Each profession has its own specifics, and the sales representative is no exception. In this work, too much depends on the behavior of a person, his ability to listen, understand and interpret information. However, the assumption is that there is a certain universal set of personal qualities. What separates a successful trade representative from the rest has not yet been confirmed. Teams of sales professionals often consist of people with diverse personalities, but who excel in their work.
Employers are in a difficult position. Before making a job offer, they interview several candidates for the position. Which one is better? There is no answer, often you have to rely on intuition or other factors.
Although, it would seem, everything is simple: it is enough to refer to job advertisements. And what do we see? The following are required from a sales representative or sales consultant. Communication skills, result orientation, responsibility, enterprise, desire to make a career in sales, self-discipline, organization, active life position, leadership qualities, ambition, diligence, stress resistance, ambition. In my opinion, bust, although this is not a complete list. I already imagined such a superman and immediately realized that he does not work in sales. Therefore, let’s leave all these products of the extraordinary imagination of personnel officers, and consider four really significant personal qualities of a successful trade representative.
Conversation
The first and most important is conversation. No, no, not sociability, as some mistakenly think, and not talkativeness. As others would suggest, but talkativeness – a pronounced ability of a person to enter psychologically foreign territory, into a hitherto unknown store, and enter into a casual conversation with strangers. In the last sentence, the combination of strangers is key.
Why? Just a sociable person can be the soul of his circle but close himself outside of it. This is unacceptable for a trade representative, on his way there are people every day who may be unpleasant to him for various reasons, for example, because of the nationality of the store owner. Or – you know all of Balmont by heart, and in a key outlet, a lady painted with hydrogen peroxide runs the business, swearing and spitting out seed on every word. In this situation, only a truly talkative person will be able to enter the store, look around, select a target, and start talking almost immediately. Moreover, it was not made up of a random set of words, but meaningful and logical.
Internal independence
The second essential personal quality of a sales representative is internal independence. He does not work in a team, but individually. The agent spends most of his time in the “fields”, outside the office, so he must be able to make decisions on his own. If your manager imposes something like “a sense of comradeship” or “team spirit”, then he has confused you and your colleagues with factory workers.
Self-discipline
The third quality that should be mentioned is high self-discipline. When starting to perform the assigned tasks, get ready for the fact that no one but you will be able to properly organize your working time, that the required amount of work will always exceed temporary capabilities, that the boss will not stand behind your back every minute and whip with a whip, directing you in the right direction. Only your ability to overcome laziness and malaise, overcome sleep and correctly plan a working day will bring good luck. And then, as experience shows, there will always be enough time to spend a couple of hours for lunch. Another hour for a smoke break, drop by a kindergarten for a child, run into the construction market … You can continue on your own.
