Are Salespeople Born or Made?

A major issue within the sales community is whether good salespeople are born or made; that is are they all naturals or can outstanding sales skills be developed?

What makes for an outstanding salesperson?
An outstanding salesperson gets outstanding results. This much is clear, but the real question is, What do these salespeople do that gets them outstanding results?

If you ask this question of sales managers, most of them would come up with answers such as good at developing relationships or good at closing, but this does not include the full range of abilities that salespeople need to be successful.

The only way to identify what makes salespeople successful is to observe them in action. The things that will typically be observed are:

Sales Prospecting
Good salespeople are good at prospecting and qualifying customers to quickly focus on those most likely to produce business. They are very quite clinical at only giving their time to those customers they believe will give them business.

Customer Fact-Finding
Good salespeople spend more time listening than talking. They are good at asking questions to understand the customer’s business and listen very carefully to the answers. These skills are the pre-requisite for good selling and form the essential platform for winning the business.

Presenting & Closing
Good salespeople base their sales presentations on their knowledge of the customer gained earlier in the sale and are also skilled at putting over their proposals in an interesting and powerful way. Good salespeople are also good at turning customer interest into signed orders through negotiation and closing techniques

Time Management
Good salespeople have intimate knowledge of their sales territories and manage their time to focus on their most important customers and prospects. They are also good at keeping travelling time to a minimum and managing distractions to ensure as much time as possible is spent in front of customers.

Knowledge, Skills & Attitudes
What we have been referring to so far are called Competences or Abilities by HR professionals and each is made up from a particular combination of Knowledge, Skills & Attitudes.

The ability to Present & Close would for example require the Knowledge of the customer, Skills in Questioning and Attitudes of Tenacity and Self-Motivation.

Can the above be developed?
The key questions are therefore: Can a salesperson acquire knowledge? Can a salesperson develop skills? Can salespeople change attitudes?

Those that have been involved in sales training and development would answer, yes, yes and yes to these questions.

Conclusion
Although it is true that some salespeople possess more natural ability than others, it is also true that the Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes required for sales success can be developed through training and coaching.

By Rennie Gould | Righttrack Sales Specialist