Personality and Sales

Question

To what degree does a person's personality limit his being a skilled salesman?

Answer

I've managed a lot of different sales people over the years and what most people typically consider a "sales" personality (gift of gab, back-slapper, joke-teller) are the kind of sales people that buyers typically find rather aggravating.  The best sales people are good listeners, can discern issues that need a solution and can provide a good solution.

If you have a great product or service that meets a read need and you genuinely care about your customers, you can be successful at sales regardless of your personality.


Joseph Manion September 13, 2007

We have had a number of discussions that touched on the topic of selling during the internship. One such discussion was based on the scenario of us trying to sell a ballpoint pen and the methods we would/should use. The point was that in sales, one should not start out by completely extolling all of the pen's features. Instead, one should really determine all of the requirements and preferences of a potential buyer and only sell the features of the product that would create the best solution for their needs. This is one bullet point that I will always remember when providing solutions to customers' needs and demand.

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