There are three components that make up any human’s professional DNA, they are attitude, skillset, and knowledge. Outside of extreme circumstances, those three pieces will determine the level of success anyone will achieve in any endeavor. Of those three, I believe the vast majority of people would agree that attitude is the most important; and that not only is it the most important, but that it accounts for about 80% of the equation, if not more.

When it comes to sales teams, large companies usually do a good job with the second two pieces: Sales skills and product knowledge. Most smaller companies, while doing okay with product training, lack sales skills training. In other words, having a process for pre-call planning, the pre-sale process, the actual sales call, and the post-call analysis and then practicing and role-playing sales skills.

But when it comes to the most important item—attitude training—almost every company lacks in this area. Most say they hire for attitude but not only is attitude hard to assess, after all most salespeople present themselves well during the interview process, but what are they doing to ensure the person does in fact have the right attitude and how do they further develop and reinforce the right attitude throughout the salesperson’s career? You might hear a motivational speaker at an event, or do emotional intelligence training, but studies show those are not effective past the first few hours or days after training. Why? Because they don’t actually address teaching salespeople what to do to truly acquire the mindset of a champion. How to be the best of the best, and give people a pathway to move in that direction.

This is where everyone can learn something from professional athletes, and other high performance professions where superior performance is critical, such as military special forces. How do professional sports teams, Olympians, Navy Seals, and similar groups make sure their people have a champion’s mindset and consistently have the right attitude? They use psychologists. People that teach them how to think before, during, and after they perform the most important aspects of their job.

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