The Eleven Attitudes Very Successful Salespeople

By Michael J Griffin

6 minute read

I have coached and managed salespeople for over 30 years across a variety of cultures and countries. This experience has taught me what Zig Ziglar has said for years, “ Your attitude determines your altitude” and I will add especially in sales! I have learned to hire salespeople more for attitude and potential, and when hired, train them in skill and process.

Good attitude can be defined as the way in which a salesperson views and evaluates his or her job, company and market, with predisposition to respond positively towards his/her selling environment, solutions, customers, market, sales organization and sales coach.

Attitude is thought to have three components: an affective component (feelings), a behavioural component (the effect of the attitude on behaviour), and a cognitive component (belief and knowledge).

Translate this definition of attitude into sales talk, it can read this way: “I enjoy my sales role by interacting and persuading people to positively change (affective). I am teachable to continually learn and upgrade my selling skills and processes to be successful (behavioural). I want to work at a company whose product, solutions and leadership I believe in (cognitive).“

Here are the attitudes I believe successful salespeople possess and demonstrate to be very successful and excel in the profession of sales.   

I have integrity. Integrity or honesty is the foundation for successful sales. Studies show only 5 to 17% of customers trust salespeople. Being a salesperson who delivers on their promises and can be trusted is a huge competitive advantage. Salespeople of integrity are also a real blessing to coach!

I enjoy interacting with different, diverse people. Sales is a people business of effectively communicating with a wide range of customer needs, behaviors and personalities. You might say excellent salespeople have mastered the art of “customer inclusivity”- they are comfortable relating to people different from themselves.

I am proud to be in sales. Sales is an honourable profession. Successful salespeople see themselves as a business leaders, not low level employees. They enter all sales meetings with the view they are business people in business discussions between themselves and their customer(s) to reach win-win3 outcomes that benefit the customer, their company, and themselves. Successful salespeople view themselves as “intrapreneurs.”

I listen well to help my customer to be successful. Excellent salespeople aren’t good talkers, they are excellent listeners. Salespeople who listen well understand and practice active listening and asking good questions out of an attitude to support customer success. Studies support the observation successful salespeople listen 70% of the time and only talk 30% of the time when with their customers.

I am a self-starter. While salespeople might have sales managers who monitor their performance, their sales jobs/tasks are often self-driven. A salesperson might use their self-starting nature to decide to prospect, which leads to contact and what to say to them. This sense of having a self-starting attitude allows a salesperson to meet their goals with minimal supervision.

I am goal-oriented. Top B2B salespeople set clear goals for themselves and have a strong focus on achieving those goals. Their goals are a synergistic combination of leading and lagging indicators that lead to success. They are driven by measurable targets, and they work systematically to meet and exceed their sales objectives.

I am resilient. Let’s face in sales there is more customer rejection that acceptance. Successful B2B salespeople are resilient and can handle rejection and setbacks without losing motivation. Research by my former company AchieveGlobal shows that both experienced and newer salespeople get rejected at about the same rate.  Resilient salespeople understand that sales is a challenging profession, and they intuitively know when to move on past dead end customers and pursue customers that want to discuss success rather than rejection. The key is they don’t give up but have the tenacity to keep achieving their goals despite obstacles.

I am teachable because I am secure in myself. Teachability is a big attitude I look for. With massive and continual changes in markets, products and process, being teachable is a big plus. Secure salespeople are not only teachable, but are secure enough not to blame others or circumstances, but be open and accepting constructive feedback – they are teachable and coachable – they learn from their mistakes and fail forward.  

I am confident. Confidence is crucial in sales. Successful salespeople believe in themselves, their products or services, and their own expert ability to deliver value to their clients. Confidence built on these factors helps them handle objections, negotiate effectively, and build credibility with potential buyers. Confidence with integrity builds long term customer loyalty.

I understand the synergy of empathy and creativity. Salespeople who excel understand the importance of empathy as the link to creativity. They actively listen to their clients, understand their needs, and demonstrate a genuine empathy of their challenges. This allows them to explore, suggest and discuss creative solutions with their customers that meet the specific needs or solve problems of their customers. Remember AchieveGlobal research indicates salespeople who sincerely empathise double their success of closing compared to salespeople who do not.

I believe in coopetition. Most salespeople work in a sales team with other salespeople who may be very competitive. Great successful salespeople I have worked with are competitive and also practice cooperation to give to and learn from their colleagues how to sell more effectively. They also believe in congratulating and celebrating when their fellow salespeople succeed. They appreciate that being well liked and trusted by their colleagues accelerates personal success.

Well, here they are the 11 Attitudes of Successful Salespeople. You may want to use this as a “checklist” when you are interviewing new salespeople or coaching your current salespeople to be motivated to higher levels of success. ELAvate has a created a 2 to 4 hour session on The 11 Attitudes of Successful Salespeople. You company may want to call on us to deliver this session at your next country or company sales team gathering. Email me if you want to discuss further.

By the way……how is your attitude as we move to the second half of the year?

Michael J Griffin
CEO and Founder of ELAvate
Proud to be in Sales!
Global Sales Productivity Consultant/Trainer
michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com