either behavior or career.

If you’re truly honest with yourself, this can be a very productive exercise. Don’t be afraid to solicit help from your boss, co-workers, and your customers. If you’re committed to self improvement, they’ll be happy to help.