Five Characteristics of Great Salespeople

In their excellent new home sales book The Basic and The Magic, authors Richard Tiller and Suzanne Neff offer five characteristics that customers are looking for from sales professionals. You can use this as a checklist for your own effectiveness.

The book, by the way, is available at www.richardtiller.com, and I highly recommend it.

Here are the five characteristics from The Basics and The Magic:

1) Confidence. Your confidence becomes their confidence. It provides the encouragement and reassurance that are so important in life-changing decisions.

2) Enthusiasm. Your enthusiasm also increases their confidence. Enthusiasm is engaging. It makes people want to hear more.

3) Joy. Customers want to buy from happy salespeople. Joy is another source of reassurance for customers. Make sure every customer sees that you love what you do, not only because you enjoy it but also because you believe in it.

4) Relaxation. We think, feel and act more confidently and effectively when we are in a relaxed state. In fact, relaxation is the highest state of performance. Just as you are at your best when you feel relaxed, your customers will also be at their best when they are relaxed, so project your relaxed state to them. They will be more decisive if they are experiencing the magic of confidence, enthusiasm, joy, and relaxation.

5) Purpose. We said that the strongest connection with customers is a shared sense of purpose. Great salespeople are purposeful by nature. As with confidence, enthusiasm, joy and relaxation, purposefulness can be contagious, too. However confused, unmotivated or ambivalent a customer may be when they first walk into your sales office, they mustered up enough purpose to be there, and that’s a start. Your purpose is to join forces with them to get them where they want to go.

Now readers – your comments on their list?????