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How To Be Good Salesperson
By peace | August 16, 2007
This is an article I had just written at Helium. Being a salesperson before, and being a customer myself, I had learned what I want and how I want to be treated by salesperson. This is my views:
How to become a good sales person
A salesperson job is to sell. What he sells depend on which company he is working, and this is determined in turn by what his qualification and field of study involved. There are salespeople who sells medicines, cars, insurance, air-conditioners, computers and many others. The word salespeople is a very general term. It can includes the sales executives in a clothing store, and it can also includes sales promoter who sells cosmetics in the shopping centres. Regardless of the title, as long as the person who sells a product or service to the consumers, they are regarded as salesperson.
How to be a good salesperson? In terms of priority, a salesperson is regarded as good if he has all these:
1. Honesty - do not hide any truths that is detrimental to customers and do not lie about products
2. Have Positive Attitude - Willing to work hard & Understand the need to have Good Product Knowledge
3. Respect Customers - Put customers in the first place
4. Professional
5. Proactive
Any salesperson with this qualities have potential to be a good salesperson. Honesty is a basic trait and ingredients essential to anywhere you go. Not only in sales, but in any other business. People want to work with honest people, no tricks and no scams nor frauds.
A salesman with the right mental mindset, can achieve anything he wants. If he has a positive attitude in anything, he is willing to accept any responsibilities given to him. A positive attitude means that the salesperson will not give up easily on his occupation when he meets failure. He is willing to work hard. He knows that to do well in sales, he needs good product knowledge. He need to persevere and have determination in order to succeed. Whether he speaks well or not is not a factor at all, if he is willing to learn. A positive person has no big obstacles in front of him if he wants to learn.
The next thing which a good salesperson should do is to respect his customers, for that is his life blood. Without customers, there is no job for the salesperson. No matter what the customers say, they have their own reasons and their own needs which is different from any other people and you. Do not answer back. Do not laugh at them. Listen to them. If you want to win in any arguments, you can never win your customers. Win your customers, listen and respect and advise, and they will respect you in return and you stand to win more customers when they refer more customers to you. You many not know too much on your products as a new salesperson, but honesty and the right attitude will touch your customers.
If you really want to be a good salesperson, you should know your products very well, so that you can recommend anything to your customers at your finger tips. Being professional requires you to know your products well, at the finger tips and able to explain what the customers cannot understand. You must be able to put yourself in customers shoes, explain everything in layman’s terms, in simple language, so that anyone would understand. Being professional also means that you need to observe confidentiality. That is very important. Many sales job like real estate agents and financial planners require clients to disclose their personal information. Put yourself in their shoes. Nobody would like to have their confidential information spread around. Being professional also means you know how to package yourself. You have high self-esteem and you take pride in your job. You sell because your customers have the needs or your customers insist on having it even after you had explained your reasons. Being professional, you are just like a doctor or a teacher. You educate, you analyse or ‘diagnose’ and next you recommend. The customers have the right to decide and choose.
The job of all salesperson is to close a sale. Any salesperson who cannot sell a single product is definitely not a good salesperson even if you have the rest of the four qualities listed above. A good salesperson must be proactive in order to have sales. To be proactive that means you must take the first step. You are in control of every situation. You are not a follower, but a leader. You lead and you guide. As a proactive salesperson, you have no fear. You cold call, you go canvassing and you talk to strangers. You talk to anyone who are potential prospects and you want them to be your customers in time to come. You follow-up on your business. You talk to them, call them as and when you are free or on special occasion.
Not all salesperson are taught on code of ethics. In my opinion, any salesperson should be honest and always put themselves in the shoes of their customers. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is quoted in the Gospels of Luke 6:31, and also in others. This is the Golden Rule, the ethic of reciprocity, which should be practiced by a sales person. A good sales person should obey this Golden Rule at all times. This is the basic rule to follow as it is the foundation any moral and ethics of the salesperson. With this golden rule couple with the listed five important qualities a good salesperson should have, a salesperson who practiced these will have potential to be good salesperson. If he is persistent in his effort and consistent in his activities, he could be a top salesperson too.
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December 23rd, 2007 at 2:23 am
[…] Poor Business Attitude The first stall, this Japanese one, I wanted to buy a total of 8 sticks. But somehow, I only got four sticks. The second stall, the queue was very messy — No head, no tail. I stood there, waiting to be served. The guy asked me what I wanted. I had not finished and I was not sure if he had heard correctly, but he was gone in seconds. Next, another customer stood beside me, came later. The same guy talked to her. They talked and said he wanted to serve me first. But somehow, he gave her a packet of sausage. Then the guy repeated my order. After that, I wanted to buy two cups of lemonade from them. The lemonade cost S$1.50 with ice and S$1.80/S$2.00(cannot remember clearly) without ice. There were three cups of lemonade on display. When I mentioned two, a lady beside him handed the two cups of lemonade over. I checked the lemonade. The first cup still have some ice, the side of the cups was full of condensation, water droplets. The second cup, I could not even see ice, though if I shake the cup, you can hear some ice in it. They are obviously left there for some time. I told them I wanted new one. They told me, “They are JUST put up there.” I asked again, if I can have new one, I would buy two. They never answered me. I took the first cup and paid the money. That is the kind of attitude Singaporeans have. Singapore can have GOOD FOOD but you can HARDLY find good CUSTOMER SERVICE, EVERY FOOD places you go. I am going to tell you GOOD customer service if I am ever to find COME ACROSS any from now on. […]