Working in sales is seldom easy. Day in and day out your customers, boss, and colleagues have conflicting needs and schedules, and at times demands can be exceedingly challenging – but the rewards of success in sales, while different depending on where you work, are often nothing short of phenomenal. To achieve long-term success, a salesperson needs to develop traits that create a healthy mindset and drive productivity. Here are five that we found are key to that long term success.
Focus
A focused salesperson always has his or her eye on the prize. That prize is earned by accomplishing a set of goals and objectives, so keeping a list of them usually comes in handy. Work is typically prioritized to focus on addressing these goals in as efficient a way as possible to work toward these goals. Careful planning also ensures that you’re not caught off guard, and when the occasional surprise comes up, you’ve got a contingency plan.
Great Listener
Some of the best salespeople are also the best listeners. Listening skills help salespeople understand their prospects’ requirements with precision, and allow them to make effective decisions as a result. Fewer mistakes and better comprehension of prospects’ requirements lead to less time spent finding answers. Great listeners are also good at rallying support and loyalty, because their solutions clearly communicate understanding.
Empathy
The best selling takes place when a salesperson tries to sell from the prospect’s perspective, in essence “becoming the customer”. Effectively connecting with prospect and understanding when feelings of doubt, hesitation, and excitement are present let connections be created on a deeper level than just sales. Using words like “I understand” or “I’m sorry” shows that you really care for your prospect’s needs and pains.
Optimistic
Marketing Donut notes that 44% of sales people give up after one “no”, 22% give up after two “nos”, 14% give up after three “nos” and 12% give up after four “nos”, while it’s the persistence game that often pays off when many sales happen after the fifth. Staying optimistic when pursuing your leads or prospects can open up opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable when giving up early.
Resilient
Sales is rife with countless successes, and many more failures. The ability to approach stave off feelings of anxiety and approach failure objectively, as a lesson to be learned from and understood, enables an increasing success rate over the course of a salesperson’s career. The best sales reps have a way of channeling rejection to power their internal drive to improve.
References
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/list-prospect-service-empathy-words-1126.html
