1. Extremely strong ego-drive.  This is different than egotism.  (In fact, many great salespeople are actually pretty soft spoken).  Ego-drive is the desire to win which for us means making a sale or persuading someone to our point of view.
2. Empathy.  That’s the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.  Empathy is not sympathy.  But it is a real need to understand the other person’s point of view.
3. Resiliency.  This is especially true for our newest AE’s who will experience more rejection in their first year in sales than at any other time in their life.

But I would add two additional things to that list.

First is the absolute desire to make a difference for your clients.  It’s no surprise I think that way.  After all, my book is called Don’t Just Make a Sale, Make a Difference. And I really believe that the best AE’s that I see around the country are totally committed to making it a win/win for their clients.  That leads to number two; the best AE’s that I know are also students.  And they are especially studying marketing and advertising so that they can give advice to their clients that will help them produce results.

Put those five elements together with a dose of hard work and you have a true superstar.