What Makes a Great Salesperson-Integrity
What Makes A Great Salesperson-Integrity.
What makes a great salesperson? I’ve often thought about this-especially when I’m interviewing sales candidates for an open position. If you complete an Internet search on that topic, you will get hundreds of thousands of hits, so I guess there are a lot of other people trying to figure it out as well?
Every sales organization is looking for that star salesperson-since most companies realize that only a few of their salespeople make most of their sales. What makes these people the stars?
In this series of upcoming articles, I’m going to present those characteristics that I’ve found in most star salespeople.
Many sales training and personal development courses stress sales techniques. Although sales skills are important-and while you need to understand how to make a sales call, and handle an objection-it’s an individual’s persona, demeanor, work ethic, and character that make a great salesperson. If you’re involved in direct selling-or sales management-you can learn from their success. By emulating these characteristics, you can improve your sales skills and become more successful.
TOP CHARACTERISTICS.
There are proven characteristics that can make a good salesperson a better salesperson. As we discussed previously, study and practice are essential to learning sales basics. As in any trade, you can learn from reading sales books and working with more experienced salespeople.
Company sales training typically includes learning your products features and benefits, pricing, and competitive advantages. Once you’re on your own in your sales territory and on quota, nothing is better than practice to hone your skills. The more presentations you make to potential customers-the better off you’ll be. But how do you get to the next level-off the bench-and into the game? What do star salespeople do differently than most salespeople?
Integrity.
Honesty is a major characteristic in both life and sales. Misrepresentation is an easy trap, and unfortunately, common in many sales situations. If you even wonder why salespeople have a bad reputation, this is the main reason. I’ve seen many salespeople that just can’t take the pressure-and want to make a sale, so badly, that they resort to misrepresenting their product’s capabilities-or their competitors-to make a sale.
I can’t say that it isn’t effective, since I’ve lost many sales to competitors who misrepresented their product’s capabilities. Some are so ridiculous, that you just can’t believe any prospect would fall for them, but they do.
What disturbs me the most are salespeople that resort to misrepresentation of their competitor’s products to make a sale. It’s effective because once you place a doubt into a prospects mind; it affects their decision-making to the point that they may disqualify the product from consideration, especially if they have multiple choices. The tactic is so effective that it actually has a name – FUD selling. It stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
More significantly, unless the prospect has enough intelligence to verify the misrepresentation with the disparaged salesperson, you will never know why you lost the sale.
If you find a competitor that is using this tactic I believe the only course of action is legal action, and a cease and desist letter, or they just won’t stop doing it, because it is effective. Often, you never do find out, but I do believe in Karma, so we will get our revenge eventually.
Your reputation will eventually become known and shared by your customers so it is important that you protect it. Most salespeople know who the companies are that resort to dishonest tactics to win a sale. No sale is worth your personal integrity and the best salespeople are known for their knowledge and honesty. In the long run, you will make more sales with honesty and you’ll sleep a lot better at night as well.
Rules to Live By.
Besides honesty here are some other Rules to Live By:
-Never tell someone that you are going to do something and not do it. It’s better to say no than to make a commitment that you can’t keep. People keep score and have long memories.
-Be on time and confirm all appointments, your time is valuable and so are your prospects, don’t waste it and be professional with your appointments.
-Always return telephone calls of past customers promptly, especially if they have a problem. In fact, check all phone messages several times per day, and your day is not done until you return all of your telephone calls.
-Never make a sale that you know is a bad fit. Typically they will fail anyway and you end up with a bad reputation as well as a returned commission check.
-I’ll try to put this one as gently as possible. In a sales interview, you are interviewing the prospect just as the prospect is interviewing you, your company and your products or services.
Sometimes in the course of the conversation, it becomes apparent that you just don’t want this prospect as a customer. There are a lot of reasons, but in the pit of your stomach you just know this is a problem customer. The commission may be large, the sale may be easy, but you don’t want this one.
It will do more to harm your company and possibly your reputation if you make the sale than if you don’t.
Walk away.
In 1987, Joe Cerra published, The Sales Associate, a book on how to use a personal computer in sales-one of the first books about professional sales techniques integrated with automated contact management systems (CMS). Joe has over 30 years of sales experience in data processing, and has worked for both large and small sales organizations in the computer industry-including IBM and Control Data Corporation. For additional information on this topic, see http://www.salesassoc.com Joe can be contacted, by email, at: evcorp@salesassoc.com.
In 1987, Joe Cerra published, The Sales Associate, a book on how to use a personal computer in sales-one of the first books about professional sales techniques integrated with automated contact management systems (CMS). Joe has over 30 years of sales experience in data processing, and has worked for both large and small sales organizations in the computer industry-including IBM and Control Data Corporation. For more information on both this topic, and the complete sales process, visit, http://www.salesassoc.com Joe can be contacted, by email, at: evcorp@salesassoc.com.
Author Bio: In 1987, Joe Cerra published, The Sales Associate, a book on how to use a personal computer in sales-one of the first books about professional sales techniques integrated with automated contact management systems (CMS). Joe has over 30 years of sales experience in data processing, and has worked for both large and small sales organizations in the computer industry-including IBM and Control Data Corporation. For additional information on this topic, see http://www.salesassoc.com Joe can be contacted, by email, at: evcorp@salesassoc.com.
Category: Business Management
Keywords: direct selling, sales management, great salespeople, sales training
