What Makes A Good Salesperson?
Almost every writer on marketing and sales and some time comes round to the tricky question of what makes a great salesperson.
In fact this is a hugely difficult question to answer. Everyone’s views are naturally biased by their own unique experience. And one persons experience can never match up to hard evidence from research. But in a field where there has been relatively little rigorous research, the voice of experience can add depth and flavour.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with hundreds of salespeople from over 20 different countries - so at least my own personal, biased thoughts are based on a reasonably large and diverse sample.
So here we go: my view on the top 4 defining characteristics of great salespeople.
1. Passion. All great salespeople truly believe in the product or service they’re selling. This belief infuses everything they do and rubs off on customers. It makes the salesperson much more trustworthy.
Sometimes people joke that “if you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made”. But my experience has been that customers can easily spot this. It’s impossible to fake real passion. You either need to find passion for your products and services, or find other products and services to sell.
2. Likeability. If your customer don’t like you, the conversation very rarely gets any further. It’s the starting point for trust and relationship building.
Now it is possible to trust someone without liking them. But in the world of sales, someone who isn’t likeable never gets the opportunity to prove their trustworthiness. It’s a basic pre-requisite to building relationships.
3. Resilience. Pretty much the only thing that can be guaranteed in sales is that you will face rejection. And often. Successful sellers just can’t afford to need everyone to love them. They need a think skin.
4. Willingness and Energy to Learn. The pace of change and the need to continually adapt and improve approaches has never been as great as it is today. The salesperson who commits to continuous learning, and applies themselves wholeheartedly will soon catch up and outpace more talented rivals who rest on their laurels.
So that’s my little shortlist. Passion, likeability, resilience and continuous learning. If you’ve got a good measure of each of these, you’ll be a great success in sales.
Ian Brodie is an expert on selling professional services. To get a free copy of Ian’s ebook on how to get more referrals, sign up to his newsletter on how to get more clients.