Qualities of a Good Salesperson

Humble, Outgoing, Sincere, Honest, and Tenacious are the

key traits of the best sales people. As a sales person - you
must be humble. If you don't know an answer to a customers
question, do imply that you do.

However be honest, yet tenacious enough to find out the

correct answer and provide a service to the customer.
Tenacious also means not taking "no" for an answer, and
overcoming obstacles that stop the customer from saying
yes. All motives must be sincere and key to the customers
needs.

Personality
A good sales person is not afraid to talk to anyone who may
have an interest in what he/she is selling. Listening and
controlling the conversation by asking intelligent, thought
provoking, interesting questions that are open ended and
gather information is another key trait to successful selling.
Also, eye contact, standing straight and smiling are
important for an effective impression towards someone who
is spending their hard earned money.

There is a misunderstanding that a good salesperson has

'the gift of the gab' where as most trained sales people will
have heard the saying 'You have one mouth and two ears,
use them in that proportion'. A good sales person is a
listener. They ask plenty of questions, and make notes of the
answers. These notes (mental or written) help them find a
suitable product or service for the potential customer. A
successful sale is when the customer agrees with that
solution.

The price
Many salespeople are unable to sell to their potential owing
to their own misunderstanding of their potential customers'
needs. They are able to listen to the answers, but
misunderstand that the customer doesn't have the same
goals as they. Many sales people worry about the price of
their goods compared to the competition. Customers, unlike
the sales people, are unaware of the prices of non
commodity goods and are willing to pay what they believe is
a fair price (usually slightly below the market price) for these
goods. It is only when a sales person, or a third party
introduces doubt into the mind of the customer, that price
becomes an issue.

Ethic
Many successful salespeople have a deep understanding of
human behaviour and are able to use these skills to their
advantage. They are aware that, although there is a process
for successfully completing a sale, customers fall into a
range of different personality types. For instance, a sales
person would have to deal with a teacher in a totally different
manner to how they would deal with a businessperson. This
is because the two sets of people have a different outlook on
life and would therefore have different qualities which would
be important to them. This is the reason they chose different
career paths in the first place!
Most of the top sales people are very good at managing
themselves and having a good work ethic. They understand
that if they do not do the work, think creatively and use their
skills to their potential, they will not hit their targets and earn
the income they seek. Those who do blame outside forces
are usually the ones who do not have a long career in sales.

Qualities of an Effective Sales Person

The sales team of a Company is its backbone.
After all it is the sales person who is the
face of the firm and interacts with
prospective consumers. Whether we talk
about door to door selling or over the
counter sales, the sales person is always
under pressure to meet rising sales targets.

The sales presentation requires a sales man to be a

friend, a guide, an advisor and sometimes a reformer
to the customer.

Here are a few qualities that define an effective

sales person -

• Goal Oriented - The driving force behind

every Company is increased sales and high
profits. Most Companies draw out expected sales
targets for every year. The onus lies on the
sales team to not only meet these targets but go
beyond them. Every sales person must be goal
 oriented and should work towards matching
these sales figures.

• Confident - A sales person should be

confident about the product he is selling as well
as his own ability to successfully close a sale.
Especially in the case of door to door selling, the
sales person should be able to interact well with
the prospective buyer, gain their trust, arouse
an interest and eventually convince them to try
a new product. Sales persons should be willing
to handle all kinds of tense situations.

• Patient & Courteous - Convincing a

prospective customer to buy a product is not an
easy task. Selling is an art and requires
patience. A sales person should be able to guide
a customer through the entire process which
begins with a prospective buyer's indifferent
attitude towards a brand and ends with them
placing an order. The sales person should be
courteous and pleasant while taking a buyer
through these stages.

• Team Player - A good sales executive must

be a good team player as well. An ability to
interact and devise good sales plans should
come naturally to him.

Complete Product Knowledge - Every

sales executive should be trained well. He should
have complete product knowledge including benefits,
uses and applications of each product. A good
background knowledge will help him to answer all
types of questions raised by a prospective buyer.

• Pleasing Personality - A pleasing

personality adds to a sales person's appeal.
He/she should be pleasant to interact with and
should know how to convince and persuade a
customer to place an order.

If you are looking forward to a career in the sales

field, make sure that you cultivate these qualities in
you. All the best!

Qualities of a Good Salesperson

This is an article I had just written at Helium. Being a
salesperson before, and being a customer myself, I had
learned what I want and how I want to be treated by
salesperson. This is my views:

How to become a good sales person

A salesperson job is to sell. What he sells depend on which
company he is working, and this is determined in turn by
what his qualification and field of study involved. There are
salespeople who sells medicines, cars, insurance, air-
conditioners, computers and many others. The word
salespeople is a very general term. It can includes the sales
executives in a clothing store, and it can also includes sales
promoter who sells cosmetics in the shopping centres.
Regardless of the title, as long as the person who sells a
product or service to the consumers, they are regarded as
salesperson.
How to be a good salesperson? In terms of priority, a
salesperson is regarded as good if he has all these:

1. Honesty - do not hide any truths that is detrimental to

customers and do not lie about products
2. Have Positive Attitude - Willing to work hard &
Understand the need to have Good Product Knowledge
3. Respect Customers - Put customers in the first place
4. Professional
5. Proactive

Any salesperson with this qualities have potential to be a

good salesperson. Honesty is a basic trait and ingredients
essential to anywhere you go. Not only in sales, but in any
other business. People want to work with honest people, no
tricks and no scams nor frauds.

A salesman with the right mental mindset, can achieve

anything he wants. If he has a positive attitude in anything,
he is willing to accept any responsibilities given to him. A
positive attitude means that the salesperson will not give
up easily on his occupation when he meets failure. He is
willing to work hard. He knows that to do well in sales, he
needs good product knowledge. He need to persevere and
have determination in order to succeed. Whether he speaks
well or not is not a factor at all, if he is willing to learn. A
positive person has no big obstacles in front of him if he
wants to learn.

The next thing which a good salesperson should do is to

respect his customers, for that is his life blood. Without
customers, there is no job for the salesperson. No matter
what the customers say, they have their own reasons and
their own needs which is different from any other people
and you. Do not answer back. Do not laugh at them. Listen
to them. If you want to win in any arguments, you can
never win your customers. Win your customers, listen and
respect and advise, and they will respect you in return and
you stand to win more customers when they refer more
customers to you. You many not know too much on your
products as a new salesperson, but honesty and the right
attitude will touch your customers.

If you really want to be a good salesperson, you should

know your products very well, so that you can recommend
anything to your customers at your finger tips. Being
professional requires you to know your products well, at
the finger tips and able to explain what the customers
cannot understand. You must be able to put yourself in
customers shoes, explain everything in layman's terms, in
simple language, so that anyone would understand. Being
professional also means that you need to observe
confidentiality. That is very important. Many sales job like
real estate agents and financial planners require clients to
disclose their personal information. Put yourself in their
shoes. Nobody would like to have their confidential
information spread around. Being professional also means
you know how to package yourself. You have high self-
esteem and you take pride in your job. You sell because
your customers have the needs or your customers insist on
having it even after you had explained your reasons. Being
professional, you are just like a doctor or a teacher. You
educate, you analyse or 'diagnose' and next you
recommend. The customers have the right to decide and
choose.

The job of all salesperson is to close a sale. Any salesperson

who cannot sell a single product is definitely not a good
salesperson even if you have the rest of the four qualities
listed above. A good salesperson must be proactive in order
to have sales. To be proactive that means you must take
the first step. You are in control of every situation. You are
not a follower, but a leader. You lead and you guide. As a
proactive salesperson, you have no fear. You cold call, you
go canvassing and you talk to strangers. You talk to anyone
who are potential prospects and you want them to be your
customers in time to come. You follow-up on your business.
You talk to them, call them as and when you are free or on
special occasion.

Not all salesperson are taught on code of ethics. In my

opinion, any salesperson should be honest and always put
themselves in the shoes of their customers. Do unto others
as you would have them do unto you. This is quoted in the
Gospels of Luke 6:31, and also in others. This is the Golden
Rule, the ethic of reciprocity, which should be practiced by
a sales person. A good sales person should obey this Golden
Rule at all times. This is the basic rule to follow as it is the
foundation any moral and ethics of the salesperson. With
this golden rule couple with the listed five important
qualities a good salesperson should have, a salesperson who
practiced these will have potential to be good salesperson.
If he is persistent in his effort and consistent in his
activities, he could be a top salesperson too.

A Successful Sales Person Is

1. Prompt
2. Hard working
3. Ethical
4. Always listening
5. Asking the right questions
6. Sincere
7. Creative
8. Full of empathy
9. Positive
10. Organized
11. Attentive to detail
12. Thoroughly prepared
13. Good humored
14. Focused
15. Resourceful
16. Informed about his products
17. Informed about his industry
18. Informed about his competitors
19. Thick skinned, resilient
20. Aggressive
21. Flexible
22. Quick thinking
23. Tough minded
24. Skilled in writing
25. Skilled in marketing
26. Skilled in math
27. Skilled in reading
28. Well rounded
29. Emotionally balanced
30. Self confident
31. Passionate about her work
32. Willing to take risks
33. Competitive
34. Patient
35. Practical
36. Persistent
37. A strategist
38. A tactician
39. Curious
40. Generous
Sales people always exhibit a number of good qualities and
characteristics. They are able to master techniques that set them
apart from other sales people. Once you are able to utilize your
skills to their full extent, you will be able to capture more market
share, make more money and take your ability to sell to the next
level.

Listening Skills

1. To be a good sales person, you have to be a good listener.

Listening enables you to find out exactly what a customer's
needs and wants are. Sometimes, you have to sift through
everything a customer says to get to the root of her problem.

Persistent

2. Good sales people are persistent. They never give up. They
understand that you have to make 6 sales calls before you
make a sale.

Attitude

3. If you want to be a good sales person, then you have to have

a good attitude. Sales is a tough business and you cannot
allow yourself to become negative. You must stay up-tempo
all the time. Customers will feed off your energy.

Honest/Integrity

4. Good sales people are sincere and honest. They always have
the customer's best interest at heart. They never falsify
information to make a sale.

Personable

5. In order to be a good sales person you must like people.

Good sales people like to interact with people. They are
 outgoing and personable and they get to know their
customers and potential customers.

I have summarised the views of Mr. Lau and Andy about

the qualities of a successful salesperson and sales
manager in the table below. I have also included my view
on this topic.

Issues Salesperson’s Sales My Views

Views Manager’s
Views

• Quick • Positive • Personali

thinking and ty
• Foresight sincere Characte
Qualities • Hardworkin attitud ristics
Of A g e (include
Successfu • Patienc appearan
• Determinat
l e ce,
ion
Salespers • Diligenc conversa
on e tional
 • Good habits
present and
ation manneris
skills ms)

Comments: • Personali
ty Traits
Andy passed
(include
for all the
assertive
above
ness,
qualities but
dependa
lacked
bility,
motivation
Self-
to generate
Managem
greater
ent)
sales.
• Personal
• Responsibili • Foresig
Motivati
ty ht
on to be
• Patience • Patienc
successf
Qualities • Firmness e
ul
Of A • Good • Strong
Successfu communicat sense
l Sale ion skills of
Manager respons
Comments:
ibility
Mr. Lau
• Ability
possessed all
to
the above
 qualities except forecas
good t and
communication handle
skills. challen
ges

Their views about the functions of a salesperson and

sales manager are also recorded below. Similarly my
views are also included.

Issues Salesperson’s Sales My View

Views Manager’s
Views

• Prospect • Prospect Should

new new convey the
customers customers importance
Functions • Make sales • Make of
Of A presentati sales informatio
Salesperso ons presentati n collection
n • Close sales ons function to
• Close Andy.
• Collect
sales
payment
• Collect
 payment

• Collecting
informatio
n

• Coordinati • Motivatin 3 broad

on g functions:
• Recruitme salespeopl
(i)
Functions nt e
formulate
Of A • Training • Product
a strategic
Successful updating
• Sales sales
Sale lines
programme
Manager • Negotiatin
g prices (ii)
with implement
suppliers the
• Making program
product
orders (iii)
• Making evaluate
sure and control
salespeopl the
e adhere programme
to
company
policies
and rules
• Handling
 customer
feedback
• Forecastin
g sales
figures
• Setting
sales
target
• Working
with other
departme
nts

• Sourcing
for new
products