The secret selling ingredient (warning, may contain traces of nuts)

The most successful sales professionals are easily aroused by customers. When they win a contract, so intense is the elation, a little bit of wee escapes!

Sure, they appear normal at first glance, but if you peer closer there is something peculiar bubbling underneath the surface.

These sales professionals aren’t just fond of what they sell, they fantasise about it. Removing themselves from the stresses of the everyday sales grind – to escape to a safe and warm place, that is to say, loving what they sell and believing in it with an abnormal conviction.

The best salespeople in the world believe (rightly or wrongly) their product or service is the best in their market. Each word that leaps from their lips is lubricated with so much confidence and sincerity the customer is helpless to deny it and is effortlessly seduced by it.

Some people call these sales professionals “evangelists”. I simply call them nuts! You will come across these people in your travels. They can be found in almost all industries and parts of the world. Fearless, hungry, deeply passionate and driven, they will chew your ears off about what they sell. So certain, yes at times deluded, but always so damn convincing.

Give me a team of nutty salespeople and I’ll show you a successful sales model. To maximise their potential, what they sell must be genuinely valuable. If not, it will only be a matter of time before their delusion catches up with them. Nutty salespeople and value is a deadly mix.

These sales professionals may be deluded at times, but let’s not tell them that. They are having so much fun and success it would be a shame to spoil it for them.

Trent Leyshan is the founder of BOOM!, Australia’s leading sales training and development specialist. He is the co-founder of Expand People and author of The Naked Salesman.