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Can anyone be a sales person?
I believe that it takes someone with a strong personality to be able to be successful in sales, but my colleague thinks he could train anyone to be a successful salesman. What do you think? Do you think anyone could be made into a salesman?
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7 Answers
NO.
Although I agree with Jessica's point about everyone being in sales (selling ideas, etc) not everyone is suited for selling.
Much of this depends on the type of sales environment and the personality of the sales person. One of primary reasons people fail at sales is that they work in an environment that is not compatible with their personality.
For example, you can have a person who is excellent at asking questions, establishing rapport with prospects, and postioning their products/services. If they only have to deal with established accounts or inbound calls they would probably succeed.
However, this same individual may shudder at the thought of picking up the telephone and make 50 cold calls everyday which means if they had to spend most of their day dialing for dollars, they would likely fail.
Cheers!
Kelley
I agree with both Harlan, Jessica and Eric. Maybe consider that there is a grey area between consulting with a client and selling to a client. Depending on the product, a consultative approach is sometimes better.
In other cases a hard sell is required. Best is to identify and grow both these attributes in a person. My sales staff moves between consulting and sales in a single meeting, depending on the product and client.
Trust that this will help…
Willem Tait
Charlie,
I am not in Sales, but I was once sitting through a meeting that was run by a VP of Sales in which he explained that everyone is a salesperson. This struck me as I have always thought I would be terrible at Sales. But in this discussion, something hit me. Sales isn't (always) about skills; it's about passion, it's about belief. It's also about wanting something and being willing to do what it takes to get it. The example this VP of Sales gave was how his toddler was constantly trying to convince his parents to do things for him, and presented himself in ways that were well- irresistible to his parents. When you think about Sales not in terms of business, but in terms of life, I agree: we are all salespeople. Only, we aren't always selling products or services, but rather ideas, desires, agendas, etc. In fact, when you think about it, a lot of life involves convincing other people. Real passion, real genuine belief (either in yourself, or something other than yourself) is how you do that... no matter what you're selling.
YES as long as they are willing to develop a highly creative and intuitive mind, dig deep into communications, listening and persuasion skills, develop a total win and no lose attitude and alligator skin impervious to rejections, develop the ability read, understand and motivate people that do not want to take action, be able to do what is needed despite their feelings, personal situations or fears, to everyday rise enthusiastic with the reality that they will have to step out of their comfort zone a dozen times that day and they will do all of this every day without thanks, only more demands.
If they can do this than YES.
Kelley has a point, which I 'read' as follows: THE Salesperson doesn't exist. There are many tasks to perform in sales, in many different environments. So: The person needs to fit the task and the environment.
In my view, anyone who has an honest wish to help his customer (it almost needs to be a state of mind) can succeed in sales. But the environment and task need to match to the personal abilities. If they don't, the person will not succeed as a salesperson.
Happy selling!
Erik
Hi Charlie
Your question: Do you think anyone could be made into a salesman? If this were true, then the logic would follow that the occupation would not matter:
Do you think anyone could be made into an accountant?
Do you think anyone could be made into an IT technician?
Do you think anyone could be made into a marketer?
Do you think anyone could be made into a sales MANAGER?
If the answer to re: salesman is yes, why wouldn't be yes for any occupation?
My answer to all these questions is (you may have guessed) a big no.
Jessica's analogy is an interesting one ...indeed, in everyday life, we do "sell" things all the time. But we all know people that, no matter what their passion level about something, are just poor communicators and/or lacking in social skills to "sell" their ideals. So I don't agree that everyone is inherently sales-oriented.
I'm not intending to sound cynical. Rather, I'm being pragmatic ....something your colleague is not being when he says that "he could train anyone to be a successful salesman".
Did I just throw cold water on this thread? Hope not. Not my intent.
Geoff
Geoff,
You definitely did not throw cold water on this thread. In fact, I enjoyed your 'pragmatic' perspective
Technically, anyone can be taught any profession. However, I think the bigger question is "Can anyone be SUCCESSFUL in sales (or any profession for that matter)?"
Can you teach people how to become more persistent? Perhaps.
Can you teach people how to ask the right questions, establish rapport, ask for the sale, and every other step in the sales process. Yes.
Does this guarantee that they'll be successful? Absolutely not.
I stand by my original comment that the answer is no; not everyone can be sales person (and succeed).
Cheers!
Kelley
You can teach a
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