Top Ten Characteristics of the Best Salespeople
In the course of my work, I interview a significant number of salespeople on all levels and one of the questions I ask them all is, "What are the traits and characteristics of the best salespeople?" Here are the Top Ten answers:
- Consistently learning and investing in themselves and their professional development
- Masterful communicators and great listeners
- Creative. The art of selling is the ability to create new solutions and possibilities
- Possess a positive and healthy attitude
- Passionate about what they do and deliver unconditional value to their prospects for the joy of it
- Ability to create an experience that allows the sale to happen
- Responsive, proactive, highly adaptable and flexible
- Exemplify what their customers and prospects want most - leading with integrity and honesty; they are resourceful; solutions driven, responsive, reliable and knowledgeable
- Process driven. They know where they're going and they have a plan to get there including specific, measurable goals and a selling system to manage their selling process
- Masters of time-management and organization. Great at following up.
Now, evaluate your own characteristics against this list and give yourself a score of "Pass" or "Fail." Don't be afraid to be very honest (it's the only way you'll get better) and don't take it easy on yourself. Pass = Master and Fail = Apprentice. Once you have your results, develop a plan to improve in each of the areas where you are currently failing and if you make those improvements, I'll guarantee your numbers will improve dramatically. If I'm wrong, I'll give you a 150% refund.