Lee Salz is a Featured Columnist for The Business Journals.
When it comes to hiring sales professionals, executives want the right ingredients for a perfect rainmaker recipe. Regardless of experience or industry, there are four key attributes that every top salesperson possesses.
1. Resilient
Rejection is par for the course in any sales career. Leading performers get up repeatedly when they’re knocked to the mat and make more calls. Top salespeople don’t take a prospect’s “no” personally – rather as a challenge to close the next deal. Resiliency also helps them to roll with the punches as changes occur in their company.
2. Continuous self-improvement
During a client visit with a minor league sports team, their executives and I saw the players work on their skills from dawn until dusk. Those players were trying to take their career to the next level. Yet, when we looked at the sales team, they lacked that same commitment to continuous self-improvement – which was one of the organization’s primary problems with sales.
Just like elite athletes, top salespeople are always upping their game. Four of their most valuable investments are in: sales skills, industry research, prospect buying habits, and competitor analysis. Winning sales professionals pursue these areas relentlessly.