The Real Reason Some Salespeople Hit Quota While Others Don’t

You’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it happen in sales. 

Two reps. Same product. Same territory. Same brutal economy. 

One consistently crushes quota; month after month, year after year. The other barely scrapes by, always one deal short, blaming “bad luck,” difficult buyers, or “the market.”

But here’s the truth, backed by a decade of rigorous psychological research: luck in sales isn’t random. It’s created!

Wait! 

Before you roll your eyes and push off this article, hear me out!

Psychologist Richard Wiseman spent ten years studying hundreds of people who described themselves as either extremely “lucky” or extremely “unlucky.” He wanted to understand why some people’s lives overflow with fortunate breaks while others seem cursed by one setback after another.

One of his most famous experiments reveals everything. Wiseman gave both groups a newspaper and asked them to count how many photographs were inside. 

• On average, the unlucky people took about 2 minutes to complete the task. 
• The lucky people finished in seconds.

Why the massive difference?

On page two of the newspaper, and impossible to miss, was a giant half-page message in letters over two inches tall that read: 

“Stop counting.  There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.”

To have more fun, halfway through the newspaper, there was an even bigger message:

“Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250.”

The unlucky participants were so focused on counting photos (and so anxious about getting the task “right”) that they completely missed both massive opportunities staring them in the face. The lucky ones spotted them immediately.

This single experiment beautifully sets up the core insight: 

Lucky people don’t just get more opportunities; they create and NOTICE far more of them because of how they think and behave.

Wiseman distilled his findings into four simple, trainable principles that explain why some people (including salespeople) generate their own good fortune:

1. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities.

2. They make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition.

3. They create self-fulfilling prophecies through positive expectations.

4. They adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

The salespeople who hit quota aren’t luckier by random chance. They unconsciously, or deliberately, live by these four principles. The results compound over time. Here’s how each principle plays out in real sales environments.

Principle 1: Create and Notice Chance Opportunities

Lucky people deliberately introduce variety into their routines, stay relaxed and open, and therefore spot opportunities that others miss.

Sales Scenario 1: Sarah, a B2B account executive selling enterprise software, used to follow the same rigid prospecting cadence every week. After learning this principle, she started varying her routine: attending one new industry meetup per month, joining different online communities, and taking random walks while on calls. Within six weeks, she struck up a conversation with a CFO at a coffee shop who happened to be in line with her. That “random” chat turned into a $480k deal; an opportunity her old rigid schedule would never have uncovered.

Sales Scenario 2: Mike, on the same team, stuck to the same 50-account list and email templates. He walked straight past warm intros, public RFPs, and mutual connections because his narrow focus and anxiety kept him scanning only for rejection: same territory, same activity level; dramatically different pipelines.

In summary, to quote 50 Cent, 

“Switch you style up to watch the money pile up.” 

Sorry,...I couldn't resist the callback!

Principle 2: Make Lucky Decisions by Listening to Your Intuition

Lucky people trust their gut feelings instead of over-rationalizing or ignoring them.

Sales Scenario 1: During a discovery call, Alex felt a strong intuition that the prospect was holding back on a major compliance risk. Instead of sticking to the script, Alex paused and said, “I have a hunch there’s something bigger here around regulatory exposure; am I off base?” The buyer opened up about a looming audit that could cost millions. That intuitive pivot turned a $120k opportunity into a $750k multi-year enterprise deal. 

Sales Scenario 2: Rachel’s gut told her the stakeholder she was dealing with wasn’t the real decision-maker. She trusted it, mapped the buying committee with one bold question, and discovered the actual champion was the VP of Operations. She re-routed the process and closed 40% faster than colleagues still selling to the wrong person.

Intuition is a function of courage; believe in what you're sensing and act on it.

Principle 3: Create Self-Fulfilling Prophecies via Positive Expectations

Lean in! This is the most powerful principle for quota attainment. Lucky people expect good things to happen (i.e., despite the economy or competitive landscape), and their behavior makes those good things far more likely.

Sales Scenario 1: Emma walks into every sales call expecting genuine rapport and progress. Because she expects it, she shows up relaxed, curious, and fully present. She asks better questions, notices micro buying signals, and recovers from objections naturally. Her close rate is nearly double the team average. Prospects feel the positive energy and mirror it.

Sales Scenario 2: Jordan expects resistance and price shopping on every call. He sounds defensive from the first “hello,” rushes his value proposition, and mentally checks out after the first objection. Buyers deliver exactly what he anticipated: stalls, ghosting, or “we’ll go with the cheaper option.” Same product, same market; completely different results.

Positive expectations aren’t blind optimism. They change how you show up, how long you persist, and how creatively you solve problems.

Principle 4: Adopt a Resilient Attitude That Transforms Bad Luck into Good

Lucky people don’t dwell on setbacks. They reframe them, extract the lesson, and use the experience to improve.

Sales Scenario 1: After losing a four-month deal, Tom asked himself, “How could this have been worse?” Then he documented the stakeholder mapping lesson he learned and used the freed-up time to close two smaller deals faster than the lost one would have. His quarter ended stronger than if the big deal had closed.

Sales Scenario 2: When a key prospect ghosted after a verbal commitment, Lisa didn’t complain about unreliable buyers. She updated her mutual action plan template with firmer next steps and reactivated three warm leads she had been neglecting. One became her biggest win of the year.

As my friend • Dr. Willie Jolley says, "A setback is a setup for a comeback."

Four Principles of Sales Luck

The reps crushing quota don’t have better territories, hotter products, or easier buyers. They have simply trained themselves to:

1. Create and notice opportunities
2. Trust their intuition
3. Operate from positive expectations
4. Turn setbacks into advantages

Wiseman proved these principles are trainable. In his “Luck School” experiments, participants who practiced them increased their self-reported luck and happiness by up to 80% in just one month.