4 Sales Success Skills You Absolutely Need
Sales leaders always hunt for successful new sales talent and often ask me for advice about the specific skills that predict sales success.
Interestingly, some of the most essential sales success skills require no experience at all – which is one of the reasons I sometimes encourage sales leaders to consider hiring people with no previous sales experience.
You can always teach a willing learner how to achieve success in sales, but you can’t always coach the essential selling skills listed below.
#1. Attitude
It is probably no surprise to anyone that attitude is top of the sales success skills list. Yet, as I work with sales teams all across the country, I am consistently surprised by the sheer volume of salespeople with poor attitudes.
We need to realize that a salesperson with a poor attitude is leaking those negative feelings all over your buyers and poisoning your sales offices.
I understand that everyone gets a bit down now and again, but a salesperson with a consistently bad attitude is simply unacceptable.
#2. Effort
You are probably familiar with the phrase – give 110%. I’ve always thought this ridiculous since 110% is impossible, but I understand the premise: give it everything you’ve got and then give a little bit more.
You want salespeople who will give it everything they’ve got, then take coaching from you and give a little bit more. Salespeople who throw in the towel too quickly are costing you crucial sales.
#3. Be On Time
Part of being successful is just showing up on time! Being on time seems especially difficult for some salespeople, yet it is a sign of their organizational skills.
How well can they prioritize and manage their time so that they arrive when and where they should be? A salesperson’s punctuality is a good indicator of how successfully they manage their commitments to their buyers.
It is also a simple sign of respect. It shows respect by not being late or disruptive and it shows respect for other peoples’ time. A salesperson who isn’t capable of showing this type of respect can and WILL frustrate your buyers.
#4. Be Coachable
Learning is never-ending. No one ever gets anything completely figured out. Many of the most successful salespeople I know seek learning more fervently than people who are just starting out.
Seek out the salespeople who show interest in your training program, who can speak about what they’ve learned from others and who can share with you some of the recent sales books they’ve read and how they’ve helped them improve their selling skills.
Markets change. Buyers change. And successful salespeople must learn and changes as well to keep up.
Sales success skills that require no experience are a beautiful thing because it allows sales leaders to seek out great PEOPLE and turn them into great SALESPEOPLE. Understanding and applying this knowledge into both your hiring process and your ongoing evaluative process will help you transform your sales team into a top producing machine.
That, my friends, will change your world!
