What Makes A Good Salesperson

Salesmen drive volumes and consumerism to a large extent. Entrepreneurs and salespersons have one thing in common – the passion to sell their product or service. Wonder what makes a good salesperson? This question surely plagues those who are not sellers. The critical point when it comes to salespersons is that, they are expected to develop or already have a specific set of traits necessary to suit the field.

With the growing competition between organizations, high targets and a need for the product or service to be put out there, sales is an important aspect of any industry. Be it direct sales over the counter, door to door, in the business to business category or business to customer, sales is a high performance driven task which requires quite a bit of convincing and running around.

To elaborate further, let’s point out a few traits on the list of what makes a good salesperson.

1. Listening- When meeting a client and discussing the proposal from either end, make sure you listen carefully throughout the conversation. A lot of clients have noticed and pointed out that salesmen tend to act overconfident in their passion to sell which can be putting off.

Listening to a client shows that you are considerate and have respect for the person’s word.

Having heard the client, ask questions need be. Revert with what best can be worked out or take the chance to make the first meeting as an introductory meeting and get back on a second meeting with the best deals worked out in both favors.

2. Feedback and Follow ups- This is one of the most crucial points to the topic of what makes a good salesperson. No feedback to a client or lack of follow ups show inattentive manner. A lot of clients take it upon them as insulting and hence, would not want to work with a company for just this reason.

Feedback is often a way of showing the salesperson’s work ethic and follow ups can make a client feel special. A client is like a customer, dealt with the wrong way can lose you a great deal. If you are a salesperson make it a point to revert following the meeting or thank them for their time. The world is a small place for spoiling your image and professional relationships.

3. Consistency- A salesperson’s job requires a tough individual on the inside and not in manner. The job description spells a lot of rejections, follow ups, persuasion and great deals won. Hence, a salesperson has to be consistent in performance without a lost client affecting him or her and persistent with the client database about how they can strike out a deal.

There might be times when the client acts tough or does not like your deal. You will only sweat those few times. You will mainly learn from these experiences and hence we would advice you take nothing to heart.

4. Persuasion/ Convincing skills- Another point the salesperson’s personality cannot do without. What makes a good salesperson is the ability to smile, interact, converse and during all of that persuade or convince the client about your services or products.

The client may act all sweet and converse for the sake of it, but if you can’t convince him or her of working with you or striking a deal, your job’s no good. This requires mainly research on the client’s account and background and a belief in your product and services. With these two, you will be able to work out a need and want i.e. demand on the client end and supply from your end to mutual satisfaction.

5. Rapport- What makes a good salesperson? To start with, you have to like meeting people, talking and building your social and professional network. You may not strike every deal through but what you can do to the best of your ability is keep building good professional relationships.

The professional world is also about networking. Hence, if someone does not work with you today, the client is not completely lost. Try to build a rapport with every person you meet and keep them close purely for professional reasons.

6. Passion- You’re satisfaction with the job and your enthusiasm for it has to shine through in your performance. A person who does not like their job and lacks the enthusiasm will not be able do it to the best of their ability. Passion for your job helps you achieve and drives you to do your best and win laurels for it. Job satisfaction is a must and without it many find it hard to stick around. Hence, make sure you know Sales is your cup of tea.

You may not be a salesmen or someone looking to hone your skills further. Given these traits above you will be able to make out the difference between who a good salesmen and who clearly lacks the skill. What makes a good salesperson can also clearly be explained by how companies explain profile and personalities while recruiting. Pleasing personality, excellent interpersonal skills, a passion to achieve are underlining terms for a salesperson’s job. Hence, as a salesperson you also need to keep working on your skills.

Picture- ~dgies