What do you look for in your sales reps?

Sales representatives bring a lot of skills and qualities to your company. Here’s a list of skills and qualities I think every sales rep should possess.

• Integrity – honest in all their dealings with you, your company, customers and prospects.
• Intelligence – understand their customers’ businesses, anticipate needs, adapt your solutions to meet new challenges, identify and communicate market trends.
• Drive to succeed – an internal drive to succeed and surpass their expectations.
• Communication skills – excellent oral and written communications skills to keep all stakeholders informed
• Culture fit – within your company’s culture.
• Appetite for learning – a need and desire to continually learn and update skills
• Organization and follow up – well organized to manage leads, prospects, customers, and opportunities; and follow up on all commitments
• Basic computer skills – CRM data entry, presentations, email, internet research, or writing

Besides this list, I look for additional traits depending on the sales rep’s role — inside vs field, key account vs business development, entry-level vs experienced.

What do you look for in your sales reps?