Top Qualities of a Successful Salesperson

DON’T Google “how to be a good salesperson!” Don’t you do it. You’ll be bombarded with a tsunami of red herrings, false premises, and nonsense.

Here’s the thing. Being a successful salesperson is more than a set of dos and don’ts. Sales is not a job title; it’s a way of life. Even people who refuse to identify as salespeople have to sell their ideas every day. To their boss, spouse, kids, or community group. As Daniel Pink so wisely said, to sell is human. 

There are plenty of “tips” and “tricks” to being a successful salesperson. Some useful, others not so much. If I had only known what I know now about the foundational principles and ingredients of persuasion, I’m terrified to think how much more persuasive I would have been as a salesperson.

To learn how to be a successful salesperson, it’s helpful to understand the ingredients of a great salesperson. Then, you can build a recipe from those ingredients to bake a delicious life in sales.

The business landscape is changing. Bettering yourself in persuasion is essential if you hope to maintain and grow. You’re not reading this to remain mediocre so let’s show you what this looks like.

Working with salespeople for over 30 years, I’ve worked with many good salespeople and a few great ones. When you’ve been with salespeople long enough, you notice what separates the good and great. Great salespeople possess a set of successful salesperson characteristics in their system that others are missing. 

What are the key ingredients of greatness in sales?

More than anything, successful salespeople are clear about their sales identity. When faced with rejection they don’t succumb to emotional breakdown. They see rejection as an opportunity to continue the conversation. 

The most successful salespeople believe that the solution they have is what will serve the buyer at the highest level. This belief is what drives their tenacity and resilience. In no situation have I seen desperation show up as effectively. 

You and I do things to tell the world WHO we are, and how we rank in the universe. Within ourselves, with those we love, and for the greater tribes we are associated with. 

Your identity is what’s driving all of your actions, behaviors, inaction, and misbehaviour. When you suck, you either do something about it to not suck or you do something different to find the path some other way.  

Here are the key ingredients of all successful salespeople:

Great persuaders always open with empathy. 

Before anything else, your prospects need to see you as empathetic. This goes back to caveman days. If you found a cave to sleep in but there are other occupants, you’re only going to stay if you don’t think you’ll get clubbed in the head and dragged off for dead when you go to sleep at night. 

The sharing of food, demonstrating non-threatening gestures and words, and showing kindness and generosity of resources all help demonstrate empathetic actions and behaviors.

Humans are wired to scan subconsciously for threats many dozens of times per second. This is known as neuroception.

Today, anything that is after someone’s resources (money, effort, or time) is considered a threat. Not necessarily violently, but a threat none the less. 

Those who appear to close effortlessly spend the time to establish an empathetic bond before getting down to business. Once the bond is established, they continue to strengthen throughout the sale, and into the future. 

Great persuaders breed confidence with their courageous competence.

Going back to the cave. You wake up, no lumps on your head, but now you’re hungry. If you’re going to stick around with these other cave dwellers, you need to get food and water. Some go hunting. Some go gather. 

When the hunter comes back empty-handed, you take issue. When the gatherer can’t find berries, fresh water, and firewood, decisions have to be made. 

Is this the group for us to trust? Or did they keep all the food for themselves? Or are they just incompetent? 

This is how your prospects are feeling about you. 

If you passed the empathy test, you still have to pass the competency test. If the buyer isn’t buying what you’re selling, you’ll never close the deal. 

Great salespeople are persuasive because they instill confidence in their audience. The audience is convinced they are the right solution for their need and not because we convinced anyone you’re the smartest guy in the room. 

They have confidence in you because they perceive you as the most competent. From the questions you ask to the solutions you provide. 

Great salespeople are great communicators. Not Chatty Cathy’s. Not hyper extroverts. Great salespeople are listeners. They summarize what they heard to let the prospect feel heard and understood. 

They help the prospect subscribe to your solution by selling the advantage of the outcome, not the outcome itself. 

For example, great salespeople know one cares that they now have a new air conditioner. They care about how the air conditioner gives them a better night’s sleep so they can have a more productive and pleasant day tomorrow, and the next day…and for all the days in the foreseeable future. 

Competence breeds confidence in the self, within your prospect. 

But so does courage. 

The courage to call out the negative feelings and emotions you are observing. The courage to be vulnerable, calling out the choices and options that are outside of your control. 

The greatest salespeople I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with were courageous enough to include all the options for clients, including the ones they don’t benefit from. This is a very reassuring level of confidence that desperate salespeople can’t come to terms with. 

Great persuaders understand value multipliers.  

Unless you’re the guy who is absolutely selling your apples-to-apples solution for the lowest cost of money, effort, and time, you are asking for a premium. 

If you want to close more than your competitor at a higher price, you need to offer something that is worth more than the money, effort, and time they exchange with you. 

You got two bullets in your chamber. Exclusivity and Convenience. 

People only pay more when you have one or both of these value multipliers.

Often though, you make exclusive solutions purposely inconvenient. Ultimately, people purchase (buy into) things that elevate their status within themselves, to those they care about in their inner circle, and to the tribes that matter to them. 

In the absence of exclusivity, you will only close the sale by having the most convenient option. When you’re the most convenient option before, during, and after the sale, your solution becomes the most valuable. 

Convenience in the buyer's perception shows up in a number of ways. From how quickly you show up, to how you choose to curate and present your options, to the length and durability of your warranties and guarantees, great salespeople are selling the higher ROI on the buyer’s money, effort, and time. 

Great persuaders take their duty to close the sale very seriously. 

Serving people at the highest level means closing the sale when there is an ethical sale to be made. Successful salespeople treat the close as a badge of honor. They understand that conversations don’t pay the bills, conversions do. 

Because the only true value occurs when there is an exchange of money, effort, and/or time, great salespeople are intentional in closing and delivering the solution. 

So successful salespeople are curious, resilient, and tenacious. They want to get to the right solution. They approach the problem from a bunch of different angles to tease out the underlying needs. They recognize resistance as an opportunity to communicate clearer and revisit the commitment. 

The crazy psychology of closers is in what they recognize is going on when the buyer is put into the position to transition from consideration to commitment. It’s a threshold, and you have to help them pass to the next steps. 

Closers are prepared to handle the complaints, lies, objections, stalls, excuses, and flat out rejection. They know to immediately agree, then rebut, and reattempt to close. This is known as a closing ARC. Successful salespeople are prepared before they arrive at the sale. They aren’t winging it. 

Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back. 

Some of the best salespeople I’ve ever worked with are like toddlers. The average toddler asks 437 questions a day. They are so curious and ready to ask about everything. 

Done well, this comes across enthusiastic, endearing, and empathetic. Done poorly, it feels like an interrogation in a Turkish prison. Using calibrated questions that start with how and what are less adversarial than questions that start with why. 

Successful salespeople are curious and courageous enough to ask. They seek clarity so that they know how to best solve the buyer's problem with the right solution. This also arms the closer with the weight they’ll need to pin the solution down in the close. 

Struggling salespeople often believe curiosity is dangerous. After all, it killed a cat! What they don’t realize is the rest of the quote and how it completely changes the context of the proverb. Successful salespeople are trying to satisfy their curiosity itch, while too many others are afraid to dig deep. 

This leaves the salesperson with less intel to effectively solve and close the sale. 

Successful salespeople know the metrics that matter. 

Key Performance Indicators are not a goal, and successful salespeople know that. They are going to close every opportunity they can for the most amount of money. This is the minimum expectation. 

Successful salespeople are fully focused on the actions and behaviors that help them to meet and exceed their target KPIs. They structure their whole day around what gets them their result today, sets them up for their result tomorrow, and the actions and behaviors that net them the highest chances of getting to and through the close. 

They use KPIs to determine what to work on and what to celebrate. What is missing to help them meet or exceed expectations. What are the things that are working and they need more of to fuel their success. 

For example, if I need to sell $1 million dollars this month, with an average ticket of $50 thousand, I need to make 20 sales. If I typically close 50% of the people I talk to, I need to speak to 40 qualified prospects. For 40 qualified prospects, I need to connect with 200 unqualified prospects if 20% of them are able to be qualified prospects. 

In month one, I won’t hit target if I have 10 conversations a day for the normal 20 days a month a person typically works. But by month two, I should. 

All this data are KPIs. The math for the path to profits. None of this works if you don’t take the actions, and behave in the ways that get results. 

It’s not just about picking up the phone, sending the emails. It’s about what you say, how you say it, and why you do what you do. It’s about showing up, leaving it all on the ice, and coming back tomorrow to do it all over again. It’s about putting in the reps to get the results. It’s about immersing yourself in the energy of your greatness and making it happen. 

Plan the work, and work the plan. 

Book a call, and let’s discuss how we can help your good salespeople become great at your business.