28 Habits of Highly Effective Sales Professionals

Sales Objectives

PRODUCTIVITY

28 Habits of Highly Effective Sales Professionals

What are the defining characteristics between good & bad sales reps? You're about to find out.

Recalibrate your Habits (And Career Trajectory)

Small habits, attention to detail, and hard work almost always compound into massive effects.

Just take a look at any professional sport.

Behind every championship team, there’s a set of individual coaches and players.

And each of these individuals is shaped by countless hours of hard work and a dedication to improving their craft.

In sales, it’s really no different. Just swap coaches and players for managers and sales reps.

Here, we’re going to highlight a few of the many defining habits of high-performing sales reps.

A Quick Thanks to Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz, Co-Founder of VC firm Andreesan Horowitz, authored a book called The Hard Thing About the Hard Things. This detailed his experience as the CEO of Opsware and how he led the company through adversity time-and-time-again.

In the book, he shared the story of a charter he created called, “Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager.”

We credit the inspiration for this collection to Ben (by the way, download his book on Audible here)

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1) Ownership

Good sales reps.. take responsibility for their number, their actions, their reactions and their attitude.
Bad sales reps.. pass the blame onto leadership, sales development, marketing, and competition when they miss their number

2) Pipeline Generation

Good sales reps.. put prospecting as a top priority and leave admin work for later
Bad sales reps.. put admin work as a top priority and leave prospecting for later (and wonder why prospecting doesn’t work)

3) Market Awareness

Good sales reps.. spend time reading about industry trends and analyze reports to bring insight to sales conversations
Bad sales reps.. waste time scrolling through social media and unrelated content and don’t bring value to sales conversations.

4) Planning & Execution

Good sales reps.. show up to work with prioritized tasks and objectives to control the day
Bad sales reps.. show up to work without set objectives and let their day control them

5) Teamwork & Delegation

Good sales reps.. earn the respect of their teammates by delegating tasks when they need help
Bad sales reps.. frustrate their teammates by delegating everything

6) Office Drama

Good sales reps.. spend time on their quota because they know that wherever their focus goes, energy flows
Bad sales reps.. spend time on office drama and politics because that’s where their focus goes

7) Forecasting and Pipeline Management

Good sales reps.. remove stale deals from pipeline and accurately forecast with logic, not emotion
Bad sales reps.. inflate their pipeline with dead deals and inaccurately forecast with emotion, not logic

8) Time Allocation

Good sales reps.. direct the day’s best energy towards their toughest tasks and completes smaller tasks later
Bad sales reps.. direct the day’s best energy towards smaller tasks and leaves the toughest tasks unexecuted

9) Promises and Follow-Through

Good sales reps.. under-promise and over-deliver
Bad sales reps.. over-promise and under-deliver

10) Selfishness and Collaboration

Good sales reps.. are protective of their time and guard their calendars, but will help when needed
Bad sales reps.. let anyone take their time for anything, and will help when unneccessary

11) Product Knowledge and Storytelling

Good sales reps.. tell compelling narratives about how customers win with their organization
Bad sales reps.. can barely articulate why customers chose their organization, except for maybe a few features of a fact sheet

12) Political and Social Capital

Good sales reps.. are respected by their peers and leaders and can rely on timely support when they ask
Bad sales reps.. are scoffed at by their peers and leaders when they ask for help and struggle to get anything done

13) During Key Internal Meetings and New Initiatives

Good sales reps.. actively listen during key internal discussions and provide constructive feedback to shape new initiatives
Bad sales reps.. passively listen during key internal discussions and often detract and/or derail the adoption of new initiatives

14) In the Office

Good sales reps.. know when it’s time buckle down for work and when it’s time for fun
Bad sales reps.. disrupt others trying to buckle down for work and lack situational awareness

15) Out the Office

Good sales reps.. put on a good face and positively represent their personal and company brand – despite their mood, attitude, or thoughts.
Bad sales reps.. wear their mood, attitude, and thoughts on their sleeve and can negatively affect their personal and comapny brand.

16) Objections

Good sales reps.. seek out and face objections as early as possible and close deals
Bad sales reps.. evade objections until the last minute and have their deals fall apart on the finish line

17) Discovery

Good sales reps.. ask intelligent questions to identify business initiatives and obstacles
Bad sales reps.. ask canned questions and only skim the surface

18) Discounting

Good sales reps.. hold their ground and only discount when there’s value being traded for value.
Bad sales reps.. crumble under pressure and often discount without getting nothing in return.

19) Closing Next Steps

Good sales reps.. assertively close for next steps and maintain deal progression
Bad sales reps.. passively ask for next steps and have their deals stall

20) Pursuing Promotions

Good sales reps.. establish and exceed expectations with their leadership to earn promotions
Bad sales reps.. expect promotions to be handed to them based on tenure and get stuck

21) Mentality and Emotion

Good sales reps.. keep a steady mindset and rise to the occasion when faced with adversity
Bad sales reps.. ride a frantic roller coaster of emotion and crumble when faced with adversity

22) Self Learning

Good sales reps.. know that learning never stops and take growth into their own hands
Bad sales reps.. think that learning stops after on-boarding and blame leadership if they stop growing

23) Talking and Listening

Good sales reps.. Actually listen to their peers and clients and answer with thoughtful questions, insight, and recommendations
Bad sales reps.. Appear to listen but are really just waiting to talk about themselves or their company

24) Timeliness and Professionalism

Good sales reps.. manage their calendar and are rarely late
Bad sales reps.. lose control of their calendar and are rarely on time

25) Sales Process

Good sales reps.. don’t skip steps in the sales process no matter how good the deal is
Bad sales reps.. spoil their pipeline and wonder why good deals derail when they skipped steps in the sales process

26) Health Habits and Self-Care

Good sales reps.. take care of their emotional, mental, & physical state and know how to battle burnout
Bad sales reps.. lose control of their emotion, mental, & physical state and are always burnt out

27) Tooling and Technology

Good sales reps.. make their tools and technology work for them so they can be more strategic
Bad sales reps.. waste their time working for their tools and technology and become glorified paper-pushers

28) Productivity vs. Busywork

Good sales reps.. focus their efforts on revenue generating tasks and are truly productive
Bad sales reps.. focus their efforts on low priority tasks and just do busywork.