Many salespeople struggle with role-playing because they are put in positions of glorified public failure. Who wouldn’t object to that? There is such a negative bias against role-playing. Wanna know why? Because most role-playing, well, isn’t.

The ability to influence others is not a personality trait. It’s a skill set. It can be learned, honed, and perfected over time. Successful salespeople know how to use influence to connect with their prospects, to build trust, and ultimately to close more sales.

Influence cannot be assumed and that it must be earned. Your customer owes you nothing when they first walk through the door. They might carry baggage from previous sales encounters that work against your influence. You must begin every interaction in person, on the phone, or even in an email with the idea that influence is earned.

When we look at six-figure sales professionals, what makes them six-figure is their ability to perform consistently over a long period of time. They are masters of persistence. Persistence means we stay diligent to do those things that will matter day after day after day.

Negotiation is an unavoidable reality of the sales world in which we live. When faced with an entitled customer who skips any real negotiating and immediately throws down an ultimatum, it is only human to want to respond with something like “Nice NOT working with you!”

“Bring on the rejection!” said no one ever. No, it’s not fun, but to be expected. What separates good salespeople from great salespeople is how they handle rejection. Dealing with rejection depends heavily on how we interpret and react to it. Let’s consider how successful salespeople accomplish this.

Every customer has a backstory, but most salespeople don’t bother to find out what it is. They fret about what the customer is moving to rather than what the customer is coming from. That line of questioning won’t get you far because you haven’t learned a thing about your customer’s backstory. You don’t understand the context around their decision to walk into your showroom in the first place.

When you’re going out to prospect, wouldn’t it be great if those prospects already know you? Wouldn’t it be great if you were already connected to them in some way and they were looking forward to your call? Good news! It’s possible to have that in your own prospecting experience.

There’s one thing six-figure sales professionals have in common, and that is they are relentless. They don’t give up. They won’t surrender. There is this concept of persistence that is critical day after day after day.

If you see prospecting as dull, boring, monotonous, and mundane, and you’re simply pounding through your prospecting calls, that’s a real problem. It’s a problem for you, and it’s a problem for your prospect. Are you creative in your prospecting?