Sales & Business Development Blog

What makes a super sales person?

Well, experience from our sales training events shows that it’s more complex than most people think.

There are some critical selling skills and traits that have been around since the dawn of selling.

Top-flight sales professionals have always had to demonstrate the five following sales competencies:

1. A supreme work ethic, high levels of drive, and a competitive determination to win.

2. A good knowledge of the target market, the capabilities of the selling organisation, and its competitors.

3. Great individual selling skills, such as questioning, influencing, objection handling, closing techniques, and negotiation skills.

4. Confidence and focus when dealing with prospects at a senior level.

5. Consistently professional behaviour and an ability to sell within their own organisation.

However, in today’s more challenging selling environment where corporates are driving to professionalise their sales forces, a broader set of selling skills are required that seemingly differentiate the truly great, or ‘super’, salespeople from the rest of the crowd.

Today’s top employers now look for the following ‘new world’ selling skills:

6. A true mastery of an effective consultative selling methodology.

7. A disciplined approach to sales planning and a mastery of leading the sales process.

8. An ability to solve complex commercial problems and to challenge strategic thinking.

9. An ability to work in a diverse sales team and to take the lead or follow, depending on the situation.

10. Strong networks at the senior level in their target sector and in their own (and adjacent) industries.

The breadth of these ‘new world’ requirements raises two important questions:

Can all of these critical selling skills be developed or are some of them necessarily inherent?

and…

Is it possible for all of the above sales techniques to exist in one person?

Well, in answer to the first question, these selling skills can all be instilled in any enthusiastic sales or business development professional through sales training if the sales person is intelligent, has an enquiring mind, and likes working with people.

Because these 10 selling skills can all be trained or coached (with a high degree of disciplined commitment to personal development and the right training, coaching and mentoring), we believe that they can all be developed within the same person.

People who have developed all of these dimensions are able to create huge amounts of real value for their own organisation and the organisations they sell to. Their sales make headlines and they can transform the way that their organisation operates. That is why the best salespeople out there can easily expect to earn a six figure salary.

If you want to learn all of the above selling skills and create real value for your customers, check out our online sales training.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase