In spirit of National Salesperson Day, we’re looking at the top attributes that make a great salesperson. If you recognised things about yourself throughout this blog, you may just make for an excellent salesperson.
Working in sales can be an extremely lucrative and rewarding career. While you can educate yourself on all the various sales techniques and the right things to say, you might struggle to make a single sale. Working in a sales environment is different from many industries and those without the correct attributes and characteristics may find gaining clients a challenge.
Here are 4 qualities a great salesperson will possess.
1. Communication
In a nutshell, working in sales is essentially all about communication. You need to understand and adapt to different communication styles and recognising that everyone responds very differently to different styles of communication.
It is reliant on having the emotional intelligence to know that using unnecessary jargon that’s difficult to digest is a sure-fire way to make your potential customer uninterested in whatever you’re trying to sell.
Sales relies on relationships and relationship-building, therefore, it’s important to possess strong verbal skills if you’re to succeed in Sales. Having strong interpersonal skills and building authentic connection with your customers is a massive aspect of a career in Sales – it’s not solely about landing that sale.
The key to meaningful and lasting relationships is authenticity which comes from honesty, building trust and open communication. Successful salespeople don’t allow connect with their prospects when the time comes to seal the deal. They don’t look at these relationships as purely transactional but an-going relationship where they’re readily available to their customer to answer any questions and put any worries at ease.
2. Drive
A successful salesperson must have passion, knowledge, and drive. Without them, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. Working in Sales comes with the incentive to go to work and earn money from commission, however, this is seldom enough.
Drive can be reflected from what you’re selling to the company you’re selling it with. If you truly care about the product/service you’re selling and believe in the core values of your employer, your drive will come a lot more naturally.
Customers are able to feel how passionate you are about your product/service, drive is an indispensable tool to possess.
3. Commitment
Sales isn’t just about cold calling and having a one-time conversation with a potential customer, it’s about establishing a meaningful relationship over a long period of time. It requires commitment and dedication and may take multiple meetings to get to the stage before you can begin selling.
A great salesperson will keep their end goal in mind while remaining committed across the entirety of the sales process. Sales requires a particular devotion to the job and understanding that it’s a long-term process which involves reaching out to the customer, without a fear of rejection, and trying again.
4. Empathy
One of the rarest, and arguably the most important, is empathy. Having the ability to relate to another person is a gift. Particularly in the conversation of working in sales, empathy is a brilliant tool as it helps you relate to the person you’re trying to sell to.
If you understand your customer and their needs, selling your product/service to them will be a much easier, more natural process. Buying anything involves emotion and customers want to know that salespeople understand what’s important to them, in order to sell them something they need.
By understanding a customer’s needs, wants, pain points, and upcoming challenges, you’ll be able to more accurately predict a sales pitch that will be more effective for them. From product deals and the appropriate kind of customer service, empathy is hugely valuable in this part of the sales process.
Like we’ve mentioned, working in sales is all about building lasting relationships and having empathy, showing your customers that you understand and care about them and their needs, will guarantee a much more positive relationship.
At s1jobs, we have an extensive Sales Team who are devoted to keeping our clients happy every day. If you’ve been looking for a new sales adventure, we’re often recruiting to our friendly, hardworking team. Keep up to date on our vacancies here.
For all Sales jobs in Scotland, visit s1jobs today.