How to be an Incredibly Successful MLM Salesperson

How to Be a Good Salesperson

1. Identify and stick to your buyer personas
2. Use a measurable, repeatable sales process
3. Know your product
4. Review your pipeline objectively
5. Find shortcuts and hacks
6. Practice active listening
7. Manage your emotions
8. Follow up
9. Personalize your message
10. Take breaks
11. Get 8+ hours of sleep every night
12. Believe in what you're selling
13. Identify your strongest motivator
14. Believe in what you're selling
15. View the customer's success as your own
16. Build personal relationships
17. Prepare ahead of time
18. Look for potential customers wherever you go

The difference between good salespeople and great ones is staggering.

Good Salespeople hit their quota ... most of the time. Great reps don't just consistently hit, they have blow-out months or quarters.

Good reps earn their prospects' trust and respect. Great reps earn their prospects' admiration, loyalty, and referrals. Good reps can skillfully handle objections.

Great Salespeople preemptively surface those concerns and make them disappear.

If you want greatness, good news. Following these 18 rules of good sellers will help you become one of the top-selling salespeople on your team -- or even company.

Selling habits of an effective salesperson.

1) They set and stick to their ideal buyer persona.

A clearly defined buyer persona is crucial to an effective sales process. And a sales person sticks to that persona is effective in generating sales. Otherwise, a salesperson might fall back on spray-and-pray tactics that result in inefficient prospecting.

An effective sales person researches the prospect to make sure they're a good fit. They stick to their ideal buyer persona and know exactly whom they're selling to and why.

2) Their sales process is measurable and repeatable.

Low-performing sales person let intuition guide them. High-performing sales person use a process that's optimized to move as many prospects as possible from "connect" to "close." Low-performing sales person are always letting things slip through the cracks. High-performing sales person know the state of every deal in their pipeline, what actions they'll take next, and when. Low-performing sales person never analyze their results -- because they haven't been tracking them. High-performing sales person obsessively review their key metrics and adjust as necessary.

To be extraordinary, you need a consistent process.

3) They know their product.

Being able to sell is half the battle. Understanding what you're selling is the other (often under-appreciated) half.

In the old days, selling relied on charm and snake-oil tactics. But now that prospects have more access to information than ever before, they're not fooled so easily. To gain their trust and add value to their lives, you have to truly know your product.

4) They execute fact-based (not feelings-based) pipeline management.

Effective sales people don't mark a deal as likely to close because the influencer likes them. They're able to objectively review their opportunities, avoid happy ears, and come up with accurate sales forecasts.

5) They look for "hacks."

Once a great salesperson finds a strategy or technique that works, they use it -- again and again and again and again, until it stops working.

This is smart. Salespeople are always working against the clock, which means the more time they spend experimenting, the less time they have for true selling. Plus, there's an opportunity cost. Try one thing that doesn't work, and you've missed the opportunity to use something that does.

I'm not suggesting you should never change up your approach. Just do so selectively, and get results ASAP so you can either implement the tactic or move on.

6) They practice active listening.

Successful salespeople are completely present when they talk to prospects. They're not thinking about another deal, scrolling through their notes, or sending funny memes to their team members. They're engaged -- and as a result, their conversations with buyers are deeper and more meaningful.

Active listening may be one of the hardest skills to develop, since it's human nature to care more about what you have to say than your prospect. However, it's incredibly valuable. Not only will you build stronger relationships, but you'll unlock information that'll help you position your product as the best option.

7) They work extremely hard.

It's 5 p.m. on the last day of the month or quarter. The B players have already left the office -- they're at a bar nearby celebrating because they all met quota. The C players are still in the office -- they're sending off last-ditch email attempts to prospects they haven't engaged with in weeks. The A players are in the office too. They've already hit, but they're still sending emails, scheduling meetings, and making calls. And by laying the foundation for a great month before they need to, they always blow their goals out of the water.

8) They follow up.

Many salespeople fail to effectively follow up after a presentation. They don't even know if the prospect opened their email for example .

9) They personalize their message.

Instead of following a script and approaching each prospect with a "one size fits all" mentality, high-performing salespeople are committed to learning as much as they can about a prospect to tailor their message. These salespeople understand the unique pain points their prospect are facing and can explain why their product is a good fit.

Life habits of effective reps

10) They stay balanced.

Salespeople experience more highs and lows in a single week than most professionals do in an entire month. Some days, you feel invincible. Other days, you wonder if you even belong in sales.

The successful Salespeople have learned to manage their emotions and stay somewhere in the middle. When things are going really well, and almost all of their deals are closing, they remind themselves not to get too cocky. When business dies down, they tell themselves not to become demoralized: Sales will pick up soon if they keep chugging.

11) They take breaks.

In sales, activity is often correlated with results. The more emails you send, the more meetings you book. The more meetings you book, the more demos you set. The more demos you set, the more deals you close.

Following this line of thought, many salespeople end up working 10-hour days every weekday and even putting in time on the weekends.

Not only is this bad for your mental and physical health, it's also unproductive. Breaks are scientifically proven to boost memory, focus, and the quality of your ideas.

If you're regularly burning the candle at both ends, you'll eventually burn out. And plus, how much are you actually getting done between 6:30 and 8:30 at night? That time would be better spent reading, talking to your friends or family, watching TV or playing video games, cooking, walking your dog -- basically, anything that gives your brain a break.

12) They get eight hours of sleep every night.

Think you can get away with five or six hours of sleep? Think again. Most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep per night. If you get less, you'll suffer from a laundry list of ailments, including:

• Irritability
• Decreased motivation
• Anxiety
• Symptoms of depression
• Reduced energy
• Fatigue
• Restlessness
• Poor decision making
• Increased errors
• Forgetfulness

To be at your best on sales calls, prioritize your sleep.

Motivation habits of effective Salespeople

13) They believe in what they're selling.

It's easier to be passionate about -- and sell -- a product when you genuinely believe in it. The most effective salespeople actually use their product and believe in its value.

If you feel "meh" about what you're selling, find happy testimonials from customers. Examples of how your product has improved people's lives -- in ways both large and small -- will reinforce your motivation (and give you valuable social proof when you're meeting with prospects!)

14) They're strongly motivated.

It doesn't matter what drives a salesperson -- they simply need to be motivated. Every top salesperson has a burning reason for showing up to work every day and giving it their all. Maybe they want to buy a house and must make at least 110% of quota every month. Maybe they're super competitive and always want to be at the top of the leaderboard. Maybe they need to prove to themselves they can do well in sales.

Ask yourself, "What's my #1 reason for wanting to be successful?" If you can't immediately come up with an answer, you need to find that motivator.

15) They view their customer's success as their own.

Salespeople don't stop working as soon as the prospect signs on the dotted line. Instead, top reps touch base frequently with their customers to seek feedback and provide tactical suggestions.

Life habits of effective Salespeople

16) They constantly build personal relationships.

Dan Tyre, one of the best salespeople I know, is a relationship builder. Tyre connects with people everywhere he goes -- not in the surface-level, LinkedIn way, or the "let's exchange business cards" way, but in a genuine, human way that makes you want to talk to him again.

As a salesperson, relationships are your capital. You don't need Don Draper levels of charisma; on the contrary, a desire to help goes a lot further than a magnetic personality.

17) They prepare ahead of time.

An effective salesperson prepares before a call. That means they do research on their prospect and gather all the information before a big customer meeting.

Top reps don't wing it. They go in with a plan and a contingency plan. This way, they anticipate challenges or questions and prepare an effective response to avoid losing the sale.

18) They're always selling.

To over perform, you can't stop being a salesperson as soon as you leave the office. Successful reps are always looking for potential customers -- at parties, networking events, dinners, and so on.