7.“A pleasing personality”: Is selling a popularity contest? No, but would you buy something from someone who was nasty and rude?

8.“Sympathy and understanding:” Selling is about understanding what people DO, and then helping them do it better. Plain and simple.

9.“Mastery of detail”: Ah, yes… The devil, as they say, is in details. Ever work really hard to close a sale, only to have it fall apart because of some small detail that falls through cracks? What may seem like a small detail to you can be a crucial one, maybe even a deal-breaker, to your prospect, customer, or client.

10.“Willingness to assume full responsibility”: No matter how much customer support your company provides, you are prime representative of your organization. If you try to pass buck to someone else, you lose respect and credibility. “But it really wasn’t my fault that shipment was delayed in customs and then delivery truck was attacked a pack of wild dogs…” Doesn’t matter; accept responsibility for any problem and all details, and then do whatever needs to be done to make things right. Your clients need to know that you are their advocate.

11.“Cooperation”: You can’t do it alone. Sales is a collaborative effort. Your prospects need to collaborate with you; you need cooperation and assistance of others both inside and outside your organization to make things happen. The best salespeople are those who can work well with others, and with whom other people want to work.

Think about these eleven areas of leadership, and ask yourself how you do on each of these items. Find areas where you can make improvements and chart your course to work on improving what you do each day; incremental improvements each day become exponential over time.

Packaging - Can you package your product more attractively? Do colors of your package relate to your product? Can you package your product into a smaller or larger package?

Delivery - Can you offering cheaper shipping? Do you have a high enough profit margin to offer free shipping? Can you ship your products faster?

Benefits - Can you offer more benefits than your competition? Are your benefits stronger? Do you have believable proof that supports your claims?

Quality - Is your product built and tested to last longer than your competition? Can you improve overall quality of your product?

Performance - Can you make your product faster at solving your customer’s problem? Is your product easier to use than your competitions?

Features - Can you offer more product features than your competition? Do your features support benefits you offer?

Availability - Is your product always available or does your have to backorder it? Can your product suppliers drop ship to your customers?

Extras - Do you provided free bonuses when your customers buy your product? Are your bonuses more valuable than your competitions?

Service - Do you offer your customers free 24 hour customer service? Can you provide free product repair? Does your competition make their customers talk to a machine?

Proof - Can you provide more proof than your competition that your product is reliable? Can you provide stronger testimonials or endorsements?

Guarantees - Do you have a stronger guarantee than your competition? Do you offer warranties with your product? Do you provide an easier return policy?