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3 Habits Of Highly Effective Salespeople

By Ruoro Kairu 

Whenever you want to describe a person, you start with their most prominent characteristics. For example, you can describe someone as kind, honest, caring, and so on.

Our character largely defines how other people view us. Additionally, the habits we have and uphold, end up forming our character.

Then, what habits can make you a successful person? The answer to this may vary on what you consider as success. It may also vary as different people have a preference for particular habits.

Let’s break it down further.

What habits make a successful salesperson?

Selling products and services can be a difficult task. You have to deal with different people, some of whom you don’t share beliefs, others who don’t seem interested in your products, and others who will tell you to come again on a later date, only to repeat that when you go back.

I sought to understand if there are habits that can help you become more effective while selling.

I spoke with various successful salespeople from different professions. Some of the habits shared kept recurring.

I have compiled three of the most prominent habits and traits I gathered talking to successful sales professionals.

1. Be proactive

In sales, it is your effort that will help you grow and succeed. Regardless of what you’re selling, you’ll need to actively look for prospective consumers, engage them, interest them in what you’re selling, sell them your product, and eventually, have them as repeat customers.

If you’re not proactive on any of these steps, it’s very easy to lose the prospective customer.

“To succeed in sales, create a plan of what you need to do, and understand what level a potential customer is at. That way, you’ll know how to engage them, and the best way to do so.” June –Senior Sales Executive (Technology & Software)

2. Create goals

It’s easy for you to wake up and start selling. With this, you can make a few sales. However, if you work without goals, you’ll likely not grow in your career.

Most organizations set goals for the sales professionals, however, beyond this, you too need to set your own goals.

If, for instance, you’re selling pens and have been given targets of selling 30 pens a month, create your personal goals, higher than the ones set.

In such a case, you can start by adding ten pens. Then, break down your goal. Say, you’d need to sell ten pens each week. You can break it down further to two pens a day.

Each day, you’ll know how far you are to reaching your goals.

“Each month, we were required to close three clients. I decided to add that to four. Each week, I needed to close a client. I did everything to ensure I was on target to reach my goals.

After six months, I revised my goals to six clients a month. At the end of the year, I had the most sales. I took home an award, financial bonus, and most importantly, a promotion.” Moses – Sales Manager (Real Estate)

3. Think of the customer

Many times, we are tempted to just make a sale. We focus so much on selling, that we want to be quickly done and move to the next.

In sales, you soon realize people don’t buy the product, they buy the benefit, the experience, the relationship…

In effective selling, you need to balance between making a sale, and befitting a customer.

Remember, the last stage of effective selling is having the customer come back when they need the service you offer.

You’ll see so many salespeople who just want to sell and move to the next.

Before you approach a potential customer, first ask yourself, ‘how will what I’m selling benefit this customer?’ once you have the answer to this, you’ll be able to approach clients who don’t need as much convincing.

“…I first sold medical supplies. When I started, I used to sell to anyone who would give me a minute to talk to them. This proved ineffective, and I quit my job. Months later, I realized I was going about it all wrong. I got another job, but this time, I would only approach the people who would benefit from my products.” Margaret – Insurance principle Officer (Health Insurance)

Ultimately, effective selling is a skill. Like any other skill, you can grow and perfect it with the right lessons and practice.

Are you a sales professional looking to advance your sales skills? Enroll in the upcoming Effective Sales Training.