I would like to share with you some ideas and concepts from my book, What Every Great Salesperson Knows, A No-nonsense Guide for Sales Success that I hope you will find useful and inspirational.

I offer this book for free on my website - http://www.insurancecoachu.com/free-book. It usually sells for $24.95 on Amazon, but I make it available as a free download to my readers.

The book is based on many years of research on sales competencies. Fifteen traits have been tracked that identifies those qualities and behaviors that most successful salespeople have in common.

One of the most important traits that successful salespeople have in common is:

All Activities are Oriented Around Desired Results

Highly successful salespeople have the resolve to set challenging goals and the persistence to achieve them in the face of obstacles.

Rate yourself on the following traits that successful salespeople possess:

Focuses on measurable, challenging goals and is disciplined in following through on action plans
Shows a strong sense of urgency about solving problems and getting desired results
Creates measures of excellence beyond those set by management or others
Acts decisively to pursue opportunities that promise the best return on their time and effort
Focuses on profitable sales opportunities
Here are some suggestions on how to improve your
Results Orientation
Identify a colleague who exhibits results orientation. Ask that person how he or she stays organized and focused. Also ask them how they monitor their progress against their goals.
At the end of each day, be sure to evaluate what happened during the day. Did you achieve your goals? What worked? Why? What didn’t’ work? Why? What could you have done differently? What assumptions do you need to challenge or change? What got in the way? How can you conquer the obstacles in yourself and in the situation the next time?
Treat performance measures as a baseline against which you track your accomplishments, not as a target result. If you believe you have the ability to surpass performance targets, then mentally raise the bar by shooting for stretch goals over and above the target.

How well did you do? If you would like to improve in one or more areas, pick just one problem area to tackle first. Then follow this 6-step process:


1. Clearly state the goal you’re trying to achieve
2. Review/analyze your current situation
3. Set short term and long term objectives
4. Schedule activities/actions to achieve your objectives and keep score as to your progress
5. Implement the activities
6. Evaluate your results