“Do I feel lucky?” -Dirty Harry

Luck, it seems, is relied upon to carry many sales careers. A few of my favorite quotes regarding luck are:

“I’m a big believer in luck. I find that the harder I work the more I have.”

Thomas Jefferson

“Luck: where preparation meets hard work.”

Anonymous

Patrick Cohn, a sports psychologist and president of Peak Performance Sports, specializes in creating a championship mind-set in teams and individual athletes. Cohn suggests that there are four mental and emotional characteristics common to champion athletes. Erik Brady (no relation) cited work by Cohn in an article for USA Today in 2006. I believe the same characteristics are present among top performing sales professionals. In my experience one additional mental characteristic stands out that I’ve added below.

1. Composure

Composure is the ability to stay focused under pressure. The months ending soon and your one deal away from blowing past your goal and the customer throws you an unexpected curveball. Do you fold? Do you stutter? Do you forget your closing lines? Nope, not you. You’ve built the muscle of composure.

Composure is shown ultimately by not allowing one failure carry over to the next moment.

2. Competitiveness

Sales is very muck like a competitive sport. I’ve seen many sales bullpens made up of ex-jocks or professional women who want to maintain their glory days of competitive softball. Hiring managers often look for individuals who’ve played sports in the past and for one simple reason; they have a competitive spirit. If you look at a stacked ranking report and you’re listed any other than numero uno… you should feel that fire within your belly. Do you want to win-over your customers? How about beating out the competitors product?

Competitiveness is shown by the will to win.

3. Confidence

Ever shook someones hand and they didn’t give you a firm grip, or worse their hand felt like a wet noodle? What impression did that person leave with you? Not good right? That’s the same impression that a sales person lacking confidence leaves after an appointment. Customers want to feel confident in their decision to go with you and if you’re not showing it, then it’s not going to go well for you. Confidence begets more confidence in sales. Build on your smaller wins until those small wins add up to a bigger payoff. Realize that confidence can make or break record sales months.

Confidence is outwardly shown by your inner belief.

4. Determination

Be that little sales engine that could! My grandma would call this stick-to-it-iveness. She’s determined to never be wrong. Determination is the culmination of desire, focus, and grit. I’ve quit sales more times that I would like to admit, but it was my determination to overcome the challenge that propelled me through the moment. If sales were easy then everyone would and could be doing it, however it’s not for the faint of heart. Those who bowed out weren’t determined.

Determination is shown by continuously accepting the challenge and facing the task, and then the next…the next..the next.

5. Vision

Close your eyes, picture in your mind where you want to be in 5 days, 5 months…5 years. The ability to bring the future into the present- that’s vision. Does it excite you? That’s a goal. Does it scare you? That’s a challenge (see #4). If what you see doesn’t motivate you then I would argue that it’s someone else’s vision that you’re picturing in your minds eye. Vision is important because it’s the bigger picture..it’s the forest made up of the tree’s. Vision is the ultimate prize that makes the day-to-day worth it. Without it, it feels like your just treading water to say afloat.

Vision is shown by those who can go from one opportunity to the next, win or lose, and know that all experiences can move you towards your goal.

Whether luck being the result of hard work and preparation, I contend that success in sales can be attributed to the core qualities of composure, competitiveness, confidence, determination and vision. There you have it. The intangible qualities of high achievers.