"Outperforming"

Photo credit Daniel X. O'Neil

In sales as well as business in general, there's nothing quite like closing a deal. 

That's no small feat. Closing a a sale takes a solid knowledge of your product, a deep understanding of client issues, careful preparation and an ability to convey your pitch in a convincing way. Not to mention, a sense of human behavior, an ability to gauge corporate politics and of course, a bit of showmanship. (Among many other things, of course.)

But continuously closing deals - selling month over month, year over year, continued success - takes more than even that mix of capabilities.  

Continued success is a function of drive, of a sense of continuous improvement, of a conscious and practiced avoidance of complacency.

An understanding that the line between success and failure is drawn and managed by mindset, more so than one's knowledge base.

Because if there is one thing that the seasoned sales professional has learnt, it's that continued success requires you to keep pushing yourself, not accepting that 'you've arrived', or that you now have all of the answers, no matter how well you're doing. 

Put differently, it's Ingvar Kamprad of Ikea stating that "the most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement".

Or more starkly, it's Andy Grove (of Intel fame) suggesting that only the paranoid survive.

Practically, it's the sales person who sits down every night and opens his or her sales target sheet and questions how they can continue to improve and grow and where they should be looking for the next opportunity. No matter where they are in their daily, weekly, monthly or annual target achievement.

As with so much in life, the driver of continued success is mental, not physical.

That's what drives outsized performance.