The Eleven Attributes of a Great Salesperson or Top Producer!

1. They believe in themselves.
Good sales people visualize themselves as being successful. They truly expect the deals to go their way. This confidence seeps into all they say and do and it is catching. Customers respond to optimism and high energy. When you’re in the run for good money, the highs are high and the lows are low. It’s absolutely necessary for a top producer to believe in himself or herself in order to keep going. When you do have a bad day, analyze what went wrong and use it as a learning experience!

2. They are trying first and foremost to impress themselves.
Watch how a good athlete responds when he wins. Really successful people in all walks of life do in fact motivate themselves. It’s not that they don’t want praise, it’s just that it’s generally more important they prove to themselves, they can do it. Success is intoxicating-once you’ve tasted it, you’ll want more! In addition success is a way of life-people who have been successful and have something go wrong (bankruptcy etc) in most cases turn around and start right up again and wind up being successful. If you don’t try something you’ll never know if you could have done it!

3. They have a high level of productivity.
That is not measured in how many hours they work but how they work. Along the way they learn how to get to the bottom of things. This makes them more productive because they are more efficient and hence effective. Good salespeople obviously accomplish more than non-successful sales people.

4. They are competitive.
I can't think of anyone that excels in anything that is not competitive and usually by nature. They hate losing and will do the work that’s necessary to make things happen. They want to be in the top echelon.

5. They have a high energy level.
They do whatever is necessary to make it happen, which in turn means they have a good work ethic. They show up and work at it every day. I have never met anyone who was successful at anything that didn’t really work hard at it (day in and out)

6. They want to please.
They really like approval. When a customer says yes or a boss or co-worker gives them praise they eat it up. For some people it's the applause more than the money.

7. They see themselves as different than the rest.
At some point in their lives they figured out they could pull off whatever they really set their mind to. If you really believe that you could have been whatever you’d like to have been, then you’re there!

8. They have the ability to REALLY focus.
Anyone who can do anything better than average, be it sports, sales or whatever, has the talent of being able to focus and really get inside whatever they're trying to do. This simply means they were serious about it and did what was necessary and focused on the goal.

9. They work towards getting a system down.
They have an ability to see the bottom line or what is really happening. This introspection is a crucial part of success-that is the ability to see things for what they really are and not what you’d like them to be. Further, they keep trying things and discard the stuff that doesn't work until they get a groove going.

10. They ask questions and constantly work at growing themselves.
They are always trying to learn and improve. After a sales call. they generally reflect on what they did well and what they could have done better. It’s this serious approach to the craft that defines a real winner. Some people get good to a point then stop growing. This is a formula for failure.

11. They have a high opinion of themselves.
In order to get past the rejection and failure that comes with sales, they have to be optimists and really believe in themselves and that they can succeed. Successful salespeople visualize and really believe that success is attainable.