If you are considering a career in sales then you are a brave soul. It takes a certain kind of person to make it in the sales world. Pursuing a sales career path can either be extremely rewarding and make you a lot of money or it can leave you broke and practically unemployed. Especially, if you are an independent contractor with no base pay, working only for commission, you really should know before hand what you are getting into. There many different types of sales jobs you can get into, but all of them requiring the same kind of personality and characteristics. Let’s go over some of the traits a good salesman or woman needs to have in order to make it on the sales career path.
- Empathy
Many people are so concerned with the sale that they forget about the actual person they are dealing with. In order to be a good salesman you must be able to identify with customers and to show them that you feel what they are feeling. Customers want to feel respected and paid attention to. Sympathy and empathy are not the same thing. Sympathy feels a certain sense of loyalty to someone but empathy still maintains a barrier while gaining trust and establishing a good reputation with the customer. You cannot appear to be judgmental but need to be able to read the customer, show that you’re concerned with their needs and be able to demonstrate good solutions. - Focus
You cannot be a distracted type of person and make it on the sales career path. Someone who is focused has an internal drive to meet goals and has the ability to concentrate on one task until it is completed. Typically, focused people expect more of themselves and are more demanding of their own ability making them very self-motivated and driven. They can re-organize themselves when needed and are able to recognize what they need to do to accomplish their goals. When it comes to the sales career path, focus is known for producing the best results especially when it is balanced out with empathy. Focus and empathy join together makes for a person who can listen and identify the customers needs in order to meet specific goals that can become solutions for the customer. - Responsibility
Placing the blame on other people when you make a mistake or get into a difficult situation doesn’t make for a good employee or coworker much less a good salesman. Someone that has a good sense of responsibility will be able to overcome obstacles, accept errors and correct mistakes that they make without expecting anyone to do it for them. There is nothing more frustrating to an employer with their worker makes a mistake and then blames the company or the boss or another coworker for something that they did wrong. Finding somebody that doesn’t have a problem taking the blame is a great find. - Optimism
Sales people have to be positive that’s all there is to it. Someone who is optimistic and positive is able to be persistent without being annoying. You have to have a healthy balance between persistence and giving the customer time to think but if the sales person is pessimistic or negative would reaching out to the customer to follow up, it can come across as harassment. As a sales person you will receive a lot of disappointment and rejection but you need to be able to look forward to the time that you were not rejected and hold your head high during the field encounters. - Coachable
What a sales person thinks that they have arrived to know everything about selling, this is when they will begin to decline. Experience isn’t as important as being coachable. You must be willing to learn and have the ability to grow and adapt in different situations that you encounter. If your boss asks you to do something in a different way than you normally do it, you shouldn’t fight him. There’s a reason he is the boss and you are not. He has been where you are and knows what you need to do in order to progress.
If you think you might be this type of person, then there is a good chance you will be very successful in sales.