1.A hunters mentality. A salesperson should be like a fisherman who wakes up everyday excited about the “big fish”. This is someone who is willing to go through all of the networking, leads, and information to put themselves in the position to land an account.

2. Modesty. Contrary to conventional stereotypes that successful salespeople are pushy and egotistical, 91 percent of top salespeople had medium to high scores of modesty and humility. Also, research suggests that cocky, egotistical salespeople actually alienate more clients than they close.

3. Curiosity. Best described as a person’s hunger for knowledge and information. According to Harvard research, eighty-two percent of top salespeople scored extremely high curiosity levels. Also, the top half of salespeople sampled were more curious than the bottom half. This is because a curious nature correlates to being interested during sales calls, which leads to asking a lot of questions, giving them the information needed to close.

4. Thick Skin. Being self-consciousness can lead to a sales person being bashful, which can inhibit their willingness to take risks. Top salespeople need to be comfortable fighting for their cause and are not afraid of rankling customers in the process. I work in Crimson Calling and if I let every missed sale get to me than I would live in fear of the next call. Having the thick skin to push through potential failure can lead to a successful sales career.

6 thoughts on “Qualities of a Salesperson”
  1. I find it very interesting that many of the top sales people tend to have very high scores in terms of curiosity. Most people who I went to school with seemed to have any natural curiosity beat out of them by the time they were finished with high school, yet many of them went into sales roles part time during college.

  2. These are all definitely important components of a top sales employee and these traits go hand-in-hand with what Professor Sweet is teaching us!

  3. Modesty is something that people tend to forget salesmen and women have and need to have in order to be successful. Without being modest in selling strategies, we as salespeople become the stereotype that so many try to avoid at all costs. Great points!

  4. These are all important things to remind yourself of when you sell everyday. Modesty is probably the one people fail to think about the most.

  5. I always think of tough skin when I think about sales traits, probably from my own experience working in cold calling and door to door sales

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