Do You Have What It Takes To Make It In Sales?
Some people are born sellers. For everyone else, selling skills can be built. But how do you know if you really have what it takes to succeed in sales, or if you should be doing something else?
This episode of the Sales Logic Podcast dives right into the heart of that question. Mark Hunter and Meridith Elliott Powell explore what works, what doesn’t, and what makes someone the right fit for a career in sales.
Sales Is About Serving—Not Selling
Most people don’t wake up dreaming of becoming a salesperson. Like Mark Hunter, you may have stumbled into sales out of necessity, not ambition. The good news is success isn’t about being pushy or persuasive—it’s about helping others.
“Sales is about serving people and helping them.” —Mark Hunter
When you focus on others, instead of getting the sale, everything changes. You shift away from anxiety and the pressure to close, and instead become invested in solving real problems.
Curiosity & Relationships: The Real Skills
Succeeding in sales doesn’t require being a “people person,” but it does require genuine curiosity. Meridith Elliott Powell points out that your most powerful sales skill is a deep interest in your customer’s world.
“You have to have a genuine interest in people. I think it’s one of the most important skills in sales.” —Meridith Elliott Powell
Whether you’re learning about a customer’s company, industry, or challenges, staying curious unlocks conversations, trust, and opportunity.
And if you’re finding yourself stressed and uncertain about your ability to sell, it might not be you; it might be your environment.
“Don’t confuse selling with the culture within your selling. You have to enjoy the culture you’re selling in.” —Meridith Elliott Powell
It’s Not About the Product—It’s About the Solution
All too often, companies obsess over product features instead of outcomes. Mark Hunter warns that focusing solely on product details drains the fun (and the effectiveness) out of sales.
“It’s about the solution. It’s about the outcome.” —Mark Hunter
Buyers respond to someone interested in their problems, goals, and vision. Ask better questions, steer conversations toward helping, and watch your results (and job satisfaction) soar.
Is It Just a Slump—Or Should You Get Out?
Some months, you’re on fire. Others, you’re struggling. If you’re wondering whether you’re in a typical sales slump or if it’s time to move on, start with honest reflection:
- What did you enjoy about your best months?
- What stressed you out?
- Are the problems internal, or are they part of the company culture?
If you’re truly curious, enjoy helping people, and are willing to adapt, you have the core building blocks for a successful sales career. Sometimes, it’s about getting in the right environment, or choosing to focus on the right daily disciplines.
Stay Focused on the Long Game
Sales isn’t about instant gratification. It’s a cycle: play for the long term. Lean into your network, find a mentor, and surround yourself with others who inspire you.
As Mark Hunter puts it, “Sales is not a solo activity. It’s a team sport.”
Recommended Reading
To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink is highlighted as a must-read for anyone feeling uncertain about their place in sales.
Lightning Round: Top 10 Ways to Get Consistently Better at Sales
- Spend more time talking and listening to customers.
- Spend time with successful salespeople—learn what they do.
- Refine the questions you ask by combining research with better, more insightful questions.
- Spend 20 minutes a day understanding your industry.
- Spend 20 minutes a day understanding the marketplace and global shifts affecting your customers.
- Fill your mind with sales podcasts and books to keep learning.
- Ask your best customers for feedback about your process.
- Analyze your day, especially your mornings—how you start sets the tone.
- Accept rejection as part of the process and use it to learn how to add more value and create more interest.
- Focus on small, consistent steps every day—improvement compounds over time.
If you’re willing to develop your curiosity, commit to serving others, and keep improving, you have what it takes to not only make it in sales, but to thrive.
Mark Hunter [00:00:00]:
We prospect with integrity, we will get customers who have integrity. Integrity is the foundation from which everything is built on.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:00:12]:
You better understand value. But at the end of the day, sales is a relationship business. It is a people business. It is an emotional business.
Mark Hunter [00:00:36]:
This is Sales Logic.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:00:41]:
This is Sales Logic. So technically it is Friday morning at 7 AM and we are recording early because Mark’s traveling, I’m traveling, and this show will go again on Saturday morning at 8 AM. But I gotta tell you, um, I decided to go live because I thought, what the heck, sneak peek, right? Well, we’ll put it out there and see who’s watching us.
Mark Hunter [00:01:05]:
Hey, that’s exactly the case. And it’s great. We’re both on the road. You’re on your way to Bangkok and to London. I happen to be in Minneapolis today backfilling for you for an event. But hey, what the heck? That’s, you know what, that’s the beauty of Sales Logic because again, we support each other. Hey, let’s jump right into the topic. The topic is how do you know if you have what it to make it in sales? This is a question that comes up because a lot of people are really questioning themselves as to whether or not they should remain in sales.
Mark Hunter [00:01:31]:
Lightning round, we’re going to talk about top 10 ways to get consistently better at sales so you can stay in sales. So let’s jump into the topic. How do you know if you have what it takes to be in sales?
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:01:44]:
You know, Mark, I think this is such, it’s such a good question and such a good such a good topic. I think if you are questioning whether you should be in sales or not, for most people, I realize there’s always exceptions. But I’m wondering if it’s causing you so much stress if you’re selling wrong. I think, I think sales, in my opinion, is a basic fundamental skill. It is a skill we all need to have. And what I mean by that is, Somehow we have flipped our brains to think selling in business is different. But the truth is you sell in every aspect of your life, every single day.
Mark Hunter [00:02:27]:
Thank you for saying that, because when I first got in, I didn’t want to get into sales. I didn’t either. I talk about— yeah, I mean, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, oh, let’s be a salesperson. I only got into sales because I needed a car. That was, you know, because my because my insurance. And I got fired from my first 2 sales jobs because I didn’t know what sales was. I thought sales was just trying to take money from customers. I didn’t realize that sales is about serving people and helping them.
Mark Hunter [00:02:55]:
And until I got that mindset, I was totally screwed up in terms of what I thought selling was, and my results were screwed up, you know, as a result. Sales is about serving people. And you are right, we are selling from the moment we’re born, from the moment we come out of the womb, we are selling every day. And you just have to realize it, all it is, is really serving people and helping people.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:03:22]:
Yeah. And I wonder, like, think about the fact of, do you remember being a kid and you’re, there was a party on Friday night, your curfew was at 10 o’clock, and every cool kid was staying out until 11. And you worked on your parents to get you to stay out till 11, and you got it to [10:30], that was sales. And you closed the deal because you moved the needle. But I will say a couple of things. Number one, you have to be curious. Like, you have to have a genuine interest in people. I think it’s one of the most important skills in sales.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:03:54]:
Like, one of my favorite parts of selling is just finding out about the companies. That I’m going to be speaking to. It’s so interesting to me what people do for a living, how they make a living, how they make their products, new businesses that pop up. So I do think you need to be curious. And if you’re not curious and you’re not interested in people, sales may not be right for you.
Mark Hunter [00:04:16]:
And when you’re curious, people take notice of that because it demonstrates your interest in knowing what they do and etc., etc., etc. And this is really what sales is all about. Because again, when you’re curious, and this is what we are as kids, you know, as kids, we would ask our parents for anything and everything. Why? Because we’re curious. We want to know, we want to know. And somewhere along the line, we tend to lose that as an adult. And so key, when you are curious, it is amazing at how doors open. Now, here’s the whole thing.
Mark Hunter [00:04:46]:
When we’re curious, we’re curious not to sell, but we’re curious to really find out how we can help them to see whether or not what we have will fit for them. And I think this is also— I think so many times what happens when salespeople say, I don’t know if I’m cut out for sales, it’s because they don’t have the right boss. They have a boss that is just driving them to close sales, close sales, close sales. And again, you know what? That means the boss has the wrong attitude about sales. So don’t say that you aren’t right for sales. Maybe you’re just in the wrong organization.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:05:21]:
You know, Marc, I think you’re making such a great, such a great point there. Because it’s, I remember when I started in sales, and I didn’t really get into sales until I got into financial services. And for the first 7 or 8 years I was in financial services, I worked under the most amazing boss. And I had a really great experience. And all the way up the chain, like all the way to our chairman, was really very open to how we sold and what we did, gave us a lot of local authority. And then the company started to lock down and the policies and procedures. One, one year we could sell a product, the next year they would tell us no, then they’d say go sell the product again. So it wasn’t sales that was the problem, it was the company’s policies and procedures and the parameters.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:06:07]:
So I think you’re making such a great point. Don’t confuse selling with the, um, the culture within your selling. You get to enjoy sales, You have to enjoy the culture you’re selling in. Such a great point.
Mark Hunter [00:06:22]:
And this is why, if you stop and think about this, I have yet to run into a really great salesperson who at one time did not have the opportunity to work under a really great sales leader. Because again, it is the culture is the— I look back on my career and there was an individual in particular who I had a chance to work for for only about 2 years. But he made a huge impact on my life in terms of how I sell. Which really stays with me to this day. And this is the key. And you know what’s interesting is I’m sure for you and the sales leaders who you had the privilege to work for, they all demonstrated a real interest in helping you, right? Yes, they absolutely wanted to help you. And that’s the way I look at my— and that’s the same approach we have to take to our customers. We have to be absolutely zeroed in.
Mark Hunter [00:07:14]:
On helping our customers. And when you do that, I think it changes your whole mindset. And that is the underlying piece. Because really, when it comes down to it, it’s your mindset that’s going to drive your results, period.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:07:28]:
Yeah, and you’ve got to, you know, I think another thing to know if you’re right for sales is if you really like to solve problems. Like, you get excited about solving problems because That’s what sales is. It is taking something, you know, a customer. It isn’t about selling a product or service. It’s what drives me nuts with sales training. I think about all the sales training I’ve been through in my life, and it is about positioning a product or service, selling a product or service. And, you know, the truth is the reasons that salespeople, their skills are so transferable is because the product or service we sell is secondary to the process that we should be using, which is discovering and finding out about the person. I can’t tell you how How many times I’ve been there selling financial services, but the problem my customer had had nothing to do with financial services.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:08:19]:
I still need to solve that problem. So you can’t be so focused on yourself. You’ve got to really be focused on trying to help the customer solve a problem.
Mark Hunter [00:08:32]:
Oh, so true. Hey, we got— hey, Isaac is joining us from Paris. That’s absolutely terrific. Mare is on her way over there very, very shortly. Yes. Let’s talk about this for a moment. Because you know what I find? So, so many times people feel selling is about the product. No, it’s not about the product.
Mark Hunter [00:08:51]:
It’s about the solution. It’s about the outcome. Now, the product is going to help you get to the solution. But I mean, how many times have you sat through a sales kickoff meeting where the entire meeting is about the product? The entire meeting is about the product. We immerse No wonder people really question whether or not they should be in sales because they can’t stand the product. Hey, it’s about the person you’re helping. You, you are in this position to be able to help the person see and achieve what they didn’t think was possible. And it starts by what you said right up front, a curious mindset.
Mark Hunter [00:09:24]:
So here’s the challenge for all salespeople. What are the questions you go into a sales call looking to ask? You know, and again, so many salespeople walk in and then think this reason they walk in with this presentation, or, you know, I’m going to get you through this presentation. Hold it, hold it. It’s about the questions you ask. My feeling is a great sales call is where there’s no presentation at all. It’s just questions being asked and it’s a conversation. That’s how you really, I think, enjoy sales a whole lot more.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:09:53]:
Yeah, Marc, you know, I think that you just really nailed why people question whether they’re in sales. Or not. And the reason is because typically what you’re doing— I mean, it is a very uncomfortable situation for me to go in and meet Mark. I’ve never really met him before, and he is going to give me something very precious, and that’s his time. And I use that time to talk about myself and my product. The reason we don’t like sales is because that is uncomfortable. What is very comfortable— like, I do this all the time in presentations. I talk about networking, and every time I say the word networking, it is if I feel the energy suck out of the room, right? People hate that.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:10:34]:
But I’ll tell people to get up out of their chairs. I give them 3 open-ended questions and I just ask them to go talk to other people in the room. And I come back and I say, how easy was that? And people were like, it wasn’t only easy, I enjoyed it. So you’re going to enjoy sales if you put your product in the back burner and you just go in and go, okay, my job today is to find out as much as I can about Mark. I’m going to do my research ahead of time and then I am going to spend my time learning and trying to figure out what his challenges are so I can help him. And that feels good.
Mark Hunter [00:11:12]:
Oh, that sure does. And that changes the context of everything. Hey, we got a great group. We got, we got an audience even though we’re on an off day, which is terrific. We need to jump to the question. The question comes to us from Daniel in Chicago, and it fits perfectly with what you’ve been talking about. Says, I’ve been in sales for 18 months. Some months I crush it.
Mark Hunter [00:11:32]:
Some months I feel like I’m drowning. How do you know if I’m just in a slump or if sales isn’t for me? What do you think?
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:11:42]:
Great, great question. So first of all, take a breath. Welcome to sales. Some months you crush it and some months you don’t. My husband always laughs because I run around the house one month going, oh my God, I’m not going to make it. I’m going to have to shut this business down. Nothing’s coming in. It’s totally dark.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:11:58]:
I can’t get a response. To the next month going, oh my God, I can’t keep up. There’s so much work, I can’t possibly breathe. And it is— he laughs because his business was exactly the same way, and we couldn’t be in more different businesses. So welcome to sales, welcome to being in business. Some months you’re busy, some months you’re just— you’re not. But I think the first thing you need to realize is, is go back to the months that you were crushing it, that things were coming in. What did you like about it? What did you enjoy about it? You need to get figuring out what do you like about sales and what do you not like about sales? What is stressing you out? What is making you think about quitting? Let’s look at those two buckets first, because I have a feeling that things that you don’t like are things that are controllable that we can make some changes around.
Mark Hunter [00:12:49]:
And I think I’m going to, I’m going to say there’s three things that you should be doing. And this is one, looking at the long game. First of all, sales, if you get so focused on what’s happening today, this hour, you are going to, you know, you’re just not going to succeed because it is a lot of peaks and valleys. So play the long game. Two, you have to have that innate curious nature of talking to people. And what I mean talking to people, it’s not stress-filled. It’s not like, oh no, how do I know? It’s just asking them a question. It’s just and having a conversation.
Mark Hunter [00:13:21]:
With your goal being to learn something new from them, to learn. So, it’s just developing that ability to have a conversation. And the third piece is to have a structured format, a structured format. What are the questions that you like asking? What are the questions that you’re comfortable asking? And beginning to get yourself into a routine of doing that on a regular basis. You do those 3 things. And it’s amazing at how you will find yourself slowly shifting. And what’s happening You know what’s really happening? Your mindset shifting. Your mindset is shifting because you’re seeing that you can actually do what you’re charged with doing.
Mark Hunter [00:13:57]:
And from those conversations, from that curious nature, opportunities will arise. But stay focused on the long game. The short game will kill you every time in sales.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:14:09]:
Yeah, I also think the only time that I hate sales, and there are times I hate sales, The only time I hate sales is when I am so focused on my own pipeline and my own lack of results. When I shift my mindset back to the fact that I really have a product that can change people’s lives and focus on the places where I make a difference, that is when I go back to loving sales. And I think that’s kind of the truth. It’s kind of the truth in everything, right, Marc? I mean, when we think about being married, I mean, you can think about the things you don’t like about your spouse. You can think about the things that you do, and those things, where you put your time and attention focuses how happy you are. So I definitely have times when I kind of get a, a bad feeling in my gut. I’ll look at my pipeline, it’s not where I want my pipeline to be. I start to stress out.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:15:01]:
I’m like, why am I not having a lead coming in? I get really— and that’s when I start to hate sales, when I focus on myself. Stop focusing on yourself and start again focusing on helping other people.
Mark Hunter [00:15:13]:
This is why it’s so important. You’ve got to take a piece of paper, do it on your computer, write down the names of the customers you’ve had a privilege of working with, and write down the outcomes. Not what you sold them, the outcomes that you helped them achieve. This is what it’s all about. And when you begin to look at that list of outcomes, you realize, hey, wow, I’ve really made a difference. I’ve been able to make an impact. And sometimes what you need to do then is just you pick up the phone and you call those past customers. And you talk to them about how much, how much value they’re getting out of what it is that you sold them.
Mark Hunter [00:15:45]:
And it’s interesting, but customers will talk you into a better place because they’re happy with what you have sold them. This is nothing more than many times putting fuel in your own brain. So you have a different mindset. And when you have a different mindset, it’s amazing at how it changes how well you listen, the questions you ask, the comfort that you have. And again, this comes back to one more piece that you need to do, and that is you need to make sure that you’re not playing around with negative, negative sellers. Uh, I, I, right? I mean, how many times have, have you and I had this conversation that you really got to be careful of who you hang out with? Because again, you hang out with people who are struggling, you’re going to be struggling. Hang out with successful people. There’s a reason why eagles fly with the eagles.
Mark Hunter [00:16:31]:
I’ll leave it right there.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:16:32]:
Yeah. So, so well, so well said. You’ve got to be speaking with people who, who encourage you. You know, also, Marc, I think you’re making such a great point. I think another thing to do is to look around the rest of your team and see who looks like they’re enjoying themselves, who looks like this is fun, and attach yourself to them. Right. Because that’s what’s going to make the, you know, that’s what’s going to make make the difference. But we got Omar here coming to us from Mexico City.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:17:04]:
Welcome, Omar. I love that. I love that you’re doing that. Marc, I just got a message too privately from somebody in South Korea listening to us as well.
Mark Hunter [00:17:14]:
This is so great. We’re going on an off day and we’re getting this global audience. But you know what? This is what sales is. It’s absolutely global. I want to come back to something you said. There’s a reason you and I do this podcast together. Because why? Because again, we see value. In sharing with each other.
Mark Hunter [00:17:28]:
And it is amazing at how I think we’ve lifted each other’s games because we connect. This is where I’m going to tell every salesperson, you’ve got to have a couple of other salespeople that you can connect with, that you can really spend time with. Why? Because it’s going to help lift you to a higher level as you lift them to a higher level. Sales is not a solo activity. It’s a team sport. I say that a lot. But I’ll tell you what, I absolutely live by it. You have to.
Mark Hunter [00:17:56]:
Go back to Daniel in Chicago. Daniel, take heed with what Mira said. Find a couple of other people that you, you know, that sell, you know, in your company. Hang out with them, spend time with them, get to know them. Spend time with the Eagles and suddenly you will find yourself being an Eagle.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:18:14]:
Yeah. You know, Daniel, another thing I want to talk about is that You know, when I look at and I think about your question saying some months you crush it and some months you’re drowning, this is for everybody listening. If you are not every single quarter doing a seeds, weeds, and needs on your own sales performance, you need to do a seeds, weeds, and needs. And a seeds, weeds, and needs is nothing more than what did you do in that quarter that moved the needle? What did you do that landed sales? What did you do that got you in front of decision makers? In other words, what do you need to do more of? Weeds are what are you doing that didn’t work? What wasn’t effective? Where did you waste time and energy? What do you need to stop doing? And last but not least, what do you need to be doing that you’re not doing that could take things to another level? When you tell me that some months you crush it and some months you’re, you’re just not getting anywhere and you feel like you’re drowning, you— it tells me, and, and we’re all here, like, this isn’t This isn’t a negative, but it tells me you don’t understand what fills the pipeline. And you don’t understand what behaviors take away from filling the pipeline. On the months you’re drowning, you may be focused on the wrong prospect. You may be attending the wrong networking events. Or the marketplace may have shifted around you.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:19:37]:
I mean, think about the world that we’re living in right now. In January, calling on certain customers was fine. Today, with everything going on in the Middle East, I mean, a lot of people are impacted by that. So your customers are impacted. So things shift and change. You need to analyze your own sales performance.
Mark Hunter [00:19:57]:
I love what you’re saying there. The key there is you got to remain flexible, always analyzing. But two, when you go through this process, it’s not a negative journey. It is a success journey. And again, this is a mental mindset. You are looking at finding, hey, what worked? How do I build on it? Because when you get done going through the process that Mira just described, you want to make sure that you’re saying, hey, what absolutely worked? And how do I maximize that? How do I leverage that? In other words, so you’re framing yourself up to be in the best position going forward. Hey, time is slipping along. We got to get to the book.
Mark Hunter [00:20:30]:
And the book is absolutely perfect from our friend Daniel Pink, To Sell Is human.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:20:36]:
Yeah, yeah, it’s such a— if you are struggling with sales, read Daniel Pink’s To Sell Is Human because in that book, he really nails what sales is about. Like I said, there’s nobody listening to this podcast right now, I don’t care what you do for a living, you have sold. You have talked your parents into letting you out of a punishment. You’ve gotten a kid to eat a vegetable. You’ve talked your spouse into getting, you know, a healthcare check they’ve needed to check. You’ve taken the car keys away from aging parents. You are a master salesperson, and remember that.
Mark Hunter [00:21:11]:
Oh, that’s so, so true on that. You ready for the lightning round?
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:21:14]:
I am.
Mark Hunter [00:21:15]:
Okay, lightning round. Top 10 ways to get consistently better at sales. Go.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:21:21]:
If you want to get consistently better at sales, spend more time talking and listening to customers.
Mark Hunter [00:21:27]:
2, spend time with successful salespeople, understanding what they do. Coach them, they coach you.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:21:35]:
Yeah, really, I would refine the questions that I ask, like really combine. If you want to be better at sales, take the basic questions with research and then add better questions on top of it.
Mark Hunter [00:21:49]:
Spend 20 minutes a day understanding your industry. You want to understand your industry better than anybody else, and all you have to do is read for 20 minutes a day and you’ll be there within probably 60 days.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:22:01]:
Yeah, you know, I’m going to add to that. I would spend 20 minutes a day also understanding the marketplace, the shifts and things that are happening globally that could impact your customers.
Mark Hunter [00:22:11]:
- Make sure you’re filling your brain, your mind with sales, sales logic, podcasts and sales books and so forth. That are helping you just understand what’s happening out there in the macro sales world that you can learn from.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:22:25]:
Yeah, take your— number 7, take your best customers and ask them for feedback. What do they like about the process? What do they not like about the process? What’s going on with them that they need help with that maybe you’re not supporting? But those ones that you’ve already built connection and trust with, ask for feedback from them.
Mark Hunter [00:22:42]:
Number 8, analyze your day and especially your morning. Mara and I are both in very strong agreement with this. How you start the day is how you’re going to win the day. Be very focused, very committed to those first couple of hours every day.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:22:56]:
Yeah. And I would say that, you know, that you need to get very, very focused on the fact that this is not about you, that rejection is part of it. And when you get rejected, what basically happened was that the customer just said, you haven’t given me enough interest. And so treat this like a, like a game of constantly getting better at adding value and creating interest.
Mark Hunter [00:23:27]:
Number 10, it’s small little steps that you take every day consistently. It comes right out of the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. But don’t look for overnight success. Just each day, look to try to get a little bit better. Hey, great show this morning. Thank you for the international, the global audience that we have had. Thank you for listening to SalesLogix. If you like what you hear, subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast app.
Mark Hunter [00:23:51]:
Something we’ve said has earned you a single dollar, consider telling a friend about our show because it’s how we grow when we help you grow. I’m Mark Hunter.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:23:58]:
And I’m Meredith Elliott-Powell. Remember, when you sell with confidence and integrity, all of this uncertainty suddenly becomes your competitive advantage.
Mark Hunter [00:24:06]:
And the sale becomes logical.
Meridith Elliott Powell [00:24:09]:
All right, we’ll see you right back here next week for another episode of Sales Logic. Remember, if you have questions, if you have concerns, share them right here. We’ll feature you on the show. And always remember, if you need sales training, you have an SKO, you just want a little bit of inspiration for your sales team, reach out to Marc, reach out to me, bring in both of us because we would love to share sales insights and help you go next level. See you next time.