As a salesperson and a former manager I’ve seen many different personalities come and go throughout my tenure.  I think Adam Honig sums it up pretty nicely in his article:

http://ow.ly/G5iE30bKo7A

  • People that take everything personally:  Sales is an emotional drain, especially if the product or service isn’t the best or has become commoditized.  An insecure salesperson is not what you need or you’re looking for to increase profitability and retire quotas.
  • Rejection becomes a factor:  Rejection happens all the time and every day.  If you’re a prospector out there trying to sell, you will be hitting walls 9 times out of 10.  Work through it yourself.  Don’t complain to others.  Accept that scheduling a call happens after three, four, ten or twenty times more objections or cancellations.
  • Always job searching:  You don’t want your salespeople with one foot out the door and you don’t want to be the person with one foot out the door.  If you are in a sales job, accept it for a time, and do everything you can to overcome, adapt, and achieve, before looking to other options.
  • You don’t make the ask:  No matter what, salespeople and sales managers have to make the ask.  In other words, you should be asking for action and for the deal frequently.  Don’t be afraid to ask the customer or salespeople direct questions.  Better than dancing around the issue for a few months and come to find out there wasn’t a deal there to begin with.
  • No sense of urgency: This is self explanatory.  Time is money.
  • You dislike other salespeople: This is petty.  Grow up.
  • Money isn’t important:  Well, obviously.  Sales is about closing deals and getting paid.  If you don’t care about that you should look for another occupation.
  • Pessimism:  It doesn’t work.  Stay positive and don’t complain to others.  Other people, for the most part, aren’t going to help you.  It’s really up to you in life and in business to create success.

Tony Bilby