The 5 Qualities of Great Salespeople

The difference between runaway business success and mediocrity often comes down to sales. Yes, you need a great product that uniquely addresses a market need. You need operations and manufacturing teams that can execute. However in the competitive world of complex “solution selling,” the difference between a great product either sitting on the shelf or getting designed into a successful project often sits with the sales team.

What sets great salespeople apart from good salespeople? I set out to answer this question and interviewed over a dozen successful Silicon Valley technology sales leaders, and discovered what I had already intuitively sensed – great salespeople have developed skills, qualities and characteristics built on key values. Having been shaped and molded by their life’s struggles and their desire for excellence, they’re driven by qualities that run deeper than mere surface skills. Qualities that aren’t often discussed during quarterly business reviews.

Here, in no particular order, are the top qualities of great salespeople that I discovered upon further reflection of these interviews. Included with each quality are ways to further develop each:

1.Curiosity: More than any other trait, the ability to engender trust through active listening is fundamental to building strong customer relationships. This is really about being curious about the customer’s business needs and challenges. Displaying optimistic, unaffected curiosity will get the customer talking so you can listen for areas where you can bring value. If you don’t uncover any kind of challenge, and display that you care about solving it, you’re not going to sell them anything.

How to develop curiosity: The Zen master Suzuki Roshi called this unaffected curiosity, “Beginner’s Mind.” Developing curiosity is to be open-minded towards other perspectives and investing time to discover and learn something new. So be a beginner again and go try something new. It’s also important to not take things for granted – do not assume you know the answer – and relentlessly question everything your customer says.

2.Compassion: Sometimes the customer’s problem is right under your nose. However the more complex the product or service, the more it requires asking open ended questions, with openness and curiosity, to uncover the deeper underlying problems. And it is usually these deeper problems that customers will pay MUCH more to resolve, and where you’re more likely to engage their executives. To do this the way amazingly effective salespeople do means to truly care about the customer’s problem – you have to be able to put yourself in their shoes. You have to have compassion for the customer’s plight. If you’re really interested in helping somebody be successful you’ll be compassionate and truly interested in understanding and solving their dilemma. And executives are more interested in working with you because you’re adding value to their bottom line.

How to develop compassion: Being introspective is a good way to build empathy, which is a cornerstone of compassion. Not introverted, but introspective – being able to notice your feelings and thoughts – which can help you develop a sense of care and concern for others. Because how can you put yourself in your customer’s shoes until you’ve felt their pain as closely as possible?

3.Confident humility: The ability to establish a connection, and then a rapport, and ultimately a strong relationship, requires humility. It takes humility to ask for feedback, to build respect, and to ask the customer, “How can I do better?” Not that you’re so humble that you feel lesser than other people and lack confidence, rather it’s acting with credibility while remembering that others deserve respect. Humble and yet confident. Ultimately humility is about being of service, and that’s what being in sales is all about.

How to develop confident humility: Start by simply asking for feedback and admitting your shortcomings. We all make mistakes and admitting this to others gracefully while seeking ways to learn how to do things better will take you far down the road of confident humility. At the same time, acknowledge your strengths and think about how you can use them in service of the customer.

4.Courage: Another skill that sets superstar salespeople apart is the ability to go to bat internally for the customer. Often internal obstacles, including schedule slips and internal company politics, can have a drastic impact on the customer’s success. It takes courage to stand up and challenge your own executive, engineering and marketing teams in support of the customer. Courage makes a difference in front of the customer too. Great salespeople challenge the customer’s thinking and their beliefs around their own business. In a recent article by Harvard Business Review titled Selling Is Not About Relationships, the authors write, “Challengers win by pushing customers to think differently, using insight to create constructive tension in the sale. Relationship Builders, on the other hand, focus on relieving tension by giving in to the customer’s every demand. Where Challengers push customers outside their comfort zone, Relationship Builders are focused on being accepted into it. Fully 54% of all star reps in a solution-selling environment are Challengers.”

How to develop courage: Start by noticing your posture – most people have a tendency to slouch and this has an subconscious negative effect on their confidence. Stand straighter and lift your chest a bit. Next allow yourself to feel the fear that comes up in these situations (notice the fear never really goes away) and gently pressing through it by taking action. Start with small actions and build the momentum of courage one small success at a time. For example, try being more assertive first at your sales staff meeting, then try it with the customer. Remember the bigger picture – you’re doing something in service of a customer’s larger goal – don’t take things personally. Ultimately great achievements involve great risk!

5.Self-Discipline: In a complex sales process, the ability to think and plan strategically is built on discipline. Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state (think getting up at 5am when you’re tired). It’s easy to get swallowed up in email and daily tactics but great salespeople stay focused on the big picture. Thinking strategically requires pausing and discovering and reflecting on what’s important for the company and for the customer and then meeting w/ key stakeholders to brainstorm ways to strengthen the partnership. Discipline also fuels consistent and timely customer follow-up, and ultimately you must exercise discipline t0 ask for the business once the appropriate buying environment has been established. Great salespeople thrive on achievement and success, and self-discipline must be fostered to consistently achieve at high levels of performance.

How to develop self-discipline: Self-discipline is a muscle that gets strengthened over time. It start with identifying the most important projects and tasks and then having a process for implementing them. It also requires the ability to pause and reflect, even in the midst of a negative emotional state. Acceptance of negative emotional states can be developed through meditation or a steady exercise routine. Some people can simply schedule their ”strategic” time, while others need to learn to stop in the midst of a busy day to assess their strategy and then decide next actions. Developing the ability to pause can simply start with learning how to walk a bit slower if you’re somebody that zooms around, eventually moving to a full pause to assess the strategy and appropriate next action.

Ultimately each of these qualities are like muscles. The more you train them, the stronger they become. The less you train them, the weaker they become. Great salespeople consistently strengthen these ‘muscles’ through alternate periods of stress and renewal, and over time turn achievement into great success. Professional mentoring and coaching is another great way to develop these qualities, as often the obstacles to growth are out of our individual awareness and a good coach can spot these obstacles and carve out new paths for growth.

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Are you making the biggest impact possible for your customers, your stakeholders and for yourself? If you’d like to explore this question, contact Justin for a free consultation to find out how you can make a bigger impact. Guaranteed.