When building your sales team, it would be simple to just look for the “most qualified” or the one who charms you the most during their interview process. But to really build the most productive sales team for your business, one that is made up of sales reps who will push your company agenda and embrace what it is you’re trying to accomplish, you should be looking for key qualities in your candidates. In this blog, we are going to discuss 5 sales rep qualities your team members should possess.
Sales rep qualities to look for
It’s not enough to look at the way a potential sales rep handles themselves in an interview or the years of experience under his or her belt. While these things are certainly important, they’re not the end all be all of a quality sales rep. Only you know what is truly best for your business and the products you’re selling. But generally speaking, there are some sales rep qualities that we can discuss that will surely help you develop the most effective sales team.
1. They don’t waste time – everything is done with a purpose
In terms of sales, at least effective sales, time is the most important dynamic for a rep. The best reps see time as a resource and won’t take it for granted. Essentially for the best sales reps, time is more of an investment in their efforts than anything else.
What you want your reps to think about when selling your product is whether or not the risk (amount of time) is worth the reward (the result of said time). This goes along with knowing the buyers and which prospects would be a good fit for your product. You don’t want your reps wasting time on prospects and leads that won’t fit as a future customer.
The best reps know the value of automation and how repetitive tasks can be streamlined to make the sales process more efficient. Every minute they spend trying to log information, curating the same emails, and scheduling follow ups is a minute they could have spent on a call, converting more leads.
2. They know the ins and outs of their industry
If your sales team doesn’t fully understand what they’re selling and who they are selling to, how can they be effective in their efforts? This may seem obvious, but industry knowledge should be a highlighted trait in all of your sales reps. Every sales call is going to come with its share of questions from the buyer. Your rep needs to be confident in what they respond with, and also accurate with their information. The last thing you want is a customer base who is being fed misinformation that may not even be relevant to their needs. Your customers want answers, you want reps that can provide those answers.
3. They’re always learning or willing to learn
We’ve all come across those sales reps who think they’ve “seen it all.” They know what to do in every situation, in every sales interaction. That is a quality you’ll want to shy away from when building your sales team. You want reps who are knowledgeable and confident, but also have the humility to admit they can always learn more.
Whether the learning comes from absorbing more information about the product they’re selling, your business, your buyer personas, or just selling strategies in general, you want the reps who are willing to admit they can improve in every area.
4. They’re always striving to reach goals
Hungry sales reps make the best salespeople. They always see an opportunity to be working towards something. You want your reps to always be striving to reach certain goals. Once they reach the goal, you want them to be ambitious enough to develop new goals that they can reach and surpass.
As a sales leader, you are always going to develop goals for your individual reps and your team as a whole. But this shouldn’t be enough for your reps. The best reps will take those goals you’ve provided and add to them with their own personal goals. Ambition cannot be taught in sales, it’s an innate characteristic that will prove to be valuable to your own goals as a business leader.
5. They embrace technology
Let’s face it, technology and its development has defined recent generations. The development of automating tasks and providing relevant information with efficiency has become more the norm than in the past. Your sales reps should be ready and willing to embrace this technology and avoid falling back on their “old school” ways of selling. While these “old school” tactics may work in certain circumstances, it at least needs to be supplemented with today’s technology.
The fact is, your competition is going to be utilizing this technology to get ahead. In order to not fall behind, you need a team of sales reps who are capable and willing to take advantage of the technology that is out there.
Put your reps in a position to succeed
You’ve put your dream sales team together, one that is ready to help you scale your business and drive it to where it needs to be for success. But does that team have the technology on hand in order to empower them to realize their full potential? Just as a sales rep should be ready to embrace technology, you as the sales leader need to be ready to implement that technology.
Sales enablement technology provides tools that put the power in the hands of your sales reps. With these tools, they will have the content they need, at the right time, every time, in order to sell and sell well. At SalesTalk Technologies, we offer an entire suite of sales enablement products to help you with this. If you think you’re ready to embrace today’s technology and really empower your team to sell more, reach out to us at SalesTalk today. We can set you up with a free trial of our tools, and you can see for yourself just how powerful your team can be.