How to Spot a Natural Salesperson

Whilst some people have to be taught the rules of the road and only get to the top of their game after several years of on-the-job experience, others seem to be gifted with a natural flair and aptitude for their role. This is particularly evident in salespeople. Every so often you'll come across one who has an uncanny ability to make a persuasive sales pitch sound like a friendly and reassuring chat, lulling his potential customer into signing on the dotted line and closing the sale without breaking into a sweat.

As a Sales Manager, the chances are that you'll need to recruit new salespeople to your team from time to time. This is when the ability to spot a natural salesperson could be invaluable. Of course, you'll also need to ensure that your interviewing technique is first rate and this is where leadership and sales training specialists at Maguire Training can help.

Delegates of the Interviewing Skills eLearning module will be equipped with all of the essential techniques of interviewing which are designed to bring about a satisfactory conclusion to the recruitment process.

Once you've perfected the art of conducting interviews, all you have to do is spot any potentially natural salespeople among your recruits in the hope of adding them to your sales team. To help with this Maguire Training has compiled the following list of the personal characteristics most commonly associated with salespeople who are regarded as naturally gifted:

• An inquiring mind
  The natural salesperson has an insatiable curiosity and a desire to learn. They need to know how things work and how processes can be improved. This means that they are never complacent, they keep up with new developments and are thorough when performing due diligence.

• Ambition
  At an interview, the natural salesperson may ask you about sales growth, meeting targets, career progression or future directions for the company, all of which suggest an individual with hunger and passion for sales.

• A can-do attitude
  The natural salesperson will view obstacles as opportunities and will demonstrate an attitude which, rather than saying 'here are the reasons why we can't do this', will instead say 'let's find a way we can do this'.

• Lack of inhibition
  A natural salesman does not necessarily have to be an extrovert, but a low level of self-consciousness or shyness can help in sales situations where confidence or assertiveness may elicit respect from the potential customer.

• Optimism
  A salesperson with a naturally cheery disposition is far more attractive and persuasive to a potential customer than one who is prone to gloominess and a 'glass-half-empty' outlook.

• Responsibility
  Equally, at home in a sales team or working solo, the natural salesperson will be happy to take responsibility for meeting targets, solving problems (both their own and those of others), building and maintaining client relationships and self-development.

You can build a better, higher-performing sales team by using the right recruitment techniques and Maguire Training can help you by providing a range of invaluable courses and modules aimed at developing Sales Managers and their teams.