According to a recent article, Sales Representatives rank #3 in the list of Best Sales and Marketing jobs in the US. In 2017, Sales Representatives made a median salary of $56,970. This means if you are a sales rep, you are among the best-paid 25 percent salary bracket. However, it takes some special skills to top the list. Becoming the best salesperson in the world depends on a fine mix of personality traits, knowledge, skills, leadership, and command over technology.
Best Salespersons are best at what they do– on and off their desk. They showcase immaculate personality traits that they possessed and/or acquired through their journeys in sales. There are countless books and articles on how to be a great salesperson. We have expanded these ideas and got them all under one rood to help you become self-aware of what a great salesperson actually looks like.
Yes, it can be you.
Learning and Self-Development
Best salespersons are obsessed with learning and experimenting with what they learned. Self-development based on constantly reading and following great writers helps. Great sales book for business leaders let out money-making secrets; best salespeople read dozens of books in a year to learn this distilled wisdom of making money.
Intuitive
How good are you with sniffing out hot accounts and filtering out cold ones? More than what CRMs can tell you, your intuitive prowess would help you to save time chasing the best accounts.
Great sales reps are driven by strong intuitions in their workplace. They single-handedly chase an account and close deals that are similar in their profiles. To be the best salesperson, you have to clearly understand the “Psychology of Selling“.
Brutally Honest
Do you feel guilty about cannibalizing your sales colleague’s commissions? And, then you reject the commission? Do you say sorry for not putting the right numbers and projections during the quarterly meetings?
If yes, you may not have earned a lot of praise from the team, but you will win the Honesty plank in the long run. And that’s what makes great salespeople survive and thrive.
Best sales people don’t beat around the bush. Driven by honorable principles of honesty and truthfulness, great salespeople empathize with their team members and customers. The traditional stereotype of ruthless salespeople telling lies to sell is long blown away. Best sales people customers what it really feels like to own a product, even if it means counting them a few shortcomings.
Work Culture
Punctuality is one great personality trait that can turn an average sales professional into a great leader. It does not take much to stick to meeting time goals. Simply sticking to punctuality goals can out you on RADAR of your boss, team members and eventually your partners and customers. How?
Count the number of times you have been late to your scheduled calls?
How many times have you missed your team deadlines?
Do you often find yourself constantly apologizing to your team members and customers about late delivery or missed delivery?
If you have more than five such incidents, you have to work hard on your punctuality.
Within a month, you should see a drastic change in the way your sales deal shape up.
Personal Obligation to Respond
In a constantly connected business ecosystem, salespeople are expected to be on top of their emails, chats, and phone call schedules. Every call is a potential sales deal. It could be a new customer or your existing one. If your team member is slow to move the needle on the deal, help him/her out. make it your personal obligation to respond to the smallest of customer requests. Soon your customer-centric approach would positively brush over peers as well.
Accountability
Victory has many fathers; failure, an orphan.
For the best sales professionals, they walk a different line. Best salespeople have their eyes on fixing failure first. And, they would more often than not taken upon themselves to identify the pain points and find answers to mitigate these. Accountability is critical to any role — and, it’s an under-praised virtue.
Team Player
How often do you find yourself working an extra hour to close a deal? Do you willingly participate in all the team building tasks? Do you complain often about your colleagues and boss?
If you do it more than 5 times in a month, you are losing a significant amount of energy in unproductive, mindless activities. Simply, saying Yes or No to team members can help you to decide your course to become the best salesperson in the world. When you work as a team player, your energy is synced with others. Why do you think best hunters in the past always walked and speared in tribes– because that’s what best hunters do. They hunt in packs. Even, lions.
So, to be a lion in your sales job, stick to your team aspirations and influence with energy, dedication, and discipline.
Remember: Best salespeople learn from the best to hunt with the best.
Optimistic
Do you expect perfectionism in your team and demand targets are met in time? Do you glorify your achievements by saying you are always right with setting and meeting targets?
Best salespeople are humanly flawed– they take everything with a pinch of salt, especially failure to meet targets. It may sound unbelievable for new sales groups, but optimism is a key personality trait that instills positivity and motivation. In his book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie expresses the true meaning of optimism and how it automatically assumes leadership.
Consistent
Consistency is a habit. If you are consistent with your good work, you will see great results. Steven Covery’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, you can learn why consistency is such a sought-after personality trait. Best salespeople grow beyond the proverbial managerial balloon juice to deploy consistent hard work, sales practice and build information around these to close deals and win loyal customers.
When you are consistent, you can measure what is working and what didn’t. Isn’t it true?
Persistent
Do you wonder what if I persisted a little longer, and it would have been mine to cherish?
Best salespeople don’t ponder thinking “What If?”
They are go-getters and chasers of the best quality. They are committed, driven and persistent. Just like consistency is a key personality trait seen in the best salespeople, persistence also refines your selling skills. Persistently following-up with customers, making them aware of your latest work and so on, can actually drive results.
They have a life!
Yes… best salespeople find their motivation to excel from their hobbies and activities outside of work. Playing competitive sports, vacationing once or twice a year, writing sales blogs or doing great interviews on Sales journeys open new avenues for you to build great sales ideas. Likewise, you read books on sales and watch interviews of great salespeople. Best personality traits in a sales pro are known from what they do in other spheres of life.
A friendly, conflict-free personal life is an inspiration to juniors, peers, and colleagues in the sales community.
Influencer and Power Connectors
Best salespeople and leaders in SalesTech are great influencers. They just hob around their business or how great their company is, but also say great things about others, especially competitors and partners. It’s a great personality trait in sales to truly connect like-minded people discussing business and management. People believe what they say or write. They are almost talking from a high-tree, helping businesses to find a synergy in their ongoing operations. Why just Sales? They are great power connectors in Marketing, Events, Technology and Hiring too.
When you get acquainted with Sales leaders who exude these personality traits, you will be charmed to learn more from these. Embrace the human way of selling and learning the art of leveraging technology — and voila, your personality traits would bloom, benefitting everyone you interact with.
