7 Traits of Effective Salespeople

A former colleague of mine told me, I always know when you have a strong new prospect on the phone. You lean back in your chair, you’re laughing, they are laughing, you’re hitting all out talking points but in a conversation. They almost always turn into a customer.

Now, I’m not advocating leaning back in your chair for many people. I have been lucky enough to learn breathing techniques to allow me to “enunciate to the back of the room” early on and use them to this day. But everything he watched was a symptom of something else: genuine curiosity.

What does that have to do with Sales? It’s about hiring for potential.

There are studies and papers and research on what traits make effective salespeople. Some of them are even useful. But the number one trait I looked for during hundreds of interviews for Sales positions was intellectual curiosity. The reason I was relaxed and laughing with my prospects, was I was happy. I was learning about their business, what worked and didn’t work, and I love learning things. I’m genuinely curious about your environment, your specialties and your history. And I’m confident enough in my own or what I have learned, to share.

Let’s not mistake that for nonsense about the best sales people are extroverts. Plenty of research on that topic, and it simply doesn’t matter if you are introverted or extroverted when it comes to complex Sales. Personally I am quite introverted. But that intellectual curiosity, just wanting to understand new things from people with an expertise, absolutely overcomes the introversion and brings me out of my shell.

The lesson?

Build hiring practices that look for the most effective traits of salespeople. Hire those people, then train them how to sell what you have.

Here are our 7 effective traits for salespeople, in no particular order;

• Generous (I know that sounds weird)
• Reliable
• Goal Oriented
• Curious
• Detached (yeah that sounds weird too)
• Resilient
• Fearless

Want to know how I incorporated that into hiring techniques? Contact us today!