Becoming a Good Salesperson
- Do your research and understand your product, market, and consumers.
- Be knowledgeable, professional, and listen.
Are you interested in becoming a good salesperson with the required skills for sales success? Are you devoted to developing sales skills over the length of your career? Are you looking for sales tips and wanting to learn sales skills? This article will address the very integral necessities of any good salesperson. It will also precondition you as a consumer, to understand how to identify a good or bad salesperson. This information is useful for both entrepreneurs looking to sell products and services, but also integral for customers to find people they want to conduct business with.
Tips and Techniques to Becoming a Good Salesperson
Everyone has had a poor sales experience with an overbearing or overreaching salesperson. They are the person at your local computer sales shop that pressures you into buying something without explaining in full detail, why that product over the hundreds of others is exactly what you need. Have you ever run into the ignorant salesperson? They’ll stop you in the mall, ask for a few minutes of your time, and before you know it they are already running you through a transaction? Let’s make a commitment now, before we dive into the specifics, that you will never allow yourself to be duped into listening or buying from these salespeople. Furthermore, let’s agree that you do not want to be that kind of salesperson. You want to be a good salesperson!
A good salesperson starts their sales techniques by understanding their product or market appropriately. This means they spent considerable time researching and understanding what they will be attempting to sell others, and they have a good grasp of the people who would want to purchase their products. This is what we call the salesperson’s background knowledge. This knowledge is integral for any successful salesperson because without it, they will not adequately suggest or advise their customers on products they need. Anyone can essentially understand a given market by spending the required time to research it – but what parts of a salesperson are more intrinsic in their personality? 90% of a good salesperson comes from their personality and personal traits. Let’s take a few minutes to discuss what these traits are and how they contribute to successful sales techniques.
The following are integral traits and qualities of a good salesperson that you will want to look for. You will also want to spend some time developing your traits if you plan to be a successful salesman.
Knowledgeable:
All salespersons must be knowledgeable of their given market. As we explained above, the ability for a salesperson to advise their customers on products is the cornerstone of making a successful sale. Without knowledge, anyone could assume the salesperson role. Being knowledgeable about your product and market constitutes 10% of the good salesperson psyche.Professional:
All salespersons must assume a certain level of professionalism. Customers develop an impression of all salespersons within one minute of talking with them. This impression must be positive and the customer must feel at least somewhat trusting of their salesperson. Typically salespeople will want to wear business casual through to formalwear depending on the products you are selling. Generally speaking, the better you are dressed the better chance you have of establishing an immediate line of trust with your customer. Professionalism constitutes 20% of a salesperson’s successful qualities.Listener:
This is the single most important quality a salesperson must have in order to be successful at using selling techniques and closing deals. Most salespersons believe they know best, and what they are selling is what everyone needs or wants. This is the wrong mind set, and this type of salesperson typically comes off as the ignorant salesperson. Good salespeople are not forceful or demanding. They listen to their customers’ desires, budget, needs, wants, and they internalize this information to formulate an appropriate sales plan. Not only does listening allow a salesperson to gain the knowledge needed to make an ethical and appropriate sale, but it also lets the customer feel in charge of the situation. Customers are more apt to appreciate the relationship between them and the salesperson if they feel in control, and if they feel as if they are making all of the decisions. More than half of salespeople neglect to listen to their customers, and thus lose their business. Listening constitutes 50% of a good salesman’s qualities.What makes up the additional 20% of a good salesperson’s qualities? 10% is attributed to passion, and 10% is attributed to being a people person. Passion is the amount of drive a salesperson utilizes to make successful sales and deal with their customers. Passionate salesmen never work a day in their life because they truly believe in those they work with, and the products or services they sell. And finally, being a people person requires the salesperson to be friendly, outgoing, typically extroversive, and possess a sense of humor. These traits are what keeps customers coming back to that particular salesperson, and what round out the required skills to be a successful salesman.
If you find a salesperson with the qualities mentioned above, you’ve likely found a good salesperson. If you yourself are very much in line with the qualities, you’re probably well suited to be a salesperson! Do not worry if you do not possess the traits mentioned in this article – make sure you’re able to recognize your weaknesses and work on them!