What if I told you that the #1 characteristic for being a good salesperson is simply – to be a decent human being? We have opportunities to demonstrate character, or lack of character, every day in our selling careers. Our success or failure in those opportunities will, over the long run, determine our career trajectory. I can train a lot of things, but I can’t train someone to be a good person.
I had an opportunity to think about this recently while doing a Hiring Assistance project with a client. I interviewed a person for a position with a client, and despite doing two interviews and vetting his credentials, I couldn’t bring myself to forward him to my client as a finalist. I couldn’t put my finger on why – and then he called me. He demanded (not asked) to know if he was a finalist. When I informed him that he wasn’t, explaining that it was a tough competition and while I appreciated his time and application but he was not, in my opinion, the best fit for the position, he hung up on me. And then it hit me why I didn’t submit him along – I had found him to be a little bit of a jerk in the interviews; not bad enough to cut the interviews short but enough that I didn’t end one with a positive feeling. And regardless of credentials, if someone isn’t basically a good person, I couldn’t recommend him to my clients – because sooner or later he might be hanging up on a customer or co-worker.
As I said, we all have opportunities to demonstrate character in our sales world, and I’d like to discuss some indicators of good or bad character:
How you treat people whom you perceive are no help:
This is a big one. The reason that the man I mentioned above hung up on me was that I was of no further use to him, and if I was of no use to him, it wasn’t worth the niceties to keep a relationship whole. I get that, and I’m no angel, either. I’ve dismissed interviews within 10 minutes before. The key is that I always attempt to do so politely. Same way with networking contacts, etc. Again, I’m not perfect, but I always hope that making the attempt counts for something; and I think it does. People know when you’re trying to do the right thing, and when you’re not. The classic “how you treat the server and the janitor” falls into this category, as well. The candidate could have thanked me for the opportunity, kept the relationship live, and I might have recommended him for a different job. But he didn’t, and the bridge is burned.
How you treat your co-workers: We all have our “triggers,” but this is one of mine. One of the common old tropes about salespeople is that, “aw, the best salespeople are really difficult people to work with, they don’t treat co-workers nicely, and you just have to deal with it.” Bull. Good people are good people, and they treat people with respect – even when those people have disappointed them. Years ago, as a sales manager, I had an issue with a production supervisor over a big mistake she made that caused a big problem with a brand new customer. When I went to talk to her, her explanation made no sense, and it was clear that she just wasn’t thinking when she and her staff made the mistake.
Well, if you know me, I do have a bit of a temper (although I’ve mellowed since then). Some pretty insulting comments immediately rushed to my mind and one nearly escaped my mouth. Instead, what I said to her was, “Give me a second to run to the restroom and then we’ll talk about this.” I didn’t have the call of nature, but I knew that if I didn’t take a couple of minutes to compose myself, I was going to turn a bad situation into a very bad one. I walked away, got a drink of water, and when I came back, I approached the problem as a “we” situation instead of a “you” situation, but I also made sure that she knew that it was a big mistake and that I very much hoped that it wouldn’t happen again. And it didn’t.
How you confront problems: Think about this situation; you have an angry customer, and you know it. Do you confront the problem head-on by calling or meeting with the customer, or do you duck and run? Ducking and running might be comfortable, but it is seldom the best solution. You will gain respect, even from people who are dissatisfied with your performance, if you confront problems head-on. There’s another piece of this, too, and I call it the “4:30 phone call.” Let’s say your customer has a problem, it’s the end of the day, and you don’t have a resolution. The instinct is to not call the customer, because you have nothing new to tell them. That’s the wrong move. If you don’t at least touch base, the customer will go home and stew over the problem and they will just get madder and madder, and even if you do have a fix in the morning, they won’t like it – or you. The best path is to call and say, “Hey, they haven’t gotten back to me with an answer yet, but I want you to know I’m on it and we’ll get it handled.” The customer just needs to know that their problem has become your problem.
Truthfulness: I had an interesting exercise a few years ago. A very good friend of mine was applying for a selling job, and she had just been fired from her previous employer. Neither the previous employer nor the new one was a client or had any relationship with me; however, based upon knowing her for a long time, I felt that the new job was a much better fit for her. In any case, she asked me how to handle her recent firing when she was asked about it. I advised her to be truthful. Explain that she’d been fired, honestly tell the interviewer what her numbers were (they weren’t bad), and what she’d learned if anything from being fired. She did so. Today she is employed on what just might be her own personal dream job and successful – and I’m confident that she wouldn’t be if she’d tried to ‘spin’ the situation. There are times when the truth is anything but convenient – but if you tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said.
You have promises to keep: The biggest complaint about salespeople (well, besides pushiness) is that they make promises to customers and then don’t keep them. Want to differentiate yourself? Keep your promises! Of course, sometimes the biggest part of keeping your promises is knowing what promises NOT to make. I had a situation a couple of years ago where I’m pretty sure I could have sewed up a Sales Audit and a hiring assignment by simply making a commitment about the industry experience of the final candidate. The problem is that I’m not sure I could KEEP that commitment; searches can be unpredictable, and honestly, the industry itself was very specific. Instead, I committed to the other characteristics that were important. Result? I got the assignment after a couple of weeks more selling, and I got it on terms that I knew I could fulfill. And the salesperson is still there and succeeding. Sometimes the quick and easy route becomes hard later.
I look at this list and think that it should be obvious; unfortunately it becomes less obvious every day. In many ways, good old fashioned character is something that has fallen out of fashion in our society. Don’t be a victim to that trend. Be the kind of person your customers could trust with their dogs, and you’ll be the kind of person that is very successful in selling.
