Practice, talent, Practice, Practice, Practice.
I practice for about 1.5 to 2 hours a day, depending on my time and also whether or not I have a concert coming up. In college I was practicing 4-5 hours a day.
My routine is this:
Scales - All major and minor---- full range and then in thirds (again, full range)
Sight reading
Work on written compositions - (whatever I am learning for concerts, church, etc)
Work on improv (Use play alongs, play along with my fav sax players)
altissimo study
Long tone / intonation study
Hope this helps,
Wolfram