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7.“A pleasing personality”: Is selling a popularity contest? No, but would you buy something from someone who was nasty and rude?
8.“Sympathy and understanding:” Selling is about understanding what people DO, and then helping them do it better. Plain and simple.
9.“Mastery of detail”: Ah, yes… The devil, as they say, is in details. Ever work really hard to close a sale, only to have it fall apart because of some small detail that falls through cracks? What may seem like a small detail to you can be a crucial one, maybe even a deal-breaker, to your prospect, customer, or client.
10.“Willingness to assume full responsibility”: No matter how much customer support your company provides, you are prime representative of your organization. If you try to pass buck to someone else, you lose respect and credibility. “But it really wasn’t my fault that shipment was delayed in customs and then delivery truck was attacked a pack of wild dogs…” Doesn’t matter; accept responsibility for any problem and all details, and then do whatever needs to be done to make things right. Your clients need to know that you are their advocate.
11.“Cooperation”: You can’t do it alone. Sales is a collaborative effort. Your prospects need to collaborate with you; you need cooperation and assistance of others both inside and outside your organization to make things happen. The best salespeople are those who can work well with others, and with whom other people want to work.
Think about these eleven areas of leadership, and ask yourself how you do on each of these items. Find areas where you can make improvements and chart your course to work on improving what you do each day; incremental improvements each day become exponential over time.
Mark Dembo; President, Lexien Management Consultants (http://www.lexien.com) Mark has over 20 years of sales, sale management, and business development experience, focused on improving the performance of individuals and organizations. You can contact Mark at 914-682-2069, or at mdembo@lexien.com .