Sales is the art of convincing other people to change their behavior. Obviously, this ability relies upon the following sales trait.

Persuading Others
This is the capacity to convince others – to present one’s viewpoint in such a way that it is accepted by others.

A salesperson with strength in this capacity can see and talk from another’s point of view. A person who has the ability to understand other’s objections and concerns and then respond to them effectively.

A weakness in this area indicates a salesperson who is insensitive to others – not knowing what they want to hear. A weakness can also be due to having excessive role confidence and in thinking that the other person needs to hear what they think is important.

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Just caught up to this SM&M article – Advise from the Field. A couple excerpts:

Rather, Feldshuh, the president of the merchant-services company, tries to gear agents to move from the lagging 80 percent into the top 10 or 20 percent of sellers. He does that through concentrated, thoughtful, in-the-field strategies, warming reps up to clients first with short, non-pitching meetings. Then he asks them to “open their mouths” and deliver a pitch just days after they’ve gotten their feet wet from dropping off BPS materials at prospects’ offices.

The tactic works, he says, and boosts their performance through gradual sales improvement rather than a do-or-die approach to closing the deal.

Yes it does work well since selling involves consistent behavior to be successful.

…feedback is the key to migrating a rep from average to stellar. Don’t just verbalize whether a call was good or bad, Johnson says. Create a feedback report on paper and write down comments the rep can revisit later, along with a rating scale of how well he performed on the job.

We offer a solution for sales managers who want to grow their team.

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A quote from JustSell.com’s daily email:

“Never tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

-George S. Patton (1885-1945)
U.S. Army general during WWII

It is a good reminder for sales managers. One thing we discuss with sales managers is letting your salespeople fail. I’m not referring to big deals, top prospects. Instead I am referring to smaller opportunities where you know the salesperson is going to get a lesson.

Here is why it is key. We have a customer who has a sales manager who has become the closer (for lack of a better word). Essentially, he has chosen to avoid coaching his sales team and instead has them bring him in at the proposal stage. He takes over and closes the deal.

Now, this sales manager is a highly-skilled salesperson, but a poor manager. The impact of his managing is that his team has not developed the skills needed to complete the final qualifying steps and move the prospect to a close.

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