James Taylor, director of specialist financial, HR and procurement and supply chain recruitment consultancy, Macildowie, explains what he believes separates sales people and truly great sales professionals.
They say that anyone can sell anything. ‘They’ are wrong. There is a huge difference between a sales person and a great sales professional. Sales people get the numbers in the good times, but great sales professionals will generate business all the time, because they’re the ones with the energy, knowledge and tenacity that it takes to find new leads whatever the market conditions.
Sales is about making that initial connection with a prospective client, and keeping clear lines of communication open with existing clients. The top performers in the sales arena – in whatever sector – can display tenacity, ‘bouncebackability’ and energy. They can push boundaries and understand where the next tranche of business is coming from. In my experience, a simple sales person has a tendency to complain about being bored, accept failure, avoid confrontation, and in the worst-case scenario, give up entirely.
It doesn’t take a genius, then, to understand what we look for in our team. First of all we look for confidence. Confidence is crucial in convincing the client that they are doing the right thing by buying the product or in our case – our candidates. That confidence is noticed by a client, even if it doesn't come up in conversation.
Knowledge and the ability and willingness to share it, is also key. A great sales professional will embrace a constructive criticism culture, yet retain unflinching high self-worth. They will have that crucial desire to be stretched and acquire skills, whilst at the same time, share knowledge and not guard it. Many businesses strive for equality in relationships, and that’s what a great sales professional can bring – but they must also be prepared to challenge others’ opinions and clarify conflicting messages. A simple sales person, on the other hand, will keep others happy, lose sight of the core goals by responding to outside requests, and simply want to be seen to being doing a good job, despite what their figures might portray.
Some sales sectors have a reputation for being on the sexy side. A Porsche salesman may steal the limelight over a recruiter at a networking event, but an exceptional sales professional will make their craft sexy through belief in their product or service offering and sell with genuine enthusiasm. Whilst every sales person desires a commodity to sell which people want, the best of people will take on the responsibility themselves to make that brand desirable to prospective customers and create their own backcloth and convincing sales story.
Without doubt, in most organisations, there will be certain sales professionals who are responsible for a significant proportion of the sales. The rest of the sales team might believe that the individuals have the best accounts or the best territory, but they’re often wrong. What these over-performers will have are some of the key qualities outlined above – the attributes that cut across sales sectors and really make a great sales professional. These are the qualities that we can all develop to some extent, but some of us have them as a matter of course and these are always the people that we love to hear from at Macildowie – with or without experience in recruitment. |