With demand back to normal levels for the fenestration industry, achieving growth in revenue is now more dependent upon the sales talent within your organization. Young people aspiring to get into sales often ask me for advice about getting started in the field, and one of the most popular questions I hear is: “How do I know if I have what it takes to become a successful salesperson?” Well, I would say there are five key attributes that are necessary to become a highly successful salesperson in fenestration—or any industry for that matter.
One: You must truly love sales. Oftentimes people cite money or prestige as reasons for going into sales. But after trying it for a while, they get discouraged when things do not pan out the way they imagined. Money and prestige do possibly come with the job, but not usually right out of the gate. Newbies will have a lot to learn, and early failures make for lessons learned that will result in future success if discouragement doesn’t get in the way of perseverance. You will have some successes, and you will have failures—and probably more of the latter in the beginning. But if you have a true love for the sales process, then you will not be easily discouraged. Instead, you will embrace each failure as a learning experience and as an opportunity to sharpen your sales skills. As time goes on, you will improve your sales skills thereby increasing your percentage of wins versus losses. However, the learning process never ceases. No matter how much experience you gain over the years, there are always new sales techniques as well as product or competitive product knowledge to learn and employ. Those who truly love the field of sales, will persevere and this is a major ingredient for success!
Two: You must be adept at working smart. The sales field is not a nine-to-five type of job. You will work more than 40 hours a week. For many sales positions, much of this time will be spent traveling, since you must maintain a presence in front of your customers. Traveling for pleasure is fun, but traveling for work can be brutal. I watched the movie Tommy Boy a few months ago and it put a big smile on my face. It is a movie about persevering in the field of sales with a brutal schedule of travel that involves a cross-country road trip. The movie is about Tommy, who tries to save Callahan Auto, his father’s auto parts plant, from bankruptcy, after his father passes away. If you are contemplating a career in sales and you have not yet seen this movie, then check it out. As funny as this movie might seem, be prepared to live all of this and much more! The good thing is that if you subscribe to my first point (about truly loving sales), then you will seldom complain about the pitfalls of travel. Travel is part of the job, and you will also learn how to make the travel process as efficient as possible while working as smartly as possible while on the road. For example, driving eight hours to your destination can make a great deal of sense, versus flying, if you can make a ton of phone calls and visit other customers or prospects along the way.
Three: You must constantly thirst for knowledge. To increase your chances of success, you must be willing to learn as much as possible about the products you are selling, as well as those you are competing against. Both are crucial. For example, what if you know nearly everything about your own product and you have just completed your sales pitch. You have spent 20 minutes going over all the features and benefits of your product, conclude your presentation and then ask for the order. How do you respond if your prospect then says, “Those features are great, but XYZ company has all of those too, at a lower price!” The point here is that you must know your competitors’ products almost as well as you know your own and you must differentiate your product from the competition. If the prospective customer views you and your competitors as equal, then it just boils down to price. You need to point out the key differences as well as how these differences translate to an advantage that turns the customer toward choosing your product over the competition, even if your price is higher.
Four: You must love interacting with people. You will be dealing with people of all types. Fun people, grouchy people, humble people, arrogant people, and most noteworthy lately: people with different political views than yourself! So, unless you really know the customer well, it is best to avoid political discussions! People who love people will truly embrace these differences. You must be able to interact with all types of people in a way that comes across as sincere and not fake or staged. Now this is not something that can be taught. You either have this ability as part of your personality or you do not. If you truly love people, then you won’t have to fake sincerity. That “down to earth” appearance will come naturally, and sincerity will shine through. If you only love people who are just like yourself and must fake sincerity with others, then you will be busted, and you will come across as a phony. Nothing could be worse. At the end of the day, people like to buy from people who they like. If you come across as likable and sincere—because you truly are this way—then you will greatly increase your chances of success as you develop and solidify long lasting business relationships. This “people factor” is huge and it also increases your desirability within the industry that you serve. It represents a form of “job equity” that makes you a highly desirable person to employ within your industry. Within a given industry, whether it is the fenestration industry or any other industry, everybody seems to know everybody else. It becomes a “small world.”
Lastly: You must become an intrapreneur. An intrapreneur is someone who works within an existing organization to develop new ideas and products. They use entrepreneurial skills to innovate and improve their company within the companies that they represent. As good as a salesperson as you may be, you can never exceed the success limits that are defined by the products and service levels that you have available to sell. Therefore, as a successful salesperson who is in it for the long haul, you must have an inherent desire to provide the best possible products and services for your customers. So, when customers provide feedback as to why you have not gotten their orders, you need to funnel that feedback, and ideas, back to the people within the organizations that you represent. What makes an intrapreneur stand out is that they are innovative, usually coming up with new ideas and taking on a leadership role, which oftentimes can be risky. So, in this sense, intrapreneurs have many of the same skill sets as entrepreneurs, but they are especially focused on achieving positive changes on the inside.
So, there you have it—five key attributes for a successful career in sales. There were many who doubted that Tommy Callahan III had what it takes to become successful in sales, but he learned from each disappointing sales call while enduring a brutal travel schedule. In the end, Tommy Boy ends up landing the biggest order in the company’s history and saving Callahan Auto from bankruptcy. He is a true testament to the power of perseverance!
Great article Jim. Loved it!!