Who You Sell To
Here’s another irrelevant external issue: Being a professional sales person has nothing to do with the folks to whom you sell. There are people in this country who sell something to every single job description and organization imaginable. Some of the customer types to whom my clients have sold include farmers, both crop growers and livestock growers; tool
and die shops, tier one, two and three automotive suppliers; schools at every level, and government agencies of all kinds; the military, grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores and retailers of every kind; contractors of every ilk, including electrical, mechanical, HVAC, plumbing; builders both residential and commercial, etc. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
In each and every one of these industries, there are professional sales people.
Being a professional sales person has nothing to do with the company for whom the sales person works. There are thousands of independent representatives in this country, for example, who work for themselves. Other sales people work for small family-held businesses, others work for large multi-nationals. Thousands sell for distributors; tens of thousands sell for
retailers of every possible thing; more thousands sell for manufacturers and service providers of every type. Professional sales people are sprinkled throughout every one of these business types.
Experience
Finally, being a professional sales person has nothing to do with how long he’s been at it, his educational background or experience level. I have encountered many sales people who have been selling for over twenty years, for example, who don’t come close to fitting into the mold of a professional sales person. On the other hand, last week, I met a 21-year-old,
in his first sales job, who was very professional.
I have met professional sales people who had only a high school degree, and many with college and post-graduate degrees. None of these things, which are external to the sales person’s character, matter.
6 Keys to Being a Professional Sales Person
Now that we’ve eliminated the things that a professional sales person is not, let’s look at the other side and examine the marks of a profession sales person. “Professional” is the name we choose to put on a certain set of character traits and attitudes that reside inside a sales person.
1. A professional sales person is proud to be a sales person.
Can you imagine a doctor who is embarrassed to admit that he is a doctor? Or a nurse who covers up that fact? A teacher who doesn’t want anyone to know what he does for a living? Is a firefighter ashamed to admit it? Does a lawyer pretend to be somebody else? (Well, ok, maybe on this one.)
You see, in every profession, the members of that profession are proud to be a part of it. Amazingly, that is not the case with the majority of sales people. They don’t like to think of themselves as sales people. Instead, they make up other terms. They are account executives, product specialists, customer liaison agents, mobile customer service
representatives, to name a few.
On the other hand, the professionals understand the challenging nature of what they do for a living, the importance it has for their families, their companies and the economy as a whole. The work of the average sales person in this nation supports four other families within the organization. They are proud of that and proud to be sales people.They don’t hide it or
apologize for it, they revel in it.
2. A professional sales person likes his job.
Not only are they proud to be sales people, but they like being sales people. They like the freedom and autonomy they have on the job, and they relish the responsibility that comes with that. They thrive on customer contact and are energized by the constant challenge. They get a high from closing a big or difficult sale and aren’t afraid to celebrate those
successes.That doesn’t mean that they relish every aspect of every job. I’ve had a sales manager, for example, that I was embarrassed to introduce to a customer. I’ve sold products that didn’t excite me, and worked for companies whose management styles and cultures left me looking for something else. In all of these negative situations, though, I never disliked what I did...[Click Here To Read The Entire Article Online]
