You Probably Shouldn’t Be in Sales If You Don’t Have These 5 Personality Traits

So you’ve watched Wolf of Wall Street and have decided you want to get in to sales. You’ve got your briefcase in hand and you’re looking in the mirror, imagining yourself in five years’ time cruising on a boat around the Mediterranean. You’ve started calling commission “commish” and you keep clicking your fingers when you talk, because that’s what salespeople do… right?

But have you got what it takes to make it in sales besides all of that, are you prepared to push through despite how many times (at the risk of sounding like Chumbawamba) you get knocked down?

As a boss you need to push sales enablement to allow people to learn how to be the perfect salesperson. Or you have to hope they were born with it… Here are five characteristics all salespeople need to have to successfully make it in the industry:

1. Empathy

Has someone ever told you that you look empathy and you just don’t understand how they can feel that way? Then sales probably isn’t for you. Empathy is one of the most important characteristics that you need to make it big time in the sales industry. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and imagine how they feel. Empathy is what make us human.

2. Focus

All driven and likeminded sales successes are focused to their core. You have to be intentionally driven to accomplish your goals and it is imperative you stay attentive to one topic at a time! By being focused, you are more likely to expect more of yourself and be able to drive yourself to achieve more than you ever thought you could, and especially more than someone without focus.

3. Responsibility

Responsibility is one of the most important traits that any successful salesperson must have if they wish to be successful. Being able to take responsibility means that you do place the blame on others when places in a difficult situation. You have to be able to get things done when obstacles arise and accept any errors or omissions that occur along the way.

4. Optimism

You have to be an optimist when it comes to being a salesperson. This means having persistence and finding it very hard to give up. You are going to comes across a lot of failures in sales and it is being able to pick yourself up and never resigning or giving up. You understand that a refusal from a customers is not a rejection of yourself personally but of the opportunity you have offered them.

5. Ego-drive

Quite a similar trait to optimism, having an ego-drive also requires persistence. The difference is that your ego-drive needs to push you to succeed in everything and win at everything. You need to be competitive and self-motivated and be able to hang in there no matter how much is thrown at you.

You need to be able to push your limits and understand that winning is everything, so you can push yourself as much as humanly possible. People who feel like that have a great sense of ego-drive and are definitely the right kind of people to get in to sales.