How to know you're doing the right things

I had a couple of good friends of mine have some outstanding results in their respective sports over the weekend, for both of them it was the result of well executed long term training program and was a continuation of a long term top 5 trend for both of them. They both have larger goals and it put me in mind of some advice that my old rowing coach used to give out on a regular basis that relates pretty well to my sales career.

"You don' have to be winning to know you're on track, you just have to make the final every week, eventually your number will come up"

Every week we would train and every weekend we would race, for him the truth wasn't in the winning of the finals - generally if we won he worked us harder because the only race he wanted us to win was the last one of the season - the national championships. Not making that final also provided an important feedback mechanism - either he had worked us too hard or something was just flat out wrong - and needed to change.

I think about it regularly when I'm selling now.

Am i consistently making the top 3? In the situations where I am, I know I'm on track - once you're in that top couple the outcome is generally fixed and will be decided based on things that you cant really control.

In situations where I didn't make the top 3, why? Sometimes it's a lack of time spent - (not enough training), or too much spent on other things (too much training), these things are fairly easy to tweak, what is more worrying is when I miss the mark completely - generally this is an indication of unfitness for competition, either because of things I didn't know or because I just missed the mark. If I'm consistently not in the top 3, that's a serious problem.

The top 3 test is a good litmus test, if you're regularly making the top 3 there's probably not a lot you need to change - a tweak here and there and some luck and your number will come up, if you're not regularly making the top 3, you've got a serious problem and need to seriously change something you're doing to get the results that you want.

Unfortunately sales rewards the winner and no one else, but not winning this time doesn't make you a loser. If you're in that top 3 every time and you're putting yourself out there on a regular basis, your number will come up eventually.