3 Things Every Good Salesperson Needs

Clara Brashear
Nov 7 · 2 min read

Sales is quite possibly the best skill anyone can have. Boom- I said it. In essence, sales skills are communication skills. Communication skills are critical in any business or career. Understanding the sales process, and how to build long-term customer relationships, is incredibly important regardless of the industry or career.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at what is necessary to be a good salesman:

1) Empathy

Empathy is important to have as a salesperson because it helps establish trust between the salesman and the client. When I made calls to potential clients, I often put myself in their shoes. They must’ve been thinking, “Great. Just another pushy saleswoman trying to get me to sell her my house for a lowball offer.” I know that feeling. So I did my best to be helpful, genuine, and to assure them that I am just another human being offering a solution. After that, the conversations were much smoother, more pleasant, and less emotionally draining.

2) Persistence

Salespeople probably get rejected more than anyone. That is what makes this job so difficult. It is important to realize that people hanging up, yelling, and demanding that you take them off your list is not a personal attack. When I started my job as an acquisitions agent, I was constantly rejected by homeowners and other agents. Call after call, my only answer was “No” until one day, someone said, “Yes, I would like to hear your offer.” This little positive response made me realize that it’s important to keep contacting as many people as possible because there were people out there that wanted my solution. Once I realized calling people using the same pitch wasn’t working as well as I liked, I decided to tweak my approach by referring to myself as an investor instead of an agent. I adjusted little words and phrases that established a personal feel to the conversation. I found that people were much happier to speak with me once they knew I wasn’t part of some corporate scheme trying to take their money. Persisting not only means trying over and over again, it means using a different strategy.

3) A way to organize their pipeline

There is absolutely no way to succeed in sales without being organized. The sheer amount of numbers and information that one handles as a salesman is impossible to keep track of without a system to properly organize them. I use a software called Streak. It’s a great way to organize pipelines, oversee multiple projects, and record information about potential clients.

Overall, successful salespeople have great interpersonal skills, organizational skills, and a lot of patience.

Clara Brashear

Written by

I am a life long learner. I enjoy using my creativity to write thought-provoking and humorous content.

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