Dining out at an upscale restaurant has many perks: excellent service, great food and an atmosphere that feels luxurious.

So, what separates fine dining establishments from your typical chain restaurants or hole-in-the-wall eateries? Sure, upscale restaurants have superior food cooked to perfection, but why is the food not cooked to “perfection” consistently at the chain restaurant?

High-end restaurants typically have higher-paid chefs and cooks who have more expertise in meal preparation. In most cases, upscale restaurants get higher-quality ingredients and pass on the additional expense to the consumer that will gladly pay for superior quality.

The real secret sauce? Upscale establishments care more, with management constantly inspecting what the customer expects from the food, service and experience.

A chef at a restaurant is constantly inspecting the food that is being prepared by the sous chefs. They are tasting the food being prepared, monitoring the cooking techniques and ensuring the use of quality ingredients.

Additionally, the floor manager of the restaurant will visit your table and ask how the food is. They also will inquire about the service to see if it has met or exceeded your expectations.

These are all instances of leaders at the restaurant inspecting what they expect out of their staff and the experience of the customers.

Ultimately, this is the difference between high-end establishments and your standard restaurants: consistent inspection of product, people, and processes.

Over the coming weeks, we will take a look at different organizations within the commercial side of the business and highlight areas you should inspect what you expect if you want to elevate your  standard business to a high-end establishment. First up, sales.

#1: Compensation Analysis 

Individuals get into sales to build relationships and engage with customers, but the ultimate motivation is to make money. Individuals who are motivated by higher earning potentials based on how much work and effort they put into their job, typically make great salespeople.

With this being the case, it is extremely important to have any additional forms of compensation such as commission, kickers, spiffs or prizes be directly tied to activities that result in a sale or hit metrics that conclude in a higher number of sales.

Inspect what you expect out of your compensation.

#2: Tool Usage 

Huge sums of money are paid out for tools that “increase the productivity of your workforce,” and “give sellers more time to sell”.

This is true for many tools if they are used properly or used at all.

Inspecting the usage of the tools and if they are being used properly to help save the company time is vital to inspect on a monthly basis.

If your inspection comes back with results that do not meet your standard, one of 2 things needs to happen: More education for your employees on how to use the tool or cancel the renewal for the tool.

Be decisive with this one either way.

#3: A Players

Every company has individuals who perform better than others. Sometimes it is more talent, sometimes it is work ethic and other times it is a greater prioritization of certain activities.

Digging into the data surrounding your A players and understanding what they are doing differently or what they are prioritizing should shed light on if it is purely talent, time spent or something systematic that can be replicated by others.

Once you find something that works and can be replicated, double down.

#4: Time Selling 

Providing your reps with as much time as possible to sell is essential to creating revenue. Inspecting the amount of time that reps sit in internal meetings and training on successful months compared to months that miss could be an indicator.

Time selling should also be a key component in any discussion about adding a tool to your tech stack. Does this tool, when used correctly, provide front-line reps the chance to be in front of customers more? If the answer is no, it’s tough to see a business case that makes sense.

#5: On-Boarding and Ramp  

Piggybacking off of the previous section is taking a look at your training process. The focus should be how long does it take for the rep to be fully ramped and able to close business.

Any material or information that does not directly tie into this initiative or help in moving that date closer to their start date should be removed and handled at another time.

Decreasing onboarding time can drastically affect the overall performance of the sales team. Inspecting what you expect out of the process is key to the overall success of the unit.

Top-of-the-line restaurants do not leave things to chance or trust that the customer is having a great experience. They inspect. They verify.

They ensure that the customers are having a great experience and thus are able to justify a premium price for their product and service.

Inspect what you expect.

Let’s get to work.