Ever wonder what makes star advisors tick? Learn to identify the five qualities most top producers share—so you can start cultivating them yourself.

You know what it takes to succeed as a financial advisor. Without a second thought, you can reel off a list of the critical attributes that separate the best producers from the pack. Right?

If you answered yes, take yourself out for a ritzy dinner—you're in the minority. Top producers themselves have trouble explaining the reasons for their own success, and their managers usually fare no better. Back in the late '80s, the Forum Corporation asked 100 Fortune 500 sales managers to identify what differentiated their best performers from the moderate ones. Eighty percent couldn't do it. The qualities that make for a star salesperson have even escaped many academics and consultants who have spent years studying the question.

So, who's got the goods?

Elusive as they may be, certain characteristics really do seem to set top salespeople apart from the pack. After slogging through 40 years' worth of academic and corporate research, we've determined that most top producers share the following five personality traits:

1. Ego-drive. Ego-drive is a powerful inner need to persuade. According to Dr. Herbert Greenberg, who has been studying what makes salespeople tick since the early '60s, the ego-driven salesperson feels a huge sense of personal satisfaction—even victory—when he makes a sale (or gets assets, or signs up a new client). Top producers need that victory—and don't feel satisfied until they achieve it. "To succeed in sales, they have to want the 'yes' on an emotional level," writes Greenberg. "It's not enough to dangle money in front of them."

   In fact, according to Pete Wendell, who manages an RBC Dain Rauscher branch in Chicago, "some of these folks give away much of what they earn. They're highly competitive people, but once they have attained the stature of super-broker, they turn around and give it all away to churches and hospitals."

   Wendell, who has been a branch manager for 20 of his 36 years in the industry, recalls a conversation with a highly successful event planner considering a new career as a financial advisor. "She told me point-blank, 'I really don't want to do the investing—I just want to go out and open a new account every day.' That's what makes her tick: the challenge of getting those new customers."

   According to Greenberg's research, this recruit has the makings of a top producer—assuming, of course, that she has other necessary attributes and skills and can be teamed with advisors who will handle the investment side of the business with equal vigor.

2. Resiliency and optimism. Advisors spend their days trying to persuade others to act in a certain way—and they're bound to fail much more often than they succeed. They can't afford to feel shattered when they encounter these inevitable failures. Successful FAs are resilient. They not only have the ability to come back and try again after failing; they actually feel motivated by failure to try even harder the next time around.

   Some resiliency may be acquired with experience. "The younger you are, the more rejection affects you," says branch manager Kim Coggins of A.G. Edwards in Atlanta. "You just have to adopt an attitude that you're there to help people, and if they're not interested, it's their loss. You acquire a thick skin over time."

   But to a large extent, your resilience is closely tied to your level of optimism, a personality trait with deep roots in early childhood. According to research conducted by Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, optimistic people assume that setbacks are temporary, isolated to a single situation, and attributable to something beyond their control.

   Picture two FAs hanging up the phone in adjoining offices after making unsuccessful cold calls. One, dejected, says to himself, "I am obviously rotten at this. I've never been a good salesman. I'm just not cut out for this job," and heads out for a long lunch. The other thinks to herself, "Well, that call certainly was a flop. I'll bet that guy has had some bad experiences with other brokers. It'll go better next time," and picks up the phone to make another call. Which advisor sounds more like you?

   Seligman believes that optimism and pessimism are determined very early in life, although he also contends that you can change your style with proper training (hence the title of his best-selling book Learned Optimism). If you're pessimistically inclined, take heart; with some time and effort, you may be able to transform yourself into an optimist.

3. Empathy. Experts say that, to excel in sales, you must have strong empathy: the ability to sense the thoughts, feelings, and reactions of others. A salesperson with poor empathy, Herbert Greenberg explains, is like an old-style anti-aircraft weapon. Once fired—no matter how careful the initial aim—the weapon cannot be corrected for slight errors in calculation or evasive action by its target. A salesperson with strong empathy, on the other hand, is more like a heat-seeking missile. He senses his customer's reactions and adjusts to them. If he discovers he has miscalculated, he repositions himself to try again.

   A word to the wise: As used here, "empathy" does not mean "sympathy." Sympathy implies strong identification with another person and an accompanying lack of objectivity. An empathetic person accurately perceives the feelings of others, but does not necessarily share or agree with them. He remains objective—a critical stance for any financial advisor.

   Also, remember that empathy and good listening skills are closely related, but not synonymous. Listening is a behavior geared toward gathering information. Empathy is a trait that determines how you process and understand the information gathered. Some good listeners lack strong empathy, and some highly empathetic individuals exhibit less-than-stellar listening skills.

4. Assertiveness. It may seem counterintuitive that the same individual could be extremely empathetic and simultaneously highly assertive or even domineering, but, in fact, both characteristics seem to play a role in sales success. According to Hank Plotkin, founder of the management consulting firm The Plotkin Group, authoritative and assertive people "can be . . .difficult to live with at times, but they are the tigers whose initiative and drive let them close sales."

   The trick, of course, is striking a balance. FAs must be aggressive enough to ask for new business and referrals, but in an age of consultative selling and relationship management, they can't afford to be too overbearing. "Some brokers," observes Pete Wendell, "get caught up in their own theories about the world and don't leave a lot of room for other opinions." The ideal? Be assertive enough to make recommendations and close new business, but also take the initiative to ask questions, gather information, and solve problems.

5. Decision-making ability. A great financial advisor must have the courage of his convictions. Advisors face myriad decisions daily across the length and breadth of their practices, and can't afford to hem and haw over each one. "You can't always be second-guessing yourself and the market," says John Doherty, a Legg Mason branch manager in Pensacola, Florida, who says that self-confidence is one of the key attributes he looks for in recruits. "You've got to know what you believe and go after it."

   Of course, if an advisor is to protect his clients, himself, and his firm, his ability to accept risk and make decisions must be accompanied by a powerful sense of responsibility. FAs must act, but they can never afford to act impulsively. "The ideal decision maker," writes Greenberg, "combines thoughtfulness and responsibility with courage to act, even to risk, with the intelligence and flexibility to make generally sound judgments and learn from any mistakes."