What Makes a Good Salesperson?

 

 Not all salespeople are created equally. Some exceed targets while maximising cross-sells, up-sells and repeat business while others struggle to hit their quota. The difference often comes down to specific personality traits that differentiate a good from a bad salesperson. In this comprehensive article, we cover the essential personality traits that differentiate a good salesperson from a bad salesperson as well as the qualities of an exceptional salesperson. So let’s jump right in

What makes a good salesperson?

A good salesperson typically has a combination of specific personality traits that set them up with success while paired with skills that can be trained over time.

The traits that can’t be trained include attitude, drive and a natural type of sales personality. The skills that can be trained include sales skills and product knowledge.

Don’t be fooled though, not all great salespeople are loud, outgoing and aggressive. Depending on the product or service or the type of people they’re dealing with, someone who’s thoughtful, curious and relaxed could outperform their alpha counterparts. A good salesperson can also adjust their communication style depending on who they’re dealing with

Dealing with different personality types in sales

Your job as a sales professional is to help your prospect feel as comfortable as possible by communicating with them in a manner unique to their personality. 

It’s known that people like, people like them. They’re comfortable with people who are like themselves. However, please make no mistake; this isn’t simply a case of mirroring their gestures, parroting, or paraphrasing. Instead, you want to adopt characteristics unique to their communication style.

If you want to sell successfully to all four communication styles – Supportive, Open, Closed, and Organized – you need to style Flex. Then, adapt your style to suit that of your customer. That will help you to build rapport and trust, establish credibility, and close those crucial deals. Coincidentally, this is one of the personality traits of a good salesperson

What’s the difference between a good and bad salesperson?

It may seem like the obvious answer is that, frankly, bad salespeople can’t sell. However, it’s a lot more complex than just not having the skills to sell, but rather the personality traits and attributes needed in sales.

The ultimate difference between a good salesperson and a bad salesperson is their actions. For instance, a bad salesperson tends to push their agenda onto the prospect rather than understanding their needs and wants to help them solve their problems successfully.

A good salesperson on the other hand would ask questions to understand the prospect’s needs before trying to sell anything.

10 Qualities of a Great Salesperson

A great salesperson has mastered how to be intuitive and consistent at the same time. Find out the characteristics of a great salesperson below:

1. Mindset

Alongside consistency and intuition, great salespeople possess a strong mindset that can take rejection after rejection. Instead of getting discouraged, the great salesperson uses this as motivational fuel to get the next prospect to say yes. More so, I think people feel like sales are trying to convince someone to do something that they believe that person doesn’t want to do, which isn’t right at all.

Rather, it’s all about your perception of sales.

When I walk into a room, I always feel like I have something tremendous to give you. I can help your sales professionals reach their goals. So, it’s two things—first, your perception and your belief in what you are conveying. So, therefore, I believe in what I do. Second, I think what I do makes a difference and helps people and that it matters. So, I project that sales mindset.

2. Good Listener

Great salespeople listen to the customers’ needs and use them to propose a solution that works the best for them. Above all, they understand that sales professionals should be listening 80% of the time and only talking 20% of the time. Of that 20%, half of that should be asking questions. That leaves only 10% for selling and telling.

3. Prepared

Comes to meetings prepared with sales materials, answers to anticipated objections and background information on the client.

4. Confident

A level of arrogance allows a salesperson to assume they’ll make a sale before ever meeting with a prospect.

5. Self-Motivated

Has their own goals in mind and does whatever it takes to meet or exceed them. This is also known as drive or grit.

6. Product Knowledge

A great salesperson knows everything about their product or service and how it compares to the competition. More so, they know that people don’t buy features; they buy benefits. Features answer the question, “What is it?” and benefits answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”.

7. Friendly

Great salespeople can easily build rapport with all types of people, whether on the phone or in person. Building rapport with customers is one of the most important steps in the sales process. A strong relationship with a customer creates mutual trust and a lasting relationship that can lead to repeat business. As the saying goes, ‘People do business with people they know, like and trust’.

8. Follows Up

Doesn’t wait for a prospect to get back to them, instead, checks in to see what else they can do to help the customer move forward.

9. Organised

Keeps track of all working opportunities, past clients and lost sales in a CRM so they know when to follow up.

10. Quick On Feet

Can adjust their pitch based on the current situation and doesn’t get caught off guard by questions.