Traits of Good Salespeople
To identify good sales people or people with good potential for selling, you need to identify candidates with specific traits.
Traits are genetically inherited or environmentally influenced features that a person possesses. Regardless of the product or industry, traits become the baseline for recruiting sales representatives.
Customers make primary contact with your company through your sales people. They tend to buy from people they know and like. As a result, good sales representatives tend to have outgoing, friendly, approachable and likeable personalities. They also need to demonstrate patience and the “thick skin” required to deal with the challenges, obstacles and rejection involved when customers say “no.
Most Common Traits
These are some other traits commonly found among successful sales representatives:
- Integrity – A strong moral compass allows you to trust your sales representative to do what’s right for the customer and what’s right for your company.
- Tenacity – Strong sales representatives don’t take “no” for the final answer. They get right back into the arena.
- Commitment – Sales reps need to be committed to your company’s success and their own success. The best sales reps also strive towards personal and professional goals.
- Passion – Excellent sales results often follow from the passion your sales rep brings to his job and to each opportunity. If your sales rep believes in what he’s selling, he can get customers to believe in it too.
- Creativity – When faced with an obstacle or objection, the successful sales rep looks for a way around it. He or she works to develop new sales approaches, adapt the product, or change the customer’s perception of the need.
- Optimism – Successful sales representatives exhibit an unfailingly positive outlook. For them, the next opportunity or the next sale is always imminent. The very best sales reps maintain a realistic optimism. They know when to move on from a dead deal.
For more information, contact Wallace Management Group at (203) 834-0143 or email David Wallace.
© 2009, David P. Wallace
Subscribe to Top Line – The Sales and Marketing Blog by Email
