I won’t bore you with stories of sales reps who did stop and who walked away with big orders that they might have missed if they’d just kept driving. I’m not even going to load you down with statistics and hypothetical math equations. “Let’s see. One extra call per day times a twenty percent probability of a sale, divided by, blah, blah, blah…”

You’ve heard the stories and you weren’t impressed in the first place. Maybe you didn’t even believe them. Believe this. If you do make that extra call a day, it will make a significant increase in your salary every month. Even an extra call a week can make a noticeable difference in your next paycheck. Guaranteed.

And that’s just one of the habits of highly profitable salespeople. You know them. They lead the branch in sales and profits. They drive expensive trucks, win the top awards, and seem to have all the luck.

But, the highly successful salespeople know that luck has little to do with it. They apply a set of habits that their less successful counterparts are either unaware of, or too lazy to use.

As the saying goes, there are no born salespeople. They had to acquire the habits in on the job training. Some of the habits they acquired at great expense. Others they stumbled on by accident. Fortunately, you can benefit from their experience and knowledge by following these seven habits of highly successful salespeople.

Habit 1: Make one more sales call. For the next thirty days, commit to see one customer per week beyond what is on your call schedule. It doesn’t have to be at the end of a day. Unless it throws you behind schedule, make the call while you’re in the area. You never know when you’ll stumble upon an oppo

You’ve heard the stories and you weren’t impressed in the first place. Maybe you didn’t even believe them. Believe this. If you do make that extra call a day, it will make a significant increase in your salary every month. Even an extra call a week can make a noticeable difference in your next paycheck. Guaranteed.

And that’s just one of the habits of highly profitable salespeople. You know them. They lead the branch in sales and profits. They drive expensive trucks, win the top awards, and seem to have all the luck.

But, the highly successful salespeople know that luck has little to do with it. They apply a set of habits that their less successful counterparts are either unaware of, or too lazy to use.

As the saying goes, there are no born salespeople. They had to acquire the habits in on the job training. Some of the habits they acquired at great expense. Others they stumbled on by accident. Fortunately, you can benefit from their experience and knowledge by following these seven habits of highly successful salespeople.

Habit 1: Make one more sales call. For the next thirty days, commit to see one customer per week beyond what is on your call schedule. It doesn’t have to be at the end of a day. Unless it throws you behind schedule, make the call while you’re in the area. You never know when you’ll stumble upon an oppo

But, the highly successful salespeople know that luck has little to do with it. They apply a set of habits that their less successful counterparts are either unaware of, or too lazy to use.

As the saying goes, there are no born salespeople. They had to acquire the habits in on the job training. Some of the habits they acquired at great expense. Others they stumbled on by accident. Fortunately, you can benefit from their experience and knowledge by following these seven habits of highly successful salespeople.

Habit 1: Make one more sales call. For the next thirty days, commit to see one customer per week beyond what is on your call schedule. It doesn’t have to be at the end of a day. Unless it throws you behind schedule, make the call while you’re in the area. You never know when you’ll stumble upon an oppo

Habit 1: Make one more sales call. For the next thirty days, commit to see one customer per week beyond what is on your call schedule. It doesn’t have to be at the end of a day. Unless it throws you behind schedule, make the call while you’re in the area. You never know when you’ll stumble upon an opportunity. Keep a record of these calls. Make it simple. Make a check mark in your planner if you get an order. Write a “P” if you felt the call was productive. Write a “B” if you thought the whole thing was a bust.

Habit 2: Take Risks. Pursue opportunities that others say are beyond you. Take a chance on the long shot. Leave your complacency zone. Go outside your circle of friends and your regular contacts. New friends can lead to new opportunities. Spend some time and money on your education. Look for workshops and seminars. Highly successful salespeople don’t wait for their company to provide training. They take responsibility for their continuing education.

Habit 3: Be trustworthy. Long-term relationships result from long-term trust. In the beginning, you have to furnish evidence of that trust. That means displaying trustworthy qualities such as dependability, punctuality, and accountability. Over time, consistency supports the evidence. Be dependable in the small things as well as the large. Follow through, keep promises, and take ownership of every interaction with your customer.

Habit 4: Ask the Right Questions. Three months after receiving a promotion to outside sales, the man behind my promotion began to have regrets due to my lackluster performance. One day in a heart-to-heart (you know, the talk before they fire you) he came right to the source of the problem. “Mike, I don’t think you’re asking for the order,” he said. He was right. I thought all I had to do was show up and customers would give me an order just for being present. It rarely works that way. Many sales people are afraid of “being pushy.” They think they’re asking when they say, “You don’t need anything today, do you?” or “Guess I can’t talk you into buying something.” This attempt at homespun charm may have worked in Mayberry, but you’ll starve to death in the real world. Use simpl