Characteristics of a Successful Salesperson

The top successful sales and customer service people have certain things in common.

Successful people believe in themselves

You must know that you can do whatever you set out to do. You may fail and have to pick yourself up, but you must trust that you will succeed!

Successful people are positive

Remove as much negativity from your life as you can. Positive people are magnetic, they draw other people to them. When people see your positivity they will buy more from you.

Successful people do things that build their confidence

Don’t rely on other’s to build your confidence for you, it’ll never happen. Figure out what you need to do to feel confident. There are mentors, books, and personal coaches that can help you with this.  But the bottom line is that you need to be a confident person to succeed at sales. When customers sense you’re not confident, they’re not confident in buying from you.

Successful people surround themselves with winners and mentors

Get into groups of people who will encourage you, and who are where you want to be. Learn from them and strive to improve every day.

Successful people are always learning

Learning never ends. The industry changes, the people change, there are always new things to learn. Some people get out of high school and college and think “I’m done learning!” In today’s world that’s not possible. Always be willing to learn and improve.

Successful people get accountability

If you don’t tell other people your goals you’ll have a hard time reaching them. Without accountability, you don’t have someone who can ask you “did you achieve your goal?” Find people who can help you with your accountability. Set goals. Without goals where are you going? It’s like driving to New York but you didn’t bring a map. How are you going to get there?

Successful people are problem solvers

Don’t shift problems away from yourself. When something goes wrong in your shop and you have to deal with the customer, don’t blame someone. Tell the customer “we screwed up. I’m really sorry about this but I’m going to make it right for you.” Be the person who takes responsibility and doesn’t shift blame. People respect people who take responsibility.

Successful people take responsibility

Mistakes are going to happen if you’re growing. If you stop learning you won’t make mistakes, but you won’t grow. In our team, we welcome making mistakes as long as we’re learning from it. Make many mistakes. That’s how everything evolves, everything grows. Like the Wright Brothers, they crashed a lot of planes before they got one to fly.

Successful people take action

Take advantage of opportunities when they appear. Take action before someone tells you to. If you see a problem that you have a solution for or an improvement you can make, tell people about them.

Successful people build trust

This is done by doing what you say you’re going to do. If you can’t do something don’t say you are going to do it. Always under-promise and over-deliver. If you tell a customer that her car will be ready by five but you call her at three to pick it up, what did you do? You’ve impressed this customer by over-delivering. Do what you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. Lastly, finish what you say you’re going to do.

Want to learn more about becoming a successful salesperson?

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