Some salespeople view themselves as victims of the economy – they listen to all the pessimistic economic forecasts and blame declining sales on a falling economy.

Top salespeople accept no excuses for poor performance, according to Brian Tracy, sales consultant and author. They recognize that customers depend on them to meet the demands of a changing economy.

They view themselves as completely in charge of everything that happens to them. If they don’t like what’s going on, they decide it’s up to them to change it or improve it in some way.

Empathy and ambition

Top salespeople concentrate on two qualities – empathy and ambition. Empathy causes them to be sensitive to the best interests of customers. Ambition causes them to be focused on making the sales expected of them.

They also care about themselves, their companies, their products and services and, especially, about helping their customers make good buying decisions.

Distinguishing qualities

Top salespeople possess these qualities which distinguish them from lower producing salespeople:

• They get prospects involved in the conversation early, late and often.
• They uncover prospect’s needs before even mentioning a product.
• They acknowledge and support the prospect’s comments twice as often as mediocre salespeople. They also ask about 25% more open-ended questions.
• They turn around negative attitudes. Successful sales calls contain almost 50% more objections than unsuccessful calls.
• They summarize benefits and propose a plan of action in closing.