What makes a great salesperson?

I was asked this week to mentor a young man who was interviewing the following day for his first job in sales. This was a degree educated, very bright and very personable person and he was going for his very first sales job. The job itself was a stepping stone position leading to a senior role in asset finance sales. He was asking my advice in what the company would be looking for.

 Bearing in mind he had absolutely no sales training behind him, it got me thinking: what would I be looking for if I was interviewing this candidate?

 For me the answer was simple. I have trained hundreds of salespeople over the years. I know what I can teach them and what I cannot.

You cannot train:

• Ambition

• A Work Ethic

• A sunny personality

• Natural communication skills

 Sales is a business process like any other. The process can be learned. Product knowledge can be learned.

My advice to him was to demonstrate the attributes that cannot be learned. Give me a candidate with ambition, a work ethic, a sunny personality and natural ability to communicate and I can make them a great salesperson.