Here are sample sales interview answers about strengths and weaknesses. Accurate information about clients, market trends, rival solutions and other business intelligence enables a salesperson to make better decisions, engage the right customers better, and close high value deals while shortening the sales cycle. For B2B sellers, knowing the best practices and tricks for engaging prospects on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and other networks will help bolster your lead generation and conversion efforts. You can identify which skills you need to learn or train to get to the next level. Specificity makes answers sound meaningful instead of clichéd. Top earners know how to bounce back from a dry spell. The ability to positively engage other people, build long-term relationships, and form mutually beneficial networks will find frequent use in any salesperson’s workflow. The buyer is in charge, field sales is moving inside, technology is transforming the profession. Closing sales deals should be a staple across the sales organization but the task of closing is often assigned to more senior sales reps and account executives in larger companies. Contract negotiation involves establishing a climate where your company and your prospect can set mutual expectations and benefits. Smart sellers need to be sociable at all levels. Sales intuition. Tools have changed and so have customer demographics. RELATED: PODCAST 20: Managing the Sales Negotiation Process Like a Pro, Sales directors, managers and other leaders are required to be extensively aware of their organization’s governance and policy issues. –, What is the biggest criticism you received from your boss? GIVE EXAMPLES: If you're not sure how to respond to a question about your strengths without boasting, try giving an example of a time this strength was important in a previous role. Countless books, articles and studies have attempted to identify the characteristics of a high-performing salesperson, but a consensus has yet to be achieved. Rather, they look for innovative ways to turn things around. To set the tone for the forthcoming ultimate list of sales skills, check out this pro tip from Jeffrey Gitomer: Soft skills – these are informal abilities that are learned over a person’s lifetime and usually relate to the person’s aptitude in performing common tasks and connecting with other people. The five major weaknesses that each sales person encounter are: 1. There might even be a mentor willing to coach you into shape. It’s so bad that some people are predicting that 15M sales jobs will disappear in the coming years.    Â. Top salespeople have a number of qualities and skills that could each be considered the "greatest" or "most important." Deep and extensive product knowledge is a prerequisite to high sales performance. To succeed in sales, you must master a certain set of skills. It is imperative that sales professionals learn the best practices in both oral (e.g., phone calls, presentations, pitches, etc.) Sales is evolving and sellers who refuse to relinquish outmoded practices will fall by the wayside. They might be proud of their products but they’re more concerned about helping customers solve problems. In many businesses, the sales team is responsible for the bulk of a company's profits. Sales forces make up a tremendous part of the global workforce. Active listening in sales requires focus as well as occasional/follow-up queries. Getting along with people and having good communication skills are baseline traits. Developing a career in sales can be key to long-term stability and prosperity, from that first job all the way up to Sales Executive jobs. Most companies participate in performance appraisals, a process that employees and companies alike applaud. This is done by preaching hard work, helping to develop the skills necessary for success, and offering feedback. Many businesses realize that making a sale doesn’t necessarily terminate the buyer journey. Curiosity; Too Trusting vs. @#$%^&*), Countless books, articles and studies have attempted to identify the, The ability to positively engage other people, build long-term relationships, and form mutually beneficial networks will find frequent use in any salesperson’s workflow. Successful sellers are almost always buyer-centric. Or talk about why you're so motivated to turnaround a weakness. These sellers have well-developed empathy that enables them to understand where clients are coming from and determine their pain points. Collecting qualified referrals is one excellent way of keeping your pipeline humming with new leads. Because social has become a major part of our digital lives, many companies now employ social media managers to oversee their brand’s online presence. 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