One key area of sales success is being willing to do what it takes to get the sale and staying committed to the process month in and month out. “If you’re the average B-to-B salesperson, you’re going to get seven nos to every three yeses,” says sales expert Lisa Peskin, CEO of Business Development University, a sales training, coaching and consulting company. “We never get to rest in sales; we’re only as good as our last month.”

Peskin points out that a healthy pipeline and sales process are the other two areas she evaluates for sales success. “Filling your pipeline with good, qualified prospects on a consistent basis is key,” she says. “That involves maintaining your existing customer base, upselling and cross-selling your existing base, and then bringing new prospects into the pipeline. We know how someone’s doing in this area based on their pipeline and what the level of their pipeline is.”

As far as the sales process (identifying the prospect, running a successful first meeting, presenting solutions, handling objections and closing the sale), Peskin reviews salespeople’s close ratios: “That’s the number of quotes or proposals to the number of sales,” she says. “If the number is south of 30% then I know there’s some tweaking to be done with the sales process to increase that close ratio.”

Learn more about the secrets of sales success in her “Expert Secrets” video below.