What Makes a "Superstar" Salesperson?

Interesting. I'm also a Superstar.
1) While not truly introverted, I avoid social situations. I also switch it on in front of customers.
2) I'm motivated by performance. At first it was money, then I just wanted to get better at selling. It was nice to top sales charts, but mostly, I just had performance goals I wanted to exceed. Twice in my life, I decided, "I'm going to see if I can sell every person on this street". And I did.

Reading people is easier for me than most. (A skill born out of necessity) I also don't listen to the word "no", unless the body language and context tell me I'm wasting my time.

Rejection doesn't bother me, but I also don't get excited when I sell. To me, it's all part of the same process. I expect people to buy. I expect to get the sale. And that's one of the real secrets.

We have a few Superstars here. I know it.

I've worked beside Superstar salespeople. I've trained a few. They come in all shapes and sizes, all demeanors, all different variety of vices. But they have a few things in common;

1) Absolute belief in themselves. They are strong, in their core.
2) Ability to learn from their missed sales.
3) Ability to think on their feet.
4) Ability (innate or learned) to adapt to at least most buyers.
5) Conviction that the prospect should buy, and that they should make the sale.
6) Ability (innate or adopted) to rebound from rejection and setbacks very quickly.
7) The quality of taking responsibility for whether the sales was made or not.
8) Singleness of purpose. They are there to sell.


You'll be able to see these qualities within a few weeks. And you will see the qualities they don't have, even faster.

How do you "flip the switch?" Btw you are a huge inspiration to me as I'm an introvert too and in sales. You've made it big I'm trying too. I've had a few chats with top performing introverted salespeople and they all say what you have said. They "flip the switch" but how do you do that exactly?

I sooo look forward to your reply!

The best salesman have a system that they have confidence in that system. Product knowledge is nice but if you have a system, you can sell anything.

Sure they maybe share traits that goes into making them better than average, but i think those traits are also what makes superstars in general, not just sales superstars.

From real live everyday experience here is what I discovered. When people learned they had to work for it, they no longer wanted it. That, to me, is why there are superstar sales people.

I've found that to be true. In fact, the only thing that raised my "comfort zone" was marketing that forced my income to raise, despite my lack of effort. Then, eventually that became my new comfort zone.

I can only speak for myself as it applied to my telemarketing career.

1. The ability to recognize an excellent opportunity for high compensation through a presentation and formula that can lead to success if I applied my personal skill-set to the very best of my ability.

2. The good sense to strictly adhere to a proven success formula in the precise manner I was taught until I achieved success, while never faltering or assuming that I knew more than the man that hired me by deviating in any way.

3. The courage to work on a strictly commission basis, from day one.

4. The willingness to be the first man in and the last man out, every single day.

5. The commitment to dial more times than anyone else in the room, day in and day out.

6. The perception required so that the nano-second I could sense that someone was going to say, 'no' - to hang up and call someone that was waiting for my call so they could say, 'yes.'

7. The good sense to educate the person that I was calling so that the next time I, or someone else in the room called them, they'd be that much closer to saying, 'yes.'

8. By always displaying the highest level of respect and professionalism toward anyone I spoke with, regardless of how they treated me.

9. A willingness to attempt to set an example of work ethic and to teach those around me everything I could to improve their level of success, if they were interested in being helped.

10. To use all of the preceding to establish myself as the top producer in every room I have ever worked in within 30 days of arriving and not letting the negativity of those I supplanted to do anything more than my wanting to rub their nose in my success by making them look like mere pikers with each passing week. I am not a nice person in a competitive environment. Well, some folks think I'm never a nice person. lol

As a room manager I added:

1. The ability to smell bullshit a mile away.

2. The desire to reward those that were doing the best at displaying how to do the job, even if they had not yet reached the level of success that I thought they would, when I hired them. Some things take more time.

3. Knowing whom to hire for the express purpose of firing them in dramatic fashion, thereby whipping everyone else in the room back into shape, if they were getting lax. Yes, even telemarketers are human, or so I've been told.

4. Be willing to stay as long as the last guy dialing wanted to stay to bang another deal to get themselves to the next commission break. More money for them meant more money for me and it also let them know I would never turn my back on them.

5. Taking the time to prove to people that were once successful, that were falling down, that they could be even more successful than before, if they would simply do what they were doing in the first place, before going off the reservation.

6. The ability to communicate to even the most fearful telemarketing recruit that in the right hands, there is not a more powerful weapon on the planet, than a telephone handset and if they would follow my lead for 2 weeks, I would prove to them that they could make great money and learn a skill that would enable them to go anywhere in the country and be able to provide for themselves and their family in good style.

7. Having the understanding that people are generally born with the requisite traits to achieve Superstar status, but until they are placed in a situation where they can utilize those skills to demonstrate a level of success they may not know they can achieve - they are nothing more than an 'Average Joe."

Why are you staring at the phone? We don't get incoming calls, around here! Pick up the phone and make some money. It's not called, 'Dialing for dollars,' as some kind of joke.

Telemarketing is not easy, but it is simple to succeed at. :-)

Cheers. - Frank

Wow. Honestly, for years, I thought I was the only one.

Yes, I'm both participant and observer. I'm never really engaged with the prospect. It's always cerebral. All emotion in the presentation, is a means to an end. It's like playing chess. Thinking a few moves ahead, deciphering what they really mean when they speak. Anticipating problems.

When I took salespeople with me, it constantly amazed me that they would get wrapped up in the sale, involved in what was happening. After the presentation, I would ask them what they thought was happening (at a specific point). They never understood what I was asking.

When selling, I never took the results personally. I only thought about how I lost the sale, or what I learned that I could use in the future.

During the presentation, I may laugh, look concerned, listen closely, give empathetic answers, joke with the customer.........but all that disappeared the minute I left. I never thought about the buyer again. It wasn't because I was mean, or elitist. It was because it was a performance.

I never got angry when they didn't buy. I never got angry when they insulted me. It's because I wasn't really involved with them.

Hundreds of times, a customer would see me in a store, or around town. They would walk up to me, and strike up a conversation. They think we are friends. I can fake my way through it usually. But I never remember them. If I really want to remember them, I ask for their address. I can remember the house, usually.

I have psychopathic thinking processes. I always assumed that my perceptions when selling, were due to that. And the absolutely best salesperson I ever met, (in vacuum cleaner sales) was a woman who is a psychopath....just disconnected from human interplay.

I made the mistake of taking my wife with me on a few sales calls. This is before our retail store. She said, on the drive home, "I didn't know you were so interested in archery".

I said, "I'm not. Not at all. But he was interested in archery. I was just listening attentively".

What's strange, is that I don't use my sales persona when consulting. So, when someone sees me speak to a group, and they hire me for consulting, they get a different guy. I'm much more serious and reserved in person.

How exactly is it possible to state that nobody can teach you selling skills, but then say if you learn one can make better his selling ? Unless you suggest people spent an entire lifetime living in a bubble and only learn from their own ways ?

I ignored it, and wondered if someone was going to comment.

"Nobody can teach you selling skills" is as silly as "Nobody can teach you how to be a doctor".

And the idea of "You will be successful in the selling only when you love it".....Yup, said by people that aren't making good money selling. It's because, to a layman..it sounds so very true. It must be true, right?


Personally (I would never say this to a prospect), I don't enjoy selling, and I never have. I've never sold a product that really excited me. And the hardest part of training, was faking enthusiasm (because I knew new people needed it).

To me, it was highly complex social engineering. And I never felt an ounce of enthusiasm. Dealing with people all day, that you would never spend ten minutes with socially, isn't fun. Listening to the exact same objection, 10,000 times...and giving the same answer 10,000 times..is boring. The only thing interesting to me, was learning a new method, a better technique. Anything to make selling more painless.

I do enjoy teaching how to sell. Seeing a new guy use what I've taught them to make a sale, gives a sense of satisfaction. Consulting is fun, because I'm teaching.

But every time I have to smile for 30 minutes, as an old lady tells me about her cat's diet...I die a little inside. To me, selling has always been a performance. It's acting. I can't remember ever really feeling what I've said to a customer. They are talking to a character I play.

Wow! Thanks Captain Obvious. Any other earth shattering tips for us?

Really?

I can find you thousands of salespeople who can find the "opportunity" to make a sale, but only a handful who know how to close that sale.