You can’t understand it. You have had all the right training. You would like to make a lot of money. The market is not particularly strong, but it does support people who transact more business than you. Every month you say that you will break through. Yet, it does not happen. What is wrong?

Sales is part attitude and part substance. All the training and support in the world will not make a dent if you are missing the attitude. The world is full of those who were not that smart, but never took no for an answer. The world is even more full of those who had all the right tools, yet were left at the starting gate by those who didn’t have the tools and couldn’t care less.

Do you need an attitudinal check-up? If there are those in your market who are outperforming you, the answer is YES! Here are some of the questions you should ask:

• Do you want to make a lot of money but don’t really want to help people?

Most sales people want to make more money. When we hire we try to measure money motivation. The top sales people are motivated to make even more money–but they are also motivated to help people.

It doesn’t matter if you are selling real estate or any other product. You cannot sell to inanimate objects. You must sell to people. If you are not interested in learning these peoples’ needs, developing relationships or otherwise helping these people obtain their goals, then you are doomed to failure before you start. What many sales people never learn is that the sales process is not about you–it is about your customers.

Whether your customer is a corporate relocation center or a homebuyer, if you see yourself as their partner you are on the right track. If you see them as an impediment to your goals, you are going to languish in the basement of opportunity. Don’t want to sell to people? Then try getting on the Internet and taking orders on a computer!

• Are you held back by call reluctance?

Everyone has call reluctance–just as every member of each team is nervous before the Super Bowl. The point is, if you don’t have some feeling holding you back before you make a call, you wouldn’t be normal.

Some have studied the topic of call reluctance to death. Dudley and Goodson, in Earning What You’re Worth? identify the 12 faces of call reluctance. We will attempt to keep the discussion simpler:

If you are producing less than you would like and are making less effective sales calls than you would like, you are hampered by call reluctance. Note, we emphasize the word effective. If you are constantly calling on a safe target (one you know well) and come away with nothing, you are not really making effective or serious sales calls.

The only excuse for not making enough effective sales calls is that you are over- loaded with business and you are trying to service that business. Even in these cases, those with a minimum of call reluctance will actually hire assistants to make sure their present business does not interfere with their marketing. Those with call reluctance use business as an excuse for not calling.

• Do you really want to succeed?

How do you overcome call reluctance? If you really want to succeed, then you will do what is necessary to force yourself to make the calls. As a matter of fact, those who are making calls are not forcing themselves. They are doing what comes naturally in the process of succeeding. If you let your call reluctance take over, the urge to succeed just isn’t strong enough.

Is there a potion to take to overcome lack of desire? Absolutely not–but the moment you accept this explanation and stop blaming other things such as training or the market, you can start building a solution. This solution may take a re-evaluation of all your priorities. Only you can really reach within yourself and come up with a priority list of what is important. If you feel that success in your line of work really is at the top of the list, then you must adjust your actions to make it happen. This means making effective sales calls, among other things.

• Do you really want to succeed now?

If you really want to succeed, do you really want to succeed today? Those who want to do it today are said to have a sense of urgency. If you really want to succeed, what is going to make tomorrow any different? Procrastination is what got you here in the first place. The only right time to take action is now.

The key is making the decision. You then can make a plan and set up facilitators for implementation. This process will not happen gradually. You must take the first step. And continue taking additional steps every day.