Sales & Sales Management Brew

In many of our sales training classes we talk about the importance of asking open-ended questions of your prospects.  We talk about how your success in selling more business, more quickly, is proportionate to your ability to ask more of the right questions, the right way at the right time.  Today here are the 3 questions you need to ask yourself to determine if you have what it takes to be a world class sales person.

1. Are you passionate about selling?  Do you love contacting people, asking them questions and being strong enough to get people to make timely decisions?  Or, do you hesitate to call new people, shy away from fierce conversations and tough questions and do you have prospects that tell you they will think it over and get back to you?
2. Are you committed to success in selling?  Are you today doing everything possible to succeed, or are you only doing those things that are comfortable for you?  Being committed means doing everything to succeed.  That means changing, learning, challenging, risking and failing.  Is this you?
3. Do you take responsibility for your results?  Not just sales results but also your sales activity results.  Do you make excuses when you don't prospect as you should?  Do you blame your company and its' approach to the market if you find that your product is more expensive?  And just as important, do you take credit for your success or in your attempt to appear humble, do you attribute your success either to an individual sale or to ‘luck'.  If you allow yourself to be lucky, then certainly you will allow yourself to be unlucky.

There are many attributes to look at when attempting to identify those shared by top sales people. There are many personality traits and characteristics that you could point to that if possessed would lead you to believe that you should be successful in selling.  But ultimately the true assessment of your ability to grow and succeed in selling is based on your desire, commitment and ability to take responsibility.  Without those three, you will sell, but you will be challenged to be as good as the world class salesperson you aspire to be.