People love sales jobs because the potential for financial gain is very high. Unfortunately, not everyone is meant to be a sales person. Like everything else, some people are just better than others at selling. It is therefore very important for you to know the characteristics of a good sales person. You can then determine whether you have it in you to be successful in the sales and marketing industry.
What characteristics do successful sales people have?
1. Empathy
You need to be empathetic if you are to be a good salesperson. This skill is necessary in order to enable you to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. You will then be able to understand better what their needs are, and how best to solve them. This in turn will help you cultivate a long-term relationship with your customers, which will lead to sales later on even if you do not make quick sales.
2. Comfortable With Money Issues
Sales is about selling products and services and getting money in return. If you are one of those people who are never comfortable talking about money, a job in sales is not for you.
3. Knowledgeable
In order to be a good sales person, you have to be knowledgeable not just about your industry, but also life in general. The knowledge that you have will help you counter the objections of the people to whom you are selling. It will come in handy when you have to show your target audience that you know what you are talking about and what people need. The knowledge that you possess will also help you understand your competitors and beat them at their own game.
4. Confidence
Confidence is an important characteristic of every good sales person. You will have to talk to people from all lifestyles in order to make your sales pitches. Many of them will be strangers. Some will be downright intimidating.
Confidence is a characteristic that will enable you to deal with all the challenges that come your way when dealing with different people.
5. Tenacious
You have to be tenacious if you are to make it as a sales person. Tenacity will help you wade through numerous details to find out the best leads. This characteristic will come in handy when you have to do follow-ups with your target audience members, in order to get firm purchasing commitments from them.
6. Self-driven
A good sales person must be self-driven. You cannot wait for someone to watch over your shoulder in order to embark on a sales mission. You have to motivate yourself and grab opportunities where you find them. You also have to remain focused even without a conventional organizational structure dictating how to perform your job.
7. Optimism
You will receive many rejections on your attempts to sell products or services. If you want to be a successful sales person, you should be optimistic. At times, optimism may be the only thing that stands between you and depression when you have gotten one rejection too many.
8. Charisma
You require a certain level of charisma in order to sell products and services to people. Your people skills will determine how well you interact with others and whether they like you. You are more likely to sell to the people who like you.
Be sure that you possess the right characteristics and skills of a good sales person. It will make your sales job much easier to do.
