Read almost any book about sales and youll see some reference to, you need to have a good attitude. So what does that mean? Sometimes my most effective selling is when I have a bad attitude -- when Im more discerning and skeptical about whether a prospect has money or is willing to make the change. I get tougher then and force the prospect to fit into my procedure. So for the purpose of this article, Id like to redefine attitude and not talk about it in terms of good or bad, but instead what attitudes to have.

1. My value can be found nowhere else.

Most high-income sellers are in the business-to-business environment. And in that atmosphere, you must bring value with your knowledge, experience, and observations in a market. So even though you may sell the same type of solution that another company sells, your solution is enriched by you being in the process. High achievers understand that their products or services are better because of their expertise and wisdom. The elite high-income seller has the attitude of my total solution brings value because the prospect wont be able to find my value from anyone else.

2. If I want more, I contribute more.

The highest achievers realize something that the average performers dont. If you want to earn more money, you have to contribute more value and solve more problems for your customer. We say in our training, if you want to make more money, solve bigger problems. So when you work on your quarterly goals, stop working on what you can get out of the market and start working on what you can contribute to the market in terms of value and solutions to problems. Then, when you make a sales call or attend a sales prospect meeting, you wont be a needy, begging sales person. Youll be a contributor at a higher value.

3. There is a never-ending supply of client pain.

The elite sellers--the top one percent--know that even when a market is soft (no budgets) it doesnt mean theres no pain in the customer base. So the high achiever is always focused on the problems that he or she can solve and not focused on the budgets that arent there. Budgets follow beliefs. If the prospect believes he has a problem and believes its worth solving, budgets have a way of making an appearance.

4. My baggage doesnt matter.

Lets face the fact that we all have unwanted baggage. That little tinge of fear when we get ready to ask a question that we know we should ask, but some how it just doesnt roll off our tongue. The average performer decides he will wait to ask the question later. The high sales performer doesnt let his baggage get in the way of the right question to ask (or the right comment to make). In a sick sort of way, your baggage gets in the way of your customer getting his problem solved. You dont want to have that on your mind when you go to bed tonight, do you?

5. I am hyper-discerning about my time.

Its easy to say, be discerning, but with all the distractions and demands on our time, its hard to execute that attitude. So what do high sales achievers do with their time? In the sales environment they create standards of conduct that they demand from the prospect. If on the first phone call, the prospect doesnt want to share any of the problems theyre trying to fix then they have broken the first code of conduct and the high achieving sales executive should move on. If, on the first face-to-face meeting, the prospect refuses to tell how much money this problem costs them to have, then again, theyve broken a rule of conduct. The sales executive must move on. Set your code of conduct on what you expect from prospects and dont deviate. That makes it easier for you to let go at the appropriate time.