Success In Sales
The traits that make a good salesman
This week, in my journey with Praxis and on my mission to learn the fine details of business. I have been tasked with researching different job roles commonly found in the workforce. This week I chose to dive into the arena of sales. I’ve read articles, done research, and even interviewed a salesman to truly find out what creates sales success. In this post I’ll be covering 5 traits which I believe make for a great salesman.
#1 - Confidence
In my interview with salesman Adam Litteral, he explained to me how important confidence is in sales. With your day to day life involving a lot of cold calling, product demonstrations, and negotiation. A lack of confidence can be very detrimental to your performance. As Mr. Litteral put it, “If you can't be excited and confident about your product, how can you expect your customer to get excited about it”. You have to be confident in the product you’re selling, and in your ability to sell it. Otherwise you can come off as weak or untrustworthy to a potential customer. It’s important to remember that sales is mainly built around psychology, and from a psychological point of view, confidence is one of the best ways to convince a customer that your product is worth their time and money.
#2 - Fearlessness
Typically sales people deal with a lot of rejection, whether that’s over the phone or in person, it can make people nervous to keep going. Not to mention that doing product demonstrations or speaking about your product to audiences can be nerve racking and anxiety inducing. In order to succeed in sales, you have to have a fearless attitude. The type where even though you’ve just been rejected, you don't let it get to your head and you're not afraid to get out there and try again. As well as the type where you don't allow your nerves to get the best of you when you’re headed into a demonstration. Because the minute you let those fears control you, it’s going to ruin your confidence and your ability to make a good pitch. This is why having that fearless attitude is very important to being a good salesman.
#3 - Persistence
This trait very much ties into fearlessness, but they have their differences. While fearlessness means not being afraid of rejection. Persistence means getting back up and going right back at it after you already have been. It means being on a losing streak of getting turned down again and again and still finding the willpower to keep trying. In order to have a long and successful career in sales. You must first master the art of persistence in the face of failure.
#4 - Kindness
The word kindness encompasses so much here, It means being friendly, trustworthy, courteous, and respectful. There’s a stigma surrounding salesman that suggest that they’re all just sleazy slimeballs who only care about their commissions. While this can be true, it’s certainly an exaggerated stereotype. Still, customers are immediately going to have issues trusting a salesman just based off the stigma that surrounds them. This is why you have to take the extra step to build trust. Take the time to build rapport with your customers, look after their needs, take the time to go beyond showing them what the product does, and show off what it can do for them. Most importantly, be kind, because the minute you let that kindness slip. You’ve become the sleazy salesman in their mind, and you've just lost your sale.
#5 - Patience
Making sales is a long process with multiple steps. First you have to find prospects, then you have to begin emailing or cold calling, and out of the small percentage of successes you have from there, you have to find a way to demo your product. Finally you have to convince them to buy, close the sale, and finalize everything. This is a process that takes a lot of time, energy, and focus. If you are incapable of patience, this job is going to drive you insane, a good salesman is able to stay on task for as long as it takes to land a sale. It’s a small characteristic with a big impact on this role.
So there you have it, the five traits of a successful salesman. Confidence, fearlessness, persistence, kindness, and patience. Without practicing these traits, life as a salesman would be not only difficult, but disappointing.
-Braden Schmidt 10/07/2019