I believe the majority of us know when we are doing a great job, and conversely when we are not performing at our optimum.  Bringing this to someone’s attention with the outcome of improving their performance needn’t be difficult.

When we are behaving in a manner that goes against the culture of our organisation or is making others feel uncomfortable for whatever reason, I don’t believe addressing this needs to be a difficult conversation.

When someone is not putting in the effort required in the role, why does this need to be a difficult conversation? 

Conversations tend to become difficult for many reasons including;

• the instigator of the conversation gets emotionally charged and starts to blame the other person putting them immediately on the defensive and an argument ensues
• the person starting the conversation doesn’t know what to say and basically inflames the situation causing it to become a bigger problem
• the manager is concerned about how the other person will react and so doesn’t actually say what really needs to be said, so the message is diluted   

Regardless of why conversations are deemed difficult, with practice and a proven approach we can all learn to have more engaging and productive conversations.  There is no need to make the other person feel bad or wrong, but there is a need to ask for a change and to reach agreement of what is expected to happen next and the consequences if this doesn’t happen.

If like many of the people I coach, you feel you would benefit from some training around this, then you may be in luck.  We are hosting two workshops on Wednesday 30^th May 2018; one in Melbourne CBD and one in Mulgrave.  This workshop is designed to give managers, leaders and those in HR a clear strategy to use when having challenging conversations that need not be difficult.

For more information, visit http://selectionpartners.com.au/resources/workshops/. Places are strictly limited so confirm your attendance by emailing desiree@selectionpartners.com.au and indicating your workshop location preference.

To be a good sales person you therefore need to embrace technology and use it to your advantage. Further, you need to constantly seek to learn and be curious, ask good questions and be an active listener.  Having the ability to listen, genuinely being interested in having your client’s/ customers best interests at heart, understanding their problems or opportunities and being realistic about your ability to add value, is key. 

“People don’t buy products they buy solutions to their problems” 

It important to remember that you will never understand your client’s business half as well as they do, so failing to ask intelligent questions will leave you behind your competition.
 
Just as everyone is different, such as; extraverts, introverts, detailed people, those who are facts and figures focused, big picture people, those with auditory preferences (like to hear things), visual preferences (like to imagine solutions) or kinesthetic preferences (feels things, relies on gut feel), sales people can also be successful in many different guises.  At Selection Partners, for example, we personality test everyone who works for us, and within our merry band of consultants I think we have every personality box ticked.
 
If personality isn’t what makes someone good at sales, what does then? When I googled, there literally thousands of articles (743,000 in fact) detailing the traits or attributes of good sales people.
 
Many of the traits or attributes apply to many roles not just sales such as;

• Empathy
• Problems solving
• Self-awareness
• Optimism
• Imitative
• Resourceful
• Personable
• Honesty
• Coachable
• Resilience
 
Whilst all of the above are important, for me what I see as the most important traits which make a good sales person is; showing up and doing what you need to do to be successful every day. Focusing on the activities that make you successful even when you don’t feel like it.  Being tenacious, being diligent and showing up at work being passionate about the job. Treating every conversation like your life depends on it, for me is what makes someone good at sales.
 
Being a good sales person has less to do with ability, and more to do with choice.  Someone with two years of sales experience for example, can significantly outperform someone with ten years’ experience, if they do what needs to be done more often and consistently. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”.
 
If you choose to spend your time doing the ‘right things’ then you will be a good, if not a great sales person. It’s really simple, and I watch it unfold every day at work.