How to Go $0-$10m ARR as the ONLY Sales Rep

Diana Ross has done it TWICE. I interviewed her yesterday on our show.

In less than 8 years, the best salesperson I ever met went from an intern at Xerox, to closing $1M enterprise deals to becoming the co-founder and CRO of a Unciorn-bound tech startup.

Want to know how she did it?

Here are the 9 things that made her a top 0.1% seller:

1. She truly believes what she sells is best for the customer

Call it drinking the KoolAid. The best salespeople are the best because they believe their customers will be far worse off without the solution.

2. She hits her activity goals every day (no matter what else is going on)

Traveling to NYC for meetings? Wake up early and prospect to hit your activity goals. Have a company-wide offsite all week? Stay up late and hit activity goals. Have to work the booth at a trade show? You get the point.

3. She generates her own leads, even when it’s "not her job"

She was always a “full-stack AE”. Even when her job involved a large amount of inbound, she took it upon herself to build systems that were automating outbound for her.

4. She intimately understands what customers care about

She doesn’t just talk, she listens. Over time she develops a deep understanding of who the customer is, what matters to them and what doesn’t. She’s able to cater the pitch to who she’s talking to, and has a deep intuition for personas.

5. She understands the product better than anyone

She developed a unique understanding of what her product does, relative value of its component, and what features should be built. This allows her to emphasize and de-emphasize certain parts of the product depending on the situation.

6. She has a Kobe Bryant-like commitment to excellence

She doesn’t understand when people don’t do things completely and correctly, because that’s what she would do if she were doing it. She expects the same out of the people who work for her.

7. She knows where to spend her time and the company’s money

You only get to #1 if you figure out how to get the maximum amount of revenue from the minimum amount of money and energy spent. Then do it all over again as fast as you can, every single day.

8. She is extremely focused on her craft

Her whole life is family and work. This type of focus is necessary to be successful in anything you do. This may sound depressing, but it’s the reality of what it takes to be #1 in anything. You need to decide if that’s actually what you want.

9. She’s never complained about anything, ever

This quality is present in truly elite sellers that often goes unmentioned. Great sellers don’t have time to complain. They are too busy making sh*t happen.

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So who is this Hall of Fame seller?

Her name is Diana Ross.

My good friend and CRO at Retention.com + RB2B.

The playbook for sales success isn’t complicated.

It just requires a level of dedication that few people are capable of.

If you follow Diana’s lead, you can be #1 too.