Anybody can become a top-performing salesperson.

It’s not what you sell. It’s the why and the how you sell that makes it happen.

First, why do you sell? Because you’re helping customers achieve things that they didn’t think were possible. Next, your how is the process that you use. Let’s dive in on both.

1. Mindset

This is why I wrote the book, A Mind for Sales, because it’s all focused around your mindset in terms of being able to achieve because you know you can.

If you doubt yourself going into a transaction, your customers will doubt you also. A positive attitude shapes everything. Also, it opens your mind up to listen and understand better.

I see this all the time in myself. If I’m practicing a top-level mindset, it’s amazing what I’m hearing from my customers. Plus, I’m able to help them in more ways, and in turn achieve more business because of it.

2. Goal-Focused

Top performers review their goals every morning. This morning I reviewed my goals, did you? Every morning I review my goals, and I ask myself, what are the activities I’m going to do today that are going to help move me closer to achieving my goals?

By the way, top-performer goals are not easy goals. They’re big goals! And they know that achieving the goal is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Initially, it’s just a mass of pieces. But as you begin to put the pieces together, it’s amazing how the picture becomes clear. In fact, you begin picking up momentum and you’re able to see how things fit together. It’s the same when you’re goal‑focused.

3. Peer Set

Who are you spending time with?

You’ve heard, “You become the sum of the five people you associate with the most.” Isn’t your goal to lift yourself and others up?

I’m currently in a mastermind group with three other people. It’s amazing — the conversations we have today are dramatically different from what we had three years ago because we’ve all moved to the next level collectively.

4. Time Management

Time is the one asset nobody can make more of. All we can do is use the time we have more efficiently and effectively.

Top-performing salespeople block their calendar. I block my calendar with almost every hour of the day. Of course, I leave white space in there for things that just emerge. Otherwise, I know exactly what I’m going to be doing, and I stay focused on that.

5. Focus and Discipline

Focus and discipline affect your mindset, your goals and your time management.

If you don’t have a morning routine, start one. It puts the rest of the day in motion. I go through the same workout and quiet time seven days a week, and because I start off the day disciplined and focused, the rest of the day remains that way.

6. Clear Customer Outcomes

Top-performing salespeople don’t try creating world peace or solving world hunger — although those are noble causes. Instead, as a professional they know the customer outcomes they can create, and they stay focused on that.

It’s about being absolutely laser-focused on staying in your lane.

7. Simplicity and Repetition

Top-performing salespeople don’t view things in a complex manner. Instead, they keep a simple, repetitive routine.

For instance, I know top-performing salespeople who literally have the same thing to eat every day because they don’t want to waste their time. Steve Jobs always wore a black turtleneck because he didn’t want to waste time thinking about what to wear.

Brilliant people are very simplistic. Stay in that mode.

8. Commitment to a Solution

Top-performing salespeople are always committed to staying in their lane and finding a solution for the customer.

The commitment to the solution might mean referring that customer to somebody else. It might mean owning up to the fact that you’re not capable of handling it.

That is an unwavering support that keeps top performers in the game.

9. Continuous Learning

They’re always learning new things about their customers, the industry, and how to work with their customers.

They have a thirst to know more information because that’s how to know they’ve become more valuable to their customers.

10. Listening

Why should I show up to a customer and just spout off? If all I’m doing is spouting off, they can go to YouTube and find a video on that.

Listening is about dialoguing, understanding and questioning. The greatest listening technique that top-performing salespeople do is this: ask a question, and with whatever it is the customer shares, turn around and ask another question to build on it.

It’s not about, “Wow, I have this list of 10 questions that I need to power through.”

11. Support Team

These are people that help top performers achieve their tasks. That team might be customer service, your boss or other salespeople, but there’s a support team.

Now, you may be a solopreneur and you say, “Mark, I am my own salesperson. I don’t have a support team.” In fact, you do because you have others around you whom you can turn to for guidance.

12. Having a Servant Attitude

It’s not about you, it’s about putting the other person first. A servant attitude is saying, “I’m going to serve other people.”

I serve on several boards of non-profit groups. Sure, it takes time away from me, but I love doing it because it’s part of my servant attitude. What I’ve found is that the more I give of myself, the more I get back. It’s amazing how I’ve grown personally, professionally, mentally — in so many different ways.

13. Balance

Does balance mean you’re spending equal time doing everything? No, balance means that you have your rhythm.

For top-performers, it’s not about everything being equal, but they know that when they’re in the groove of spending time with their family, they’re 100 percent there — and likewise when they’re in the groove of working.

14. Optimists Play the Long Game

Pessimists play the short game. “Oh, there’s no deal to be made here. This is bad and that is bad.” Optimists always know that there’s a solution. In addition, they always know that times will get better, and as a result, they keep their mindset focused on the long game.

Talk to the top performing salesperson and many times they’ll have 25-year goals that they’re going to achieve. Do you?

15. Belief in You

You believe in yourself — not from an arrogant standpoint, but with a level of humility in knowing that you have the ability to impact and influence other people. To do that you must have a strong belief in yourself.

That’s not arrogance. It’s really about being authentic and having a level of trust and confidence that you inspire in others because you’ve already placed it in yourself.

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