Innate talent is a wonderful quality, but there's another trait that's just as important  when it comes to predicting success.  It's not creativity, emotional intelligence, charisma, self-confidence, emotional stability or even attractiveness.  What is this trait?  It's "grit."

"Grit" is defined as perseverance and passion for long term goals. Across all different disciplines, including sales, "grit" is as critical as talent in achieving success.

If you want to be good at anything, you need to focus relentlessly on your weaknesses and find ways to improve them. This maxim applies to amateur musicians who want to be professionals, chess players, professional athletes and salespeople.

In his seminal book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell quotes this finding by neurologist Daniel Levitin: "The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert --in anything."

Now you have the good and bad news.  The good news is that great salespeople aren't necessarily born that way.  The bad news is that becoming successful in sales takes a tremendous amount of motivation, hard work, and perseverance.

If you want to increase your sales, focus on your grit.