There is a lot of talk in the marketing & sales world about “high income skills” and how much money you can make with them, but most people don’t even know what high income skills are let alone how to learn them.

In this article, we’re going to talk about what high income skills are and how you can learn them.

What Is A High Income Skill?

Skills are considered High Income Skills when they do three things. Skills need to directly produce money for a company, allow the person who holds them to make over $10,000 a month, and they must ALWAYS be in demand.

High Income Skills Directly Produce Money

People who possess high income skills are paid very well. They’re paid (almost directly) in proportion to how much revenue and profit they make the company they work for. If they work for themselves, they get to keep all the money that they generate. If not, they’re paid a percentage as commission.

It’s important to know that high income earners are almost never paid a guaranteed salary. This is because salaried employees cost a company money, while high income earners make a company money.

The salaried (or hourly) employee is there to support the high income employee. They manage the administrative tasks that are necessary, but detrimental to the high income earner’s production.

For example, when a software sales rep closes a $500,000 deal, the paperwork is often handled by an assistant. Why? Because the sales rep’s time is better spent finding the next customer instead. The sales rep and the company make more money while the rep’s out closing deals than they do when the sales rep is filling out an order form.

The company then needs to find a way to fulfill this administrative task for the lowest possible cost so they don’t erase the profit generated by the sales rep. This is why if you want to be paid well, you need to produce.

High Income Skills Generate Over $10,000 a Month

Let’s use the previous example. If the Software sales rep is paid 10% commission, which is not unheard of, they would pocket $50,000 from that one transaction! Granted you’re not going to be closing $500,000 deals every day, but it’s not uncommon for software sales reps to make in excess of $200,000 a year.

Top durable medical equipment sales (X-Ray Machines & Such) professionals make similar money. Making between $200k and $400k annually is normal because they literally sell millions of dollars worth of stuff each year.

The same holds true for Heavy Equipment sales. If you sell a $3 Million dump truck to a mining company, you’ll come home with a big paycheck. The list goes on and on.

High Income Skills Are ALWAYS In Demand (Even During Recessions)

No matter the economic climate, companies are always looking to increase sales and grow their revenues and profits. Because of this, people who possess high income skills are recession-proof. Unless they’re under-performing, their job is never at risk of being cut. That’s in stark contrast to an hourly or salaried employee where any given day could be their last.

Even if someone with high income skills gets fired, the skills they possess can never be taken away and it’s very easy to find another job. Again, because companies are ALWAYS looking to grow, someone who produces profit will always be able to find something.

High Income positions are also easier to get because most people are afraid to sell. This naturally limits the competition for these tough, but lucrative jobs. Even in a recession (like the one I experienced in 2009), sales and marketing jobs are very easy to get if you possess the right skills.

So What Are High Income Skills? Let’s Go Through Each One Individually…

High Income Skill #1 – Lead Generation

Lead generation is the ability to identify and bring in qualified customers to the business. For example, if you were opening a movie theater you’d need to figure out a way to keep the showings packed and the concessions flowing all night.

You could have the greatest theater in the world, but if no one comes through the door to buy anything, you’re going to go bankrupt.

Outbound Marketing

Outbound Marketing is the process of getting the word out that you exist and letting the world know what you have to offer. This high income skill is knowing (or learning) where your ideal customer hangs out so that you can place your offer in front of them. Someone who understands this concept will make a lot of money because of it.

Qualified Leads And Not Tire Kickers

Putting a message in front of your ideal customer and putting the RIGHT message in front of your ideal customer are two different things. Going back to the movie theater example, filling the theater with people who will not only watch the movie but also spend money at the concession stand is vital to success.

If you rely on discounts and freebies to fill the theater, your business will have a hard time making money. This is because you’ll only attract people who buy based on the lowest price. However, if you attract people based on the comfiness of your seats and the quality of your food, you’ll attract a much better clientele that’s going to spend more money.

Because crafting this type of message directly affects how much money the business makes, this is considered a high income skill.

Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting is still considered a high-income skill, but it pertains more to sales than it does marketing. Prospecting usually consists of calling qualified customers individually and speaking to them one-on-one.

Someone who does this effectively can fill an entire appointment book in a day and go on to close multiple deals while generating tons of money for the company. Because of this, prospecting is also considered a high-income skill.

High Income Skill #2 – Copywriting

A good copywriter is worth their weight in gold. Words are considered sales copy when they cause the person reading them to experience emotions and inspire them to take action. Think of it as the text version of one-on-one selling.

How It Differs From Content Writing

Copywriting differs from content writing because the goals are different. Content writing is meant to keep a reader engaged and inform them, whereas copywriting is meant to stir up emotion and encourage immediate action by the reader.

Why Is Copywriting A High Income Skill?

Good copywriters are paid extremely well because their words can be written once, be shown to literally millions of people, and go on to make hundreds of thousands of sales. One good sales letter could be worth $100,000 in profit to a company so it makes sense to pay the copywriter $5,000 to $10,000 for that one letter.

High Income Skill #3 – Sales Presentation

Sales presentation is the process of demonstrating your product to an interested buyer with the intent of causing a purchase. It is the marketing department’s job to generate the lead, it’s the sales department’s job to get the person to buy.

Using Words To Cause Emotions

Someone with good sales presentation skills can speak dynamically and energetically to keep the customer’s interest level high throughout the transaction. They also understand how to find and hit the customer’s “hot button.”

The customer’s “hot button” is the one feature or benefit that is most important to them. For example, let’s say that you were a realtor and showing a house to a couple with kids that were aged 4 & 2. It’s safe to say that your customer’s “hot-button” would be the school district that the house was in.

By continually bringing up the school district in the conversation, you’ll keep causing the emotion that “this is the right house for me” and the customer will probably buy the house.

While Maintaining Control of The Sale

Someone with good presentation skills also knows how to control the conversation. They keep the customer focused and moving through the sales process at all times. By keeping the sale moving, they will ultimately sell more in less time making themselves more money.

High Income Skill #4 – Negotiation

Every high dollar transaction comes with at least some level of negotiation. Negotiation is a high income skill because it maximizes the value of the transaction for both the customer and the company.

Make Profit Without The Customer Feeling It

An effective negotiation is an art form. It allows the salesperson to maximize profit for the company without the customer feeling like they got robbed. An excellent negotiator understands that the transaction is always about more than just the unit price.

Figure Out What Matters Most

A prospective customer will rarely tell the salesperson what’s most important to them and this is why negotiation is considered a high income skill. By asking the prospect the right questions, a good negotiator can figure out whether or not things like delivery time, customization, ongoing training, or personalized service are more important to the customer than the unit price.

If those things are more important, there is no reason to drop the price from full retail. Negotiating on aspects other than price will make more money for the company and put more money in the high income earners pocket.

High Income Skill #5 – Closing

Effective sales closing is the ability to instill urgency in your customer without applying pressure. A good closer makes the customer feel like they NEED to buy or they risk missing out on something and not that they HAVE to buy in order to escape the situation.

Knowing When It’s Closing Time

Closing techniques applied too early on in the sales process will kill a deal and upset a customer. It’s up to the salesperson to recognize buying signals and start putting the squeeze on the prospect at the appropriate time and not a second sooner.

Because closing is such a hard thing to get right (a bad closer can ruin customer satisfaction scores), companies are willing to pay big money for somebody who can do it right. This is why closing is considered a high income skill.

High Income Skill #6 – Outsourcing

Outsourcing at its core comes down to understanding what your time is worth. When someone is starting their own business, it’s not uncommon for them to do every job themselves. Over time the small, administrative tasks will pile up and start to eat away at the time reserved for high-income producing tasks.

The ability to recognize that this is happening and find a person who can handle those jobs effectively is a high income skill all its own. Possessing the skill to outsource allows the high income earner to focus on only the tasks which make them the most money.

High Income Skill #7 – Reading & Recognizing Patterns In People

This high income skill is one that everyone who’s in a high income position knows and understands but is usually unwilling to talk about. They’re unwilling to talk about it because to somebody who doesn’t understand, it looks like stereotyping and profiling.

Why This Skill Is Important

This skill is so important because it allows you to “see into the future” when conducting a transaction. It allows you to mentally prepare for an objection that may come out later in the deal and perhaps even defuse it before it surfaces.

What It Feels Like To The Customer

Have you ever bought something and at the time it seemed like the salesperson was in your head? Did you ever see a commercial that felt like it was tailored specifically to you? If so, the person who was selling you the product or who wrote the commercial understood this concept very well.

A Hard Truth

A simple fact of life that you are not unique. There is a group of people on this planet who think exactly like you, act like you, have the same values as you, experienced the same things as you, and spend money exactly the way that you do.

A good marketer or salesperson can recognize exactly what group you are in and tailor their presentation to say exactly what you’re going to respond to.

Don’t believe me?

Why does every marketing coach or consultant tell you to obsess about identifying your ideal customer? They want you to define this person’s interests, how old they are, maybe their gender, marital situation, social status, and the list goes on. They do this so that you craft a message that attracts a certain type of person.

By doing this over time, you create a list of customers that are pretty much carbon copies of each other…

Everyone Does It

But guess what? You’re not the only one that does it. The big consumer brands do it too. Let’s look at the auto industry, specifically GMC and Cadillac, for example. I sold both GMC and Cadillac for about 8 years and I noticed some stark contrast between the two customer bases.

GMC sells the Yukon Denali and Cadillac sells the Escalade. Even though they’re almost the same truck, they attract two different types of people.

The GMC buyer often has a higher net worth than the Cadillac buyer, but they are less concerned with displaying their wealth. They want the transaction to go smoothly and be able to get on with their life. They’re generally very forgiving.

The Cadillac buyer wants everyone to know that they “made it” which is the primary reason why they bought (leased) the flashier vehicle. They want to be pandered to and made to feel special. They expect the dog and pony show and get very upset when it’s not “good enough” to meet their expectation.

Use This To Your Advantage

This same grouping of behaviors and interests happens with credit cards, clothes, watches, phones, even pens. If you take note of the consumer items and personal effects of your customer, you can learn a lot about them without asking a single question. High income earners are very observant.

The ability to recognize these patterns and adjust your message accordingly is probably the most valuable high income skill you can develop.

Where Can I Learn High Income Skills?

High income skills can be learned one of two ways. The first way involves getting a job that requires these skills and learning as you go.

You will make a ton of mistakes along the way that will cost you a fair amount of money in lost opportunity & commissions.

The other way involves getting some formal training. Formal training will cost a little money upfront, but it often costs less in the long run than trial and error once you factor in the opportunity cost.

Luckily, Legendary Marketer offers their 15-day Business Builder Challenge for just $7. Over those 15 days, you will learn the high-income skills talked about here as well as the 4 best business models to apply them in. This way you can take your newly acquired skills and make the most money possible with them.

I myself am a product of the 15-day challenge and by applying what I learned in that challenge, as well as the advanced course offered within it, I am now able to sell whatever I want to whomever I want online.

This allows me to produce money on my terms while staying close to my family. I can work a schedule that I determine without my income being tied to how many hours I work.

I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first but I was truly blown away by how much the $7 course actually offers. You will learn more here than you would by watching a year’s worth of YouTube videos and that has to be worth the price of admission.

If you’d like, you can register and take the challenge at the button below.

Accept The 15-Day Business Builder Challenge