What makes a good sales person

Electrical Apparatus, Jul 2004

"Put a group of sales champions in a room and what do you find?" asks Barry Farber, author of "Superstar Sales Secrets."

"You find sales people of all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and styles of selling. Some are more aggressive than others. Some are more consultative. Some are highly educated, some not so, but all have these five traits:

* "Attitude. Attitude makes all the difference. A particular situation may get a sales champ down, but he or she won't let it take him or her out of the game. If they can't get to a difficult prospect today, they make a long-term plan to keep trying to make contact. . . . If a deal falls through, they study what went wrong

* "Urgency. Sales champs have a great ability to look at a set of tasks and set their priorities. . . . They keep things moving. The best sales people can't wait to get started every day.

* "Tenacity. When sales champs know they have something of value for a prospect or client, they do not give up. . . . They come back with new ideas and are not easily defeated.

* "Understanding. Sales champions know their environment, customers, industry, and competition. They do their homework. . . . They understand when they're wasting time and when it's time to move on. . . .

* "Follow through. To a customer, there's nothing worse than a broken promise. It's a loss of trust that's extremely difficult to regain. Sales champs don't make promises they can't keep. They're realistic. They don't try to be everything to everybody. But once they give their word, they make a commitment and stick to it."