Be aware that while many people intend to be successful in sales, only 20 percent are truly successful: those who produce 80 percent of their company’s sales revenues. Corporations such as General Electric (for whom I was once employed) had a philosophy that tried to eliminate the bottom twenty percent of their sales force every year and reload with newly hired sales people, introducing new hungry, blood into their sales organization.

The question is: Why do the top twenty percent succeed and the bottom twenty fail? While there may be contributing circumstances (such as being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know this happens. First hand!), the following three areas are the prime contributors to one’s success or failure in sales:

  • Fear
  • Excuses
  • Procrastination