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Successful Selling…What Does It Really Take?
by
Bill Brooks, CEO of The Brooks Group
It has often been said that sales is the hardest easy work you could ever do. It has also been said that High Point is the Furniture Capital of the World. The second statement is true. The first is false.
Sales is, perhaps, the most demanding and difficult profession in the world. The problem? It looks easy. And this is particularly true when you observe a real pro – a top performer in action. Go watch a struggling salesperson and you’ll see just how difficult the sales profession can really be.
The problem is that sales is a profession to which many are called and woefully few succeed. And I mean really succeed. I don’t mean just making a living. I mean making a meaningful, fulfilling life. A life of financial freedom, independence, balance and prosperity.
The sales profession can provide you all of that and a lot more. But in order to allow it to do all these things for you, you must bring a lot to the table. Unfortunately, there are lots of errors, mistakes in training and erroneous assumptions that sales is an easy-to-do thing. Nothing could be less true.
Let’s take a look at a list of 25 skills and a second list of 25 attributes required for sales success. Scan the list and check off those you have (a) mastered; (b) are working on; (c) need to work on, or (d) haven’t even given much thought to or about:
Skills
Attributes
-
Self-Starting Capacity
-
Handling Rejection
-
Physical Stamina
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Emotional Stability
-
Ability to Focus
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Tenacity
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Empathy
-
Goal Directedness
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Handling Stress
-
Dealing With Ambiguity
-
Balance
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Rebounding From Setbacks
-
Self-Esteem
-
Positive Expectation
-
Loyalty
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Thinking On Your Feet
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Resiliency
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Self Renewal
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Self Awareness
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Problem Solving
-
Self Discipline
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Results Orientation
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Compartmentalization
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Emotional Maturity
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Flexibility
As you look at these fifty skills and attributes are you surprised that sales is such a demanding profession? Whoever said that it’s the “hardest easy work you could ever do” was obviously comparing it to pure physical labor. Have you ever felt the fatigue that sets in after lots of rejection, refusal and emotional upheaval? How about the fatigue of fourteen hour days, marathon meetings, lots of airplane (or auto) travel, lunches, dinners, events, trade shows, early mornings and late nights?
Yes, sales is a great profession. A demanding profession. A rewarding profession. But it is also, perhaps, the most misunderstood profession of all. These fifty skills and attributes are really only the beginning. We haven’t even discussed product knowledge, customer or marketplace know-how, emerging technology or all the rest. Let’s hold those for another day. We both have enough to work on right now.
Bill Brooks is CEO of The Brooks Group, an international sales training and business growth firm based in Greensboro NC. For more information visit
www.thebrooksgroup.com.
If you would like to receive The Brooks Group’s free e-mail monthly sales or sales management newsletter call The Brooks Group at 800-633-7762.
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