If business is a game, sales professionals are right in the middle of the action, as many business transactions, regardless of the industry, involve some type of business development professional.

Therefore, sales professionals are typically responsible for how smoothly the transactions go and the amount of money derived from each lead.

This is why many executives would consider themselves above average (if not great) sales professionals while many of them were in a sales position at one point in their careers.

Determining the Great from the Average:

To determine the difference between the great and the average, we must ask ourselves as to what separates effective sales professionals from the average.

Below, you will find some factors that propel sales professionals to having a great career:

1. Ethics -

The best sales professionals have ethical standards that, regardless of their monetary condition, require them to uphold their own values. For many, it is hard to trust salespeople because so many have had bad experiences with them.

In sales, just like any other facet of business or life, unethical behavior becomes a vicious cycle. What happens? The sales representative, due to constant beratement from dissatisfied buyers thanks to their empty promises and ability to quickly collect but never deliver, begins to resent their buyers, thus justifying their behavior.

Not only do poor ethics lead to a subpar career; they lead to an unhappy one as well.

2. Mentorship and Growing Others -

This one works from both sides of the equation. Many reasons why sales representatives are unhappy and leave their current position is because they feel that they are not growing at their job. There is nobody there to mentor them.

Many sales professionals want to do right by their company, but fail to help the younger sales professionals grow and become better. This is for a myriad of reasons ranging from being too busy to more cynical drivers such as feeling the youngster could take their job.

Regardless, giving back is part of leadership and it's part of being a good sales representative.

3. Understanding of Business -

Sales professionals who cannot dissect the corporate structure and attendant roles and behaviors of the people within the companies that they call their clients or prospects, are at a big disadvantage to those who have the ability to envision where each individual in a company fits in and how they, the sales rep, should tailor their sales angle accordingly.

Effective selling means being a business partner; in order to become a business partner, a sales professional must be able to have empathy for and understand their target market.

Because there are so many variables that encompass and drive the most effective sales representatives, three is not scratching the surface. However, the above three differentiators prove to be some of the biggest hurdles that business development representatives either recognize or, in some cases go through an entire career without realizing why they are not where they are supposed to or wish to be.