The top 5 qualities a successful salesman should have

Whether you are recruiting for a sales position or applying for one, considering a part-time job or a career in sales, these are the five must have qualities you should have or look out for:

succesfull salesman

Number 1: a Great Positive Mental Attitude

Sales are always up and down; it is a numbers game. One month can be good, the next bad. If you have a 20 per cent conversion, that means you get rejected 80 per cent of the time. You have to be able to deal with that rejection if you want to make it in sales and you have to be able to deal with the ups and downs.




Sales is people business and people don’t like to deal with negative people. Negative people drain energy, positive people energise!

Number 2: an Unbelievable Student Mentality

Sales is about continuous improvement. You have to be a great student in order to progress, to improve your performance and even to keep the job more interesting.
Whether you are a sales executive on your first day or a seasoned manager leading a sales force of hundreds, you should always be looking at the people next to you and find out what is working for them. If the new guy has a great day, it might be “beginners luck”, or maybe he has a fresh perspective on things that make him do something you’re not doing. Find out what it is, and use it to continuously improve your performance.

Number 3: Great Work Ethic

The high performing salesman is hard working. He is the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave in the evening, because he knows that the extra time he gets in the morning help him prepare for the day and that extra time in the evening help him reflect and develop. In sales you always get back what you put in and if you put in a lot of effort, you will reap the rewards.

Number 4: Professionalism

As a salesman it is your job to represent something greater than yourself. You represent a company or an organisation with vision, values and beliefs. When you are on the job it is your duty to be completely in line with those values and to represent your company to the best of your ability. This includes the simple things like dressing smartly (or appropriately for your industry and in line with company requirements), minding your personal hygiene and watching your language. When a salesman is working, everything he does, every action he takes is 100  per cent in the best interest of the company.

Number 5: Hunger for Personal Excellence

In order to be the best at something you have to be hungry for it. You have to really want to excel in order to be able to put the effort in that is required to make it to the top. When it comes to this, sales is no different than professional sports. You have to be able to constantly compete with others as well as yourself in order to improve and to achieve your goals.

These five things determine your success in sales and if you are recruiting for a sales position, these are the qualities you should look for in a person. However, nobody is perfect and scores full marks on all these qualities. As long as you (or your applicant) have a willingness to learn and improve, there is no limit to the success you can have in this profession!




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