Who is a successful salesperson

Ed —A salesman with fine empathy but too little drive may be a splendid person but will be unable to close his deals effectively. He is often hired because he does have such fine personal qualities. Yet his closing ability is weak. He will get along with the customer, understand him, and bring him near the close; but he does not have that inner hunger to move the customer that final one foot to the actual sale. It is this last element of the sale—the close—that empathy alone cannot achieve and where the assertive quality of ego drive becomes the all-important essential.

An employer would avoid much grief by finding this out in advance, before so much effort is spent in trying to hire, train, and spoon-feed a man who does not have within him the basic dynamics to be successful. Since the selection of top salesmen is potentially of such enormous value, why, it might be asked, has there been so little success to date in developing methods to preselect effectively?

For at least 50 years, psychologists have been working very hard in the area of testing. Almost every aspect of human personality, behavior, attitude, and ability has at one time or another come under the scrutiny of the tester. There have been some notable successes in testing, most especially perhaps in the IQ and mechanical-ability areas.

Of late, personality testing, especially with the increasing use of projective techniques, has gained a certain level of sophistication. The area which has been to date most barren of real scientific success has been aptitude testing, where the aptitude consists of personality dynamics rather than simple mechanical abilities.

The ability to sell, an exceedingly human and totally nonmechanical aptitude, has resisted attempts to measure it effectively. The reasons for this failure up until now are many, but there appear to be four basic causes for sales aptitude test failure. Thus, tests have been developed through asking questions of successful salesmen or successful people in other fields, with the assumption that if an applicant expresses the same kind of interest pattern as an established salesman, he too will be a successful salesman.

This assumption is wrong on its face. Psychologically, interest does not equal aptitude. Even if someone is interested in exactly the same specific things as Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays, this of course does not in any way indicate the possession of a similar baseball skill.

Equally, the fact that an individual might have the same interest pattern as a successful salesman does not mean that he can sell.

Even if he wants to sell, it does not mean that he can sell. When an individual is applying for a job, he obviously will attempt to tell the potential employer whatever he thinks the employer wants to hear. There are manuals on the market on how to beat sales aptitude tests, but, even without such a manual, the average intelligent person can quickly see what is sought and then give the tester what the tester wants.

Thus, the tests may simply succeed in negatively screening those who are so unintelligent that they are unable to see the particular response pattern sought. In other words, since they are too dull to fake, they may be screened out. The perceptive interviewer, however, is likely to notice this kind of stupidity even more quickly than the tests do, and he can probably do a better job of this negative screening than the average fakable test.

Recent critics of psychological testing decry the testers who are seeking conformity and the standardized ways in which they judge applicants for sales and other occupations. This criticism is all too valid. The creative thinker, the impulsive free spirit, the original, imaginative, hard-driving individual is often screened out by tests that demand rigid adherence to convention—an adherence, in fact, that borders on a passive acceptance of authority, a fear of anything that might in any way upset the applecart of bureaucratic order.

Paradoxically, this fearful, cautious, authoritarian conformist, although he might make a good civil servant, or even a fair controller or paperwork administrative executive, would never make a successful salesman.

Many of these tests not only fail to select good salesmen, but they may actually screen out the really top producers because of their creativity, impulsiveness, or originality—characteristics that most tests downgrade as strangeness or weakness.

We discovered a situation of this type recently in working with a client: A company in the Southwest embarked on an intensive recruiting effort for salesmen. We began receiving the tests of a number of applicants. These tests all appeared to follow a certain pattern. The men were not quite recommendable, and all for about the same reason—a definite lack of ego drive. For the most part, they had some empathy, and without exception they had good verbal ability, but none had the intense inner need for the sale that we look for in a productive salesman.

Many psychological tests screen out the really top producers because of their creativity, impulsiveness, or originality—characteristics that most tests downgrade as strangeness or weakness. After about 20 such tests came through our office, we questioned the sales manager as to what criteria he was using for screening the men who took the test. We found that before he gave the applicants our test, he had them take the sales aptitude test that had been developed by his company some years before.

Those men who scored high on that test were given our test. Men with strong ego drive could not as a rule score near the top of that test. And so the very men with the quality we were seeking—strong ego drive—were actually screened out. We then asked the sales manager not to use that test but to screen only for credit reference and general appearance, and to give our test to those who passed this simple screening.

Most personality and aptitude tests are totally traitological in their construction and approach. The dynamic interaction that is personality, as viewed by most modern-day psychologists, is buried in a series of fractionalized, mathematically separable traits. In our research we attempted to bypass traits and to go directly to the central dynamisms that we believed were basic to sales ability: empathy and ego drive. By seeking these deeper, more central, characteristics, we immediately reduced the possibility of faking, since the respondent would find it extremely difficult to determine what in fact was being sought.

Needless to say, the importance of interest as a variable has been reduced sharply, and the conformity factor has been completely subordinated to the basic central characteristics being measured.

This use of central dynamics rather than traits, with its corollary implications, has produced what we believe to be a positive method of predicting sales success that is advanced beyond what has been done to date. Many sales executives feel that the type of selling in their industry and even in their particular company is somehow completely special and unique.

This is true to an extent. There is no question that a data-processing equipment salesman needs somewhat different training and background than does an automobile salesman. What is not so easily seen, however, are the basic sales dynamics we have been discussing, which permit an individual to sell successfully, almost regardless of what he is selling.

To date, we have gained experience with more than 7, salesmen of tangibles as well as intangibles, in wholesale as well as retail selling, big-ticket and little-ticket items. And the dynamics of success remain approximately the same in all cases. Sales ability is fundamental, more so than the product being sold.

Long before he comes to know the product, mostly during his childhood and growing-up experience, the future successful salesman is developing the human qualities essential for selling. Thus, when emphasis is placed on experience, and experience counts more than such essentials as empathy and drive, what is accomplished can only be called the inbreeding of mediocrity.

We have found that the experienced person who is pirated from a competitor is most often piratable simply because he is not succeeding well with that competitor. He feels that somehow he can magically do better with the new company.

This is rarely true. He remains what he is, mediocre, or worse. What companies need is a greater willingness to seek individuals with basic sales potential in the general marketplace. Experience is more or less easily gained, but real sales ability is not at all so easily gained. Whenever sales managers get together at company meetings, improving sales force effectiveness and high turnover rates amongst the sales force are invariably the topics for discussion.

The high turnover amongst less productive salespeople is accepted as a necessary burden for managing the sales force. This is not so. Research has shown that 55 per cent of people engaged in selling are in the wrong profession. This last group have the potential to be highly successful in some cases, but they are only marginal performers in their present sales positions. So, what does it take to be a successful salesperson?

By the very nature of the work itself, successful salespeople possess a unique set of personality attributes that enable them to succeed. It takes a special kind of individual to succeed in sales. There are five key qualities that are essential for success:.

Empathy is the ability to identify with customers, to feel what they are feeling and make customers feel respected. Empathy is NOT sympathy, which involves a feeling of loyalty with another individual. It is more than understanding their concerns from an objective standpoint. A salesperson showing empathy can gain trust and establish rapport with customers by being on their side and not appearing judgmental. Empathy allows the salesperson to read the customers, show concern, and clearly demonstrate his or her interest in providing a proper solution.

A person with focus is internally driven to accomplish goals and can stay attentive to one topic. Focused individuals are more demanding of themselves than other people and they are self-motivated.

They are able to organize themselves and recognize what needs to be done in order to achieve their goals. In a salesperson, focus produces best results when it is balanced with empathy. You then see a person who listens and identifies with the customer while keeping focused on set goals, and who is able to translate these goals into solutions for the customer.

A person with a strong sense of responsibility does not place blame on other people when placed in a difficult situation. Sales Templates Sales Training Demo-litions. Code of Conduct. Log in. Join Now. Sign In. All Channels. What sets them apart? The first step is identifying the problem. Success Trait 2: Passionate Being passionate about your job means more than working to meet a quota. Success Trait 3: Creative Creativity is important in sales. The top performers in sales look at things differently.

Success Trait 4: Empathetic Empathy and compassion are prerequisites to excellent customer service. Success Trait 5: Accountable Accountability is important. If something goes wrong, they take it upon themselves to find out why and fix it. If something goes great, they find out why and cultivate it. Success Trait 6: Well-Prepared Impressing clients and persuading them to spend money is no cakewalk.

There are a lot of ways to get it wrong, and only one sure fire way to impress — be prepared. Success Trait 7: Tech-Savvy Technology is an important aspect of Sales, and every year it gets a bigger role. They use any and all kinds of sales tools available to be more efficient and more successful. Success Trait 8: Highly Engaged Being engaged is important. You need to be active and present every day at your company. You need to love being a part of the organization you represent.

They take advantage of every resource their company provides. If you do this, your organization will also invest in you. So be plugged in. Success Trait 9: Goal-Oriented The ability to set and stick to personal and professional goals is a common trait of the most successful salespeople. Top sales pros take it to another level. Reaching these goals requires patience, planning, and a long-term vision. Success Trait Relationship-Driven Sales is all about relationships. The key here is authenticity.

The relationship needs to be authentic, not simply transactional. There will be wins and losses, but the most successful salespeople never say goodbye to clients.

He just needs an opportunity… Hunger is an intense desire or craving for something or, in this case, good sales. Success Trait Competitive Salespeople who succeed are competitive. Success Trait Multitasking Most people have a negative view of multitasking. Success Trait Curiosity When reps take the role of a curious student rather than an informed expert, buyers are much more likely to engage. Another important quality of a good salesperson is curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat, but in this case, it makes a successful salesman.

This, in turn, pushes them to become the best at what they do. Success Trait Good Listener Good listening involves paying close and keen attention to what your clients need. Successful salespeople know good listening and the role it plays in making good sales. What Next? Now you know the traits you need to cultivate. The goal? To build smart habits that make these 10 traits your natural way of being and doing.

So get out there and start becoming the best salesperson of tomorrow. Comment Comment.