What are some industries (services and products) that are known to pay top performing sales professionals very well? For the sake of this thread let's establish "very well" as 125k+ per year

For example, I know a guy that makes 350k per year selling/leasing heavy construction equipment. Another guy made 500k per year selling/leasing locomotives.

Sales is one of those rare professions where a college degree is not required that to produce a large annual income.

Common industries that pay well seem to be medical device sales, pharmaceutical sales, software sales, but are there "under the radar" or less known industries that reward great performing sales professionals?

I wouldn't say it's any more of an anomaly than any other industry. If you have good skills you can make good money in any industry. 99.9% of sales people will never have the talent and drive to make more than 100k no matter what they are selling.

Selling is a skill. It's not one I value very highly at all, and have went on plenty of rants in sales meetings about my feelings about "worthless bastard salesmen" as I call them (they are the bane of my existence). I am experienced in sanitary welding, electrical, plumbing, hvacr and general construction so I will admit, I get pretty fired up when I deal with sales people questioning me but make no mistake, it's tough. They are quick thinkers, and very aggressive while still not pissing off the customer. I've worked for 15 years to sell things better, and I'm still no good at it.

Pretty much anything that you have listed that has good volume and/or margin.

I'd specifically look towards anything where you are representing the manufacturer, or a very very large distributor/dealer for them. You won't even have a chance if too many hands are in the pie like working for a small to medium size dealer.

I'd be pretty leery of what people say they make. I know some guys involved with one of the largest cat dealers in the country. They make good money but I've never seen anything to make me believe it's over 150k. I have a lot of guys that work for me that love to start shit with each other about wages. Rarely are they telling each other what they truly make.

Basically what you are really asking is "how do I getting into the top few percentile of wage earners?"

Long hours, hard work, and finding what you are great at. Also finding the right situation at the right time.