Dave Kahle - Aptitude and Character

Published: Tue, 04/10/18

The Character of Successful Salespeople

By Dave Kahle

Are successful sales people made or born? It is the eternal question: the sales manager’s version of nature versus nurture.

Since I spend most of my time teaching sales people how to become better at their jobs, I’m 100 percent in the “made” camp. There are best practices in the sales profession, and outstanding sales people do many of the same things. A sales person can, and should be, taught those best practices so they know how to do the job well.

Much of my practices consist of identifying and teaching the best practices to sales people. I’m a believer in the notion that sales is a proactive profession – that you must first act, and then your actions get reactions. A good sales person acts in the right way. His or her behavior is ultimately what determines his degree of success.

Thus, I believe that anyone can be taught the principles, processes and practices of effective sales. I like to characterize it like this: On a 1 – 10 scale, I can take 7s and make them into 10s. I can take 4s and make them into 7s. I can take 1s and make them into 4s. But I can’t take 1s and make them into 10s.

As in every sophisticated endeavor, in the world of sales it sure helps if you have the aptitude and character with which to begin. “Character” is the operant word here. The Encarta Dictionary defines character as “the set of qualities that make somebody distinctive, especially somebody’s quality of mind and feeling.” In a common sense, we understand a person’s character to be that combination of qualities, beliefs, tendencies and attitudes that give rise to his/her behavior.

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It is the combination of characteristics that define who is the person. The practices and principles we teach instruct the person on what to do. While countless books and articles have addressed “what successful sales people do", few have described “who successful sales people are.”

I don’t claim to have the last word on this, nor do I believe that this group of characteristics is the whole story. But, from one person’s perspective, here are my observations of the essential character traits of a successful sales person.

The first characteristic that I see among successful people is this: They truly want be successful. This isn’t as simple and self-evident as it sounds. The world is mostly populated by people who don’t want to be successful – at least not if it is going to cost them anything. Most people would like to have the benefit of success – the sense of confidence and competence, the material advantages, the respect and admiration of others – it’s just that they aren’t willing to accept the cost that is the inevitable prelude to success.

Success is almost always the result of a consistent, long range investment of time and energy on the part of the successful person. You must give something up if you want to be successful. For example, if you want to be home everyday to watch Oprah, and you won’t give that up, you probably won’t be successful. You’re not willing to give up something in order to get something larger.

Successful sales people want to be successful to the point they are willing to accept the costs and invest the time and effort that it takes to be successful. Thus, the success-focused sales person works more hours than his average colleague. They try to make their first appointment for 7:45 a.m. and their last for 4:30 p.m. And when someone cancels, or the sales person finds himself with unplanned downtime, he finds something productive to do.

Whereas most sales people have not invested $20 in their own development in the last year, the success-seeking sales person constantly buys the books, listens to the CDs, and attends the seminars in an attempt to gain more ideas and, therefore, shape his behavior more effectively. He/she is eager to learn from others, pays attention at sales meetings, and solicits his manager’s input into his performance. He constantly thinks about his job, and continually tries to do it better.

This willingness to trade a short-term pleasure and invest in themselves for the long term benefit is the first characteristic of...[CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE]

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