To many, selling is a dirty word. Yet, if you look at it closely, you will see that as soon as you were born you started your selling career. One definition I ran across states;  

to persuade or induce (someone) to buy something:” 

     Back to when you were being born, your mother delivered you and you were given a pat on the behind and you promptly started screaming to let everyone know you didn’t like that and didn’t want them to do it again. Later you sold them on feeding you, cleaning you, and much more. 

Later in life you sold your parents on letting you take the car, someone to go out with you, possibly marrying you, and the selling goes on. Any time there are two or more people who have different ideas, or even the same idea they need to sell the other to think their way or do it together. 

Selling is not a dirty word. 

      It is a basic fact of life that makes families start, businesses begin, governments move forward, world economies go around. It is the breath of commerce. It is the mainstay of life. It is essential to life. 

     Alright that may be a bit heavy but it’s true. We are all salespeople and we all sell; some of us make a living out of it. Being a successful salesperson does not happen by accident or blind luck. Success is the result of diligent effort applied to a structured system with commitment and passion. Salespeople are not born, they are made. There is always something for everyone and someone for everything. 

      This series of articles will take you from the very beginning, a basic look at sales and take you through to sales success on every front. The compilation is mine but not all of the content it – I have taken the best of the best of the latest up to date information possible and compiled it for you. 

Here are a few key traits a successful salesperson needs to develop: 

     A good salesperson must be honest. As obvious as that might seem, it is nevertheless one of the fundamental qualities of a good sales representative. Salespeople must be completely honest, and their ethical conduct must be beyond reproach in their dealings with your clients, which will in turn promote client faithfulness and satisfaction. 

Sales representatives must also be honest with their organization, their employer. And in return, you need to have complete trust in your representatives who work from home, are on the road or are on out-of-town business trips when they write down their hours. In this respect, there are many systems or software that can help you verify the facts, but a relationship of trust still remains a key to success. 

     It sounds like a no brainer but fostering positive values is essential for leading a healthy life and helps to get rid of negative qualities. Therefore, an individual who practices honesty in his or her actions and speech is able to live openly and be truthful to others. This earns him or her respect and trust among other people and their peers. More importantly, honesty is a crucial quality in building stable and lasting relationships. It also has a major part in leadership and the judicial system of any country. 

     Self-awareness (sometimes also referred to as self-knowledge or introspection) is about understanding your own needs, desires, failings, habits, and everything else that makes you tick. The more you know about yourself, the better you are at adapting life changes that suit your needs. 

For example, suppose you feel furious that an important customer stood you up. You might take a break before your next meeting in order to remind yourself of all the times you've succeeded in the face of challenges. Or you might, as an ice-breaker, tell your second customer that you're having a tough day and why. 

 3. Focus  

     A person with focus is internally driven to accomplish goals and can stay attentive to one topic.  Focused individuals are more demanding of themselves than other people and they are self-motivated.  They are able to organize themselves and recognize what needs to be done in order to achieve their goals. 

     In a salesperson, focus produces best results when it is balanced with empathy.  You then see a person who listens and identifies with the customer while keeping focused on set goals, and who is able to translate these goals into solutions for the customer. 

As salespeople we often have many competing issues, challenges, and tasks. Guess what? 

That is life. 

To be an effective salesperson we must continue to be focused. We must provide a consistent vision of the future we are leading people towards. 

That is leadership. 

     American Express’ OPEN Forum says that the best sales people ask their clients and customers “why they want something done.” When you listen to your clients/customers, you find out what they want and need, and how to make that happen. If you don't know exactly how to make happen what your client has asked for, be absolutely sure that there is a way. You just haven't found it, yet. 

     The importance of listening extends far beyond academic and professional settings. Understanding how to practice good communication even in your day to day life, among friends, family, and significant others, is important for a number of reasons: fostering good self-esteem, maximizing productivity, improving relationships, and even becoming a better speaker. 

     A salesperson comes across different type of customers. Some of them purchase nothing but waste time by asking irrelevant questions about the products. Under such circumstances, you should not loose temper but give patient hearing to the customers. 

     You should not get tired with his customers soon. You should try time and again to convince the customers. Customer is supreme for you and you should not leave any stone unturned to give full satisfaction to the customers. 

     Success is not overnight, and the graph of growth is NEVER the straight line gradually, and then rapidly, going up as you see in many projected revenue charts. There are ups and downs in the journey. Every entrepreneurial journey will have its ups and downs. 

Be patient. Do not be in a hurry to win the world. This is about keeping a 3-5 year horizon to build a strong foundation. It should be a 10-year horizon to be really successful. It takes time.There will be occasions when there will be a lot of self-doubt. But assess if the long-term direction is right, even if it is taking longer than earlier assumed. 

     Most businesses that ultimately succeed are the ones where the salespeople had the grit, determination, patience and perseverance to succeed. In the most trying times it is these virtues that’ll pull you through, taking you through that last mile. 

Well this is the starting point, in our next article we will talk about how to develop and improve these traits. Till then – use your candle to light another light, it won't diminish yours.