As a salesperson, there are only so many things you can control. You can’t control market trends, changes at your company, your prospects’ moods or the features of your product. But you can control how much you sell, and that’s really all that matters.

Instead of worrying about all the factors outside your control, it’s time to take some serious measures to sell more, close bigger deals, and stand out from your competition in sales. Follow these seven steps to start selling more, right now:

1. Clarify your specific goals.

Many salespeople set separate goals for their personal and professional life, but in sales, all goals are personal. Your personal goals can and should drive your professional goals. The first step to selling more is to clarify your specific goals, writing down exactly what you want to accomplish over the next year. Write down these goals where you’ll see them frequently, then let the reminder drive you to crush them.

2. Know the numbers you need.

How many sales phone calls do you need to make each week in order to meet your goals? What about emails? And how many meetings do you need to set? You should know all the answers to these questions by heart. Be specific about how many emails you need to send, calls you need to make, and meetings you need to set each day. Otherwise, you’re just throwing darts at a wall. The is a simple but surprisingly effective strategy to helping you close more sales.

3. Script the first 7 seconds of all sales interactions.

Research shows that it only takes seven seconds for a complete stranger to decide whether to continue a conversation with you. If you don’t have game plan for those first seven seconds, you’re leaving too much to chance. When you script out your opening for selling interactions, you’ll enjoy a much higher success rate in continuing the conversation with prospects -- and ultimately closing the sale.

4. Break the selling pattern.

If you want to stand out from the crowd of salespeople in your market, you have to stop acting like every other salesperson in your market. When your prospect perceives you to be exactly like the countless other salespeople they’ve met, they immediately put up a wall to keep you at arm’s length.

Break the normal selling pattern by flipping standard sales interactions upside-down. For example, stop talking about the features and benefits of your product or service. Don’t pitch. And focus on establishing yourself as the expert in sales instead of a regular salesperson.

5. Don’t be afraid to disqualify prospects.

Not every prospect is qualified to become your customer. Show your value by disqualifying people who aren’t a good fit for what you sell. Instead of trying to persuade every last prospect to do business with you, focus on only persuading those who can buy and truly need what you’re selling. You don't want your sales pipeline full of bad leads that wouldn't benefit from your product or service, even if they could buy it.

6. Ask questions about key challenges.

Prospects only care about themselves. It’s time to stop pitching your product or service, because prospects simply don’t care about that. All your prospect cares about is the key challenges they’re facing.

Make the conversation all about them by asking questions that will ultimately lead to you helping them overcome those challenges.

7. Ask everyone for introductions.

Nothing will make you sell more than a full pipeline of qualified prospects. Keep yourself in that position of confidence by constantly asking everyone -- prospects, friends, even enemies -- for introductions to other people you could do business with.

This article was first published on Entrepreneur