If You Want To Excel, Rather Than Just Sell

As I endeavor to fill the shoes of a salesman gone astray, I’m reminded that we’ll need to find a replacement for him fairly soon, or I’ll have to hire someone to blog for me !

While I was riding my usual 300-350 miles today, I started thinking about the qualities that the next salesperson we hire will need to have.

Right now, I’m up to 20-25 desirable traits that I’ve though of, so I might as well turn all that thinkin’ into some bloggin’.

And since I’m bloggin’, I might as well try to turn it into linkbait, so I’ve decided to call it The Simplenomics Guide to Desirable Traits For Sales People. Or maybe Mike’s Simple Guide To Desirable Traits For Sales People.

I’m open to suggestions, so if you a better name, email me or leave it in the comments. After I nail it down, I’ll create a Category for all the posts/traits.

These will be in no particular order, so #1 won’t be more important than #25. And I will put this into downloadable form after we’re done.

Feel free to add to my list with traits you feel are important or with additions to the traits I write in the comments section. Full attribution will be given in the downloadable form I settle on at the end.

The first desirable trait for sales people is;

Knowledge

Knowledge is power, it’s been said. So can we deduce from there that the lack of knowledge is akin to the lack of power, right ?

” Not so fast, my friend ! “, as the former coach and current college football announcer Lee Corso like to say.

Saying, ” I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you. “, has never really hurt me in my sales career.

Nobody expects you to know everything. And if they do, you’re probably better off if they don’t buy from you.

But you need, really, really need to know your product line inside, outside, upside and downside. You can’t know too much about your product.

More importantly, you need to be able to impart that product knowledge in an interesting, intelligent, impactful way, such as using stories and case studies to prove your point.

And if you want to excel, rather than just sell, you need to know your customers, your competition and you need to know yourself. You need to know your limitations, your powers, your strengths, your weaknesses and your capabilities.

On the flip side, you need to know your customers business, his potential, his possibilities and his desires.

The salesperson who’s in the know, knows that he knows and let’s the customer see that he knows, is someone who hears fewer “No’s” !

PS – Those trees in the photo are part of the view from the back deck of a cabin at Lake Barkley State Resort Park. I took that shot two weekends ago when two of my Inner Circle/Coaching Club students and I spent some time there on Labor Day weekend. Click on it for a full-screen view.

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