We all have go-to people that we choose each time we’re in the market, but why do we choose those people over others? This week we thought we’d make a bit of a laundry list of the key attributes that we see our favourite salespeople exhibit.
Encyclopedic Memory
You favourite sales person doesn’t forget you. They remember previous orders, what went right or wrong, they remember your kid plays football and they ask after your partner. Everybody likes a little bit of the personal touch and when they have it you warm to them. Now clearly this is a hard one to teach or learn – you tend to be born with a good memory after all. How can you get a better memory? There’s a few brain training games you could install on your phone or tablet, or you could just cheat a bit! Store key notes on your contacts in your CRM, keep them up to date after every appointment or phone call, and refer to them each time before you make a call. Voila! Suddenly you remember everything about your customer.
Relationship Building
Closely connected with a decent memory, our favourite sales people form a relationship with us. They care about us and we care about them. They keep in touch even after they’ve moved job knowing secretly that one day they may need us again. Who knows where each of us will end up on our career paths?
Don’t Bull**** Us
The best salespeople don’t treat us like mushrooms ie. keep us in the dark and feed us bull****. They engage with us, tell the truth and have price and technical information to hand. Nobody ever went back to someone who clearly was faking it, making up numbers on the spot and telling us lies about the product. The best sales people are honest, accurate and responsible for their products.
Good Listeners
They listen and react according to our problems. Sales are all about solving problems and until you know the customer’s problem you can’t help them with the solution. They know that sales is about helping people, not selling.
Know Their Numbers
Nobody will trust you if you don’t get your numbers correct. The best salespeople know their margins, know what will sell, know their profit, and where they are against their targets. If they are accountable with their margins, then you know you’re getting a good deal too. A CRM system will help with targets, knowing your profit margins, and seeing your opportunities pipeline. With an app like BuddyCRM, you can check details on the go and know for sure that you can make target or keep margins up in the current negotiations.