I’ve worked with thousands of salespeople over the last 10 years, and I’ve come to believe there a single, powerful characteristic that separates the most successful from the rest.
It is at once the most important characteristic salespeople can have, and also the rarest.
It is the characteristic that leads most directly to the most sales.
That characteristic is enthusiasm.
In the types of mature manufacturing and distribution industries that I work in — lumber; pipes and valves; HVAC; printing; steel (not sexy industries, but they make the world go around) — the enthusiastic, positive, optimistic salesperson is so rare that the customer is stunned when they experience it.
I say this because it is the customers of my clients who have told me this.
Sales success is not about knowing part numbers and technical specifications. It is about making your customers feel drawn to working with you instead of the competition.
You do this with enthusiasm and positive energy.
I tell my clients, who own or run companies between $50 million and $2 billion, that it is best to hire enthusiasm and then teach everything else.
It’s much easier to teach technique and product details than it is to teach enthusiasm. But it’s doable, and a major outcome of my projects with clients.
Customers pay big money to surround themselves with enthusiastic suppliers.
What’s the opposite of enthusiasm?
Cynicism.
It’s also far more common in sales departments.
Who would you rather buy from, the enthusiastic, positive salesperson, or the cynical pessimistic one?
Bring joy to your customers.
Bring happiness.
Bring enthusiasm and positive energy.
Bring optimism.
And they will choose you over the competition every single time.
Even if your prices are higher.
Your customers will thank you with their money.
To bring enthusiasm and optimism to your customer-facing staff — in the words of your happy customers — and add 10-20% to your sales as my clients do, call me directly at 847-459-6322.