Is a Career in Sales the Right Move for You?
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by Tim Bush 
Just as every great salesperson should start a conversation with a question, I am going to begin by giving you a quiz.
Q. Which of these statements is incorrect?
a. You need to be fit to run a marathon
b. Learning a second language takes dedication
c. Only people with the ‘gift of the gab’ make great salespeople
As the vast majority of you probably guessed, the answer is C. An obvious choice considering the subject of this article, although maybe also a surprising answer to those of you who consider salespeople to more closely resemble the film character ‘Jerry Maguire’.
What does all this mean? Mostly that there are thousands of people who could be successful salespeople and don’t even know it.
Success in sales isn’t exclusively for ‘wheeler dealer’ type personalities, but is more likely to be achieved by smart professional people with a good ear for listening.
You often find that people with the least impetuous and most reserved personalities are the most successful. Colleagues who keep their partners awake at night shouting out ‘buy, buy, sell, and sell’ in their sleep seem to fall short.
While there is no denying that you need to be personable to make it in sales, people who take the time to listen and fully understand their clients problems do well in this profession.
During a sales call, the client should do most of the talking. The client doesn’t want to hear about how great the red ‘must have’ product you are trying to sell is when he actually wants a green ‘must have’ product. How are you going to find this out unless you ask questions and let the client speak?
In addition to being a skilled listener, you should be able to accept rejection and have the tenacity to proactively generate new business with little or no motivation from others. It can be quite challenging to motivate yourself to make 50 cold calls before lunchtime while everyone around you is doing something more enjoyable.
