Attention CEOs: The Five Factors Of Top Salespeople

The Number-one Skill a Salesperson Needs

Consider these two statistics about business-to-business sales:

* Four percent of the sales people in the U.S. sell 94 percent of the goods and services, according to two meta studies—one by Harvard University and one from the Gallup Organization.

* Eighty percent of business-to-business (B2B) transactions are the result of relationships/consulting type sales, where the buyer has to like, trust, and get along with the seller, according to current surveys done by “Selling Power” and “Sales and Marketing Management” magazines. (Twenty percent are commodity sales where price is the driving factor. Today, in some industries, nearly all sales are commodity-based.) The statistics tell the story: Selling yourself is the most important sale in 80 percent of the B2B sales.

What is the most important skill of a salesperson?

Listening. It seems contradictory. “How I sell myself if I’m listening?” It’s simple.

* Ask questions.

* Listen to the answers.

* Respond with comments that show you listened, and ask more questions.

In the end, there will be opportunities to suggest your solutions. “When a sales person starts out with a presentation, most of us feel like we’re being sold to. Most of the country’s top salespeople recognize the negative psychology of that,” says Asher. Instead of polishing up the perfect presentation, top sales people will ask about the prospect’s issues, problems, pain and requirements. After they’ve unearthed all that, they offer a solution. “Now the psychology is switched around. Once a relationship is established, they act more like a trusted, helping advisor than an ‘it’s-all-about-me’ sales person.”

What is the Profile of a Top Salesperson?

If you were to create a profile of a top sales person—that four percent of the sales population that accounts for 94 percent of the sales—you would see five factors converging. “It’s what I refer to as ‘the perfect storm for sales,’” says Asher. This profile can be most comprehensively determined through use of a thorough online sales assessment, but can briefly be diagnosed with the following list

The factors are:

1. They are “knowledge giants.” “They know what they’re talking about. They have a perfect understanding of their product or service. They understand their competition and the competitive landscape. They come across to prospects as ‘go to’ people because they really know what they’re talking about, and they can help prospects solve real business problems.”

2. They have an aptitude for sales. It’s in the DNA. “All of us have a natural aptitude for some jobs and won’t do well in others. In Jim Collins’ book, “Good to Great,” one of his bottom lines is to get the right people in the right seat on the bus, in jobs where they have natural talent or aptitude,” says Asher.

3. They have the top 10 skills of the super salespeople, which are generally unknown to the average sales person. “Some of these skills are counterintuitive. They do not come naturally so they must be learned,” Asher explains. For instance, someone with a “driver” personality like Asher’s is not a natural-born listener—yet listening is the number one 1 skill. So it must be learned.

Another skill is patience coupled with perseverance. “Most sales people give a lot of prospects a few contacts. Top salespeople pick a few top prospects and give them a lot of contacts. When you get a new B2B prospect, you have to give them on average 12 touches before they will buy,” he says. In Asher’s sales training experience, when you give a person with a natural talent for sales the top 10 skills of the super salespeople, you will usually see an explosive growth in sales by that salesperson.

4. They are motivated. Asher says motivation involves the following considerations:

* Is the person self-motivated? If they test high for sales aptitude, they are usually naturally self-motivated. If they do not test high for sales aptitude, they need to be motivated by sales managers.

* What type of sales person are they? The two basic types are “hunters” and “farmers,” and if they are mismatched to the job, their motivation will suffer. A hunter likes the thrill of the hunt, the challenge, and will be most motivated by acquiring new accounts. A farmer likes to have many accounts that he or she can nurture for up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. If you have a hunter in a hunter job, he or she will be motivated. Put a hunter in a farmer job and motivation declines.

Where is the sales person in his or her life? Are they single and trying to build wealth, thinking about money all the time? Or, are they middle-aged, having made a substantial nest egg, and don’t need so much money? Motivation will be affected accordingly.

5. They are supported by a process. “Most top-performing companies have ‘best practice’ branding, marketing, sales and customer service processes to support the sales people,” says Asher. “You won’t see a great sales person working in a company with unsatisfactory processes.”

John Asher conludes, “The profile of top sales people is that they’re knowledge giants who help customers solve real business problems, they have a natural talent for outside sales, and they have the top 10 skills and use them. They’re self-motivated and they’re at that point in their lives where they’re charged up to make more sales, and they’re working in companies where they are supported by best practice processes for branding, marketing, sales and customer service. When all five of those are clicking along, you have a top sales person.”