Are Sales Winners Born or Made?
Five Attributes Great Salespeople Have in Common
If you ask the average person to describe salespeople, you’ll hear words like pushy, manipulative, slick, self-serving, phony, and a list of other things no mother wants her child to be. For as long as most of us can remember, the sales profession has been the butt of jokes. That’s a shame when you consider that a sales career offers high income, personal freedom, and limitless opportunities.
The reason that those uncomplimentary images of salespeople persist is simple: Four of out five people employed in the sales profession should be doing something else because they are not hard-wired for sales success. To compensate for their lack of natural talent, they try to fake it. They become the classic fast-talking salespeople, and perpetuate the image, the stereotypes, and the jokes.
Inept salespeople cause most companies to experience high turnover, complacency, mediocre production, and poor attitudes among their sales teams. These problems can all be traced back to ineffective recruiting practices and processes.
Fifty-five percent of people now selling have neither the emotional nor the psychological talent to succeed, says Herb Greenberg, author of How to Hire Your Next Top Performer. Another 25 percent are miscast, selling the wrong product or service, or trying to sell a product for which they aren’t suited.
With all that the sales profession offers, it should be easy to attract, recruit, build and maintain highly productive sales teams of the best and brightest talent. So whom should we be recruiting? What does it take to succeed in selling?
They key to success is desire. Unless the candidate has an internal burning desire to succeed, nothing else matters. But in addition to craving success, great salespeople have five qualities in common: empathy, ego drive, service need, self image and utilitarian attitude.
Empathy
According to Greenberg, “Empathy is the ability to sense the reactions of other people…to pick up the subtle clues and cues provided by others in order to accurately assess what they are thinking and feeling. Empathy does not necessarily involve agreeing with the feelings of others, but it does involve knowing what their feelings are.” The salesperson that can sift through and find the true meaning of what is being communicated is able to more accurately uncover problems and present customized solutions.
Ego Drive
Don’t confuse ego drive with desire or motivation to succeed. Ego drive is an emotional need to gain self-acceptance. Persuading others to our point of view fulfills that need. Top sales-people get their “fix” or “high” when they successfully persuade a prospect. When someone buys their product or service, it becomes a validation of self. Salespeople with strong ego drive are driven to achieve, and will work hard to produce positive results.
Service Need
Salespeople who rate high in service need have a psychological drive to serve and please others. Because of their need to be liked, they develop relationships easily and create trust quickly. This makes them a natural fit for sales positions that require them to maintain ongoing relationships with buyers.
Self-Image
This individual can accept rejections and failure as part of life without emotional damage. Someone with a low self-image is paralyzed by failure and avoids experiences that may produce failure. Salespeople with a strong self-image, however, are emotionally resilient. Rather than being crushed by failure, they are motivated by it. They can’t wait for the next opportunity.
Sales is a profession of constant rejection. The ability to not internalize rejection is perhaps the most critical factor in sales success. Salespeople who have a low self-image will avoid making sales calls to prospects that may reject them.
Utilitarian Attitude
A person with a high utilitarian attitude is likely to have a great need to surpass others in wealth. He or she understands that wealth brings security for the salesperson, but also for present and future family. Salespeople with this talent have a need to obtain a significant return on their investment of time and energy. Consequently, they will jealously guard their time and energy, and avoid situations that offer low payoff or marginal profit.
While these qualities can be subjectively observable by an astute student of human behavior, they are not easily quantifiable by interviewers. To quantify and measure these characteristics, interviewers should have applicants complete a psychometric behavioral assessment prior to the interview.
Sales organizations that are ready to eliminate high turnover, mediocre selling, and complacency need to move away from the traditional warm-body approach to recruitment. Recruiters must learn to identify, attract, and retain winners effectively. Perhaps then, the public will stop making salespeople the butt of jokes.
Ugh, I liked! So clear and positively.
Nadine