CLIENT WILLIAM M.

MALINAO
Subject Instructor
Introduction

There’s no special, single plan for success in sales and marketing. It’s not as easy as
flipping a switch and suddenly turning into an expert salesperson. There are factors at play that are
hard to define, and lots of different elements that may be responsible for a salesperson’s success
or failure. Two people may have the same education, resources, and amount of sales experience,
yet one of them ends up with far more sales than the other. This may seem perplexing, but there is
another factor to consider: personality. It may seem obvious—sure, of course personality will play
a part. But is it really that significant a factor? And why does it matter, anyway?

This module contains strategies on how to develop a good sales personality.

Specifically, after reading this material, students would be able to:

 define sales personality;

 rationalize on the importance of having a good personality of a salesman;
 identify important aspects of sales personality;
 identify ways to improve sales personality;
 research on the secrets of billionaires in field of selling;
 strategize on how to get the best buyers; and
 cite the importance of Sales training and its relation to marketing concept.
Information Sheet

What is Sales Personality?

A sales person has characteristics vital to sales success. He is

driven by challenges with a mission to close. People may see a
person with sales personality as friendly and outgoing but what
they may not recognize is that he is friendly and a people-person
with purpose. Sales personality pertains to the combination of
characteristics or qualities that form a seller’s distinctive
character (Holzman, n.d).

Why Personality is Important

Every business is more than their product; a product – no matter how good it is – most
often is not enough to convince someone to buy it. This is what makes sales representatives
important. Every representative is the face of his or her company to clients, giving personality to
an inanimate product and business. A company’s brand and marketing strive to add personality to
the business, but salespeople really drive it home. This is where a salesperson’s personality comes
into play. A sales representative’s personality and attitude will shape the customers’ view of and
feelings toward the product, company, and brand. The way a client feels about the rep they interact
with will often determine the way the client feels about the company, as well as anything they sell,
do or make. A sales representative’s personality, then, must give clients positive, confident
feelings about the product or service they are considering. This raises an obvious question: what
kind of personality traits make for the best salespeople?

Personality Traits to Pursue

It’s true that there are successful salespeople possessing certain traits that other successful
salespeople lack. There isn’t exactly a formula that guarantees success or a perfectly-proportioned
blend of personality traits that ensures consistently mind-blowing sales results. However, there are
personality traits that tend to work in a salesperson’s favor, and these traits are worth nurturing.

Drive without Pushiness: Any good salesperson must have the drive
to succeed. They must have the necessary motivation and ambition
that can withstand failure. Obstacles do not crush the best
salespeople, because a good sales rep has the internal determination
to overcome any hindrance. However, that ambition must never
reach a point of excessive aggression, since disproportionate
pushiness will be interpreted as disrespect.
 Pro tip:

If you want to learn how to improve the mental stamina or mental toughness of your sales
team, look into the psychology techniques used in sports. These techniques can help sales
people overcome the fear of failure (or rejection), master the art of confidence, and learn
how to keep their composure when in the hot seat or under intense demands.

Charisma: General likeability is always an asset. It helps to be a people

person, adept at interacting with others in a natural and friendly manner.
Charisma is a hard trait to define, however, a kind of magnetism and
allure that seems almost mystical. Some people just have it, the natural
charm that makes people gravitate toward the charismatic individual.

Pro tip:

Charisma is not something that someone can learn…either someone is charming or they
aren’t. However, if you understand how to be likeable to nearly everyone it will be easier
to disguise a lack of charisma. How is this done? By understanding the buyer as well as
what keeps them up at night and brings purpose to their life. This will require some
research but can be well worth the effort.

Positivity: Clients aren’t looking for a glum, negative individual. Sure,

the sales rep might run into some snags, but any obstacles or
miscommunications should always be handled with positivity.
Positivity helps clients feel both comfortable and confident.

Pro tip:

Staying positive requires a mindfulness of being positive. In other words, if the desire is to
eliminate negative thoughts, perceived threats and pessimism among sales teams there
must be a clear understanding of each representative’s emotional intelligence. These tests
help to identify two things: strengths and weaknesses. Strengths can be leveraged so that
these skills work to a representative’s advantage, while weaknesses offer opportunities to
improve. Additionally, when used in conjunction – someone’s weaknesses might
complement someone’s strengths which is where micro-teams consisting of 2-4 people can
be highly effective.

Honesty: Positivity is important, but it doesn’t mean a sales rep should

sugar coat everything. Clients don’t want a salesperson who dances around
the issue, afraid of addressing difficult subjects. Even if the honest truth is
something the customer doesn’t want to hear, a lie is never the answer.
The best sales reps will be honest about any difficulties, while also working hard to address
overcome these obstacles.

Pro tip:

Recent studies have demonstrated that most people, not just those in sales, use deception
even if it a white lie, within the workplace. The number one reason a lie is told – fear of
losing a job or losing a customer. One of the best scenarios managers can set up for teams
is to welcome honesty, even if that means that losing a sale or customer. When the fear of
termination is eliminated, sales teams will be more willing to be honest. Furthermore, post-
sales customer check-ins should also address the issue of honesty in surveys, etc.

Competitiveness: The sales game is a competitive one, and the best

salespeople play to win. Whether it’s in regard to other reps at the same
company, or competing companies, the best reps are looking to outdo the
competition. They want to provide better service, create better
relationships, and reach better numbers.

Pro tip:

A little healthy competition never hurts in sales environments. However, if the only
competition is around quotas, there may be significant missed opportunities to promote a
more rounded (and healthier) competition that better represents the business or brand. For
example, competitions, at the micro-level, can be on scoring the highest in customer
satisfaction surveys, minimizing the need for post-sales support, earning repeat business,
earning the most margin per sale, etc. Another way is to offer a larger motivator for top
performers. This can be a non-cash incentive such as an all-expense paid trip to an exotic
location as it not only rewards for positive outcomes but provides insights into new cultures
and encourages conversation with prospects.

Confidence without Arrogance: Part of a salesperson’s job is building customer confidence. The
goal is to make a client confident that they’re making the right choice, assuring them that the
product or service in question is truly beneficial to them. But a
salesperson lacking confidence will have a hard time building
confidence in his or her client. Sales representatives must possess
confidence in the product or service they are selling, truly believing that
what they sell is beneficial to their customers. However, this Pro tip:

Better educated sales representatives as well as first hand experiences with products and
services can do wonders for even the least confident sales representative. If confidence
appears to be lacking, it could be a symptom that additional training is needed, or that it is
time for management to step in and build confidence through encouragement.
Inquisitiveness: Sales is about relationships, and questions are a great way to build rapport. They
show that your clients aren’t merely numbers on a page, but real people who you’d like to invest
in. Of course, business questions are just as important as personal ones. The best salespeople aren’t
afraid to ask questions—even tough questions—because questions produce answers, and answers
are information. Sales reps want as much information as possible, knowledge that will help them
better serve their clientele.

Pro tip:

Knowing the right questions to ask can be taught, and in other cases it comes from
experience. This is where a combination of training and partnerships with experienced,
top performers, can be helpful. Most top performers are rarely asked how they do what
they do, but are more than willing to share if when inquiries are made. This combined with
mentorship programs can be a powerful combination in helping sales teams learn the
questions to ask – as well as helping them to refine their intuition as it related to the
customer base.

Developing a Powerful Sales Personality

Becoming excellent in closing sales is an inside job. It begins within you. In sales, your
personality is more important than your product knowledge. It is more important than your sales
skills. It is more important than the product or service that you are selling. In fact, your personality
determines fully 80 percent of your sales success.

Take Charge of Your Life

The biggest mistake you can make is to ever think that you work for anyone
but yourself. From the time you take your first job until the day you retire,
you are self-employed. You are the president of your own entrepreneurial
corporation, selling your services into the marketplace at the highest price
possible. You have only one employee—yourself. Your job is to sell the
highest quality and quantity of your services throughout your working life.

View Yourself as Self-Employed

In a study done in New York some years ago, researchers found that the top
3 percent of people in every field looked upon themselves as self-employed.
They treated the company as if it belonged to them personally. They saw
themselves as being in charge of every aspect of their lives. They took
everything that happened to their company personally, exactly as if they
owned 100 percent of the stock.
Winners versus Losers

The difference between winners and losers is quite

clear. Winners always accept responsibility for their
actions. Losers never do but instead always have
some kind of explanation for why they are doing
poorly.

Don’t Waste Time

The average salesperson today wastes about 50 percent of his or her

working time. According to research, he comes in a little later, works a little
slower, and leaves a little earlier. He spends most of his working time in
idle chitchat with co-workers, personal business, reading the paper, drinking
coffee, and surfing the internet. Winners arrive a little earlier, work a little
harder, and stay a little later.

Develop Empathy and Understanding

Top salespeople have high levels of empathy, i.e., they really care about
their customers. Ambition, the desires to achieve, combined with
empathy, the genuine caring for the well-being of your customers, are
the twin keys to top sales performance. A person with empathy makes
every effort to get inside the mind and heart of the customer and to
understand his situation and needs. They find out what the customer
really wants and then presents it to them in a manner he/she finds
palatable.

Keep Your Word

Top-selling salespeople are impeccably honest with themselves and

with others. There is no substitute for honesty in selling. Earl
Nightingale once said, “If honesty did not exist, it would have to be
invented as the surest way of getting rich.”

Do what you Love to Do

One of the secrets of success in selling is for you to do what you love to
do. Top salespeople love what they are selling. They believe in it
passionately. They will defend it and argue over it. They will talk about
it day and night. When they go to bed, they think about their product.
When they wake up in the morning, they can hardly wait to talk to prospects about it. Look
 at the top salespeople in the very best companies, and you’ll find that these people are
fanatical about their products and services.

Succeed Now

Resolve today, that you are going to become one of the hardest-working professional
salespeople in your industry; start earlier; work harder; stay later. Do whatever it takes to
reach your financial goals.

How to sell with confidence

The importance of confidence in sales can’t be understated. You can know everything
about your product and possess significant experience in the field, but if potential buyers don’t
perceive you as confident, you’ll never succeed. You can offer all the discounts in the world on
the amazing features of your product, but if a buyer doesn’t sense your self-assurance and feel
comfortable around you, they’re not going to make a purchase.

A large part of being successful in sales is developing sales confidence. Selling with
confidence doesn’t mean that you feel 100% confident all the time – no one does. Rather, selling
with confidence is immediately putting a customer at ease and talking to them with conviction and
sincerity. This is not a skill people are always born with, but it is one you can continuously refine
and improve.

There are several proven ways to build confidence in sales. If you can adapt these strategies
into your career, you’ll achieve massive success.

1. Nonverbal Communication

People judge you within seconds of meeting you.

It’s just a fact. The first impression you make on
potential buyers is entirely through your nonverbal
communication. How are you approaching them? Do
you stand to the side, with your arms folded across
your chest? This posture makes you appear closed off
and unapproachable. Are you looking at the floor, or
out a window, instead of making solid eye contact? A
buyer will see this behavior and decide you’re flaky.
And you haven’t even started talking yet.

Your body language sends a silent message to everyone you communicate with. You want to
appear knowledgeable and trustworthy to customers – after all, you want them to buy something
from you. Stand up straight and curb any nervous habits you may have. Fidgeting makes you
appear nervous; you want to look calm and collected. Consider the person you are addressing. You
can mirror them by using similar body language; this deepens your connection to the person and
often leads them to a more favorable response. All these are important elements of posture, but
don’t forget physical feedback. Nodding and smiling, when appropriate, shows the customer that
you’re listening and allows you to build further rapport.

2. Change your state

As you’re researching building sales confidence, take stock of your current state. When you
think about making a sale, how do you feel? Are you nervous? Does it make you excited? If you
are operating in a state of nervousness or uncertainty when it comes to securing sales, you’ll be
alerting potential customers to your mindset, and they will go elsewhere. You want to train yourself
to be comfortable and relaxed when making sales.

What would happen if you were truly confident? Would more customers be persuaded to make
a purchase? Would you feel more comfortable talking to people you don’t know?

Todd Herman, who was a guest on The Tony Robbins Podcast, is an expert in helping people
adapt to challenging situations. His secret? He tells people to develop an alter ego. This isn’t a
Jekyll and Hyde situation; it’s allowing yourself to step into a different persona to achieve your
goals. For example, you may lack confidence when making sales. What if an alternative version
of you was the best salesperson at your company? Think about what it would feel like to be that
person. How do they talk? What kind of words do they choose? Notice their body language and
sense of self. What changes would you make to your own posture and language to walk like them
and sound like them? Once you know how to create an alter ego that serves your mission – making
sales – you can channel this person whenever you need.

3. Understand your customer

Many salespeople out there are not as extraordinarily talented as you

think – they’ve just figured out how to read their customers and react to
their needs. Ultimately, this helps them achieve their goals. Each and
every person has a different set of metaprograms, or mental processes
that guide their experiences. Your metaprogram – there are seven of them
– determines how you see the world and what you pay attention to and
ignore.

For instance, does someone have an external or internal frame of

reference? If someone has an external frame of reference, they turn to sources outside themselves
to validate their decisions. If they have an internal frame of reference, they’re more fulfilled
knowing privately that they made the correct choice – they don’t need the approval of others. If
you’re selling a product to someone with an external frame of reference, you’d tell them statistics
about how many other people have purchased the product or provide positive customer
testimonials for them to look through. If you can decipher which metaprogram someone uses, or
which one is most important to them, you can more easily influence their decisions, building a
customized pitch that will result in better sales. This will expedite the sales process and enable you
to gain confidence in sales along the way.

IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS BY FOLLOWING THESE STRATEGIES

Gaining sales confidence is a process – it doesn’t happen overnight. But using these impactful
strategies and learning to better communicate with potential and existing customers will lead to
great success. Confident people tend towards success. This is especially true in sales since
customers and prospects will immediately trust a salesperson more if they are confident and
knowledgeable. As the leader of a sales team, you can help your team members build their
confidence and achieve sales success with these 7 tips.

7 Tips for Building Confidence in Sales

1. Focus and Build Upon Strength Areas

Confident salespeople know their strengths and they work to develop them. This comes from being
self-aware, not from being arrogant.

Help each sales rep identify an area they naturally excel in, and then coach them to develop it even
further.

This will help them improve in that area, of course. But even more, it will help them build self-
confidence when they’re faced with areas they find challenging (delivering a sales presentation,
for example.)

2. Replace Negative Energy with Positive Influences

One of the best ways your salespeople can build their confidence in sales is to surround themselves
with successful, goal-oriented people. (And get rid of any negative self-talk and negative people
in their lives.)

The sales manager should set the example by being positive and confident themselves, and
avoiding negativity when possible.

Positive, optimistic people motivate us to achieve. Try pairing up new sales reps with a mentor
who can help them develop their skills and build their confidence.

3. Learn from the Success of Others

A mentor is great for this, but sales leaders should work to build a culture in which salespeople
regularly share “tribal knowledge.”
When a member of your sales team achieves success, recognize it and ask them to present their
success story at your next team meeting.

They’ll own that area of expertise and increase their own confidence level. At the same time,
they’ll help their team members to achieve the same success.

4. Master the Fundamentals

People are most confident when they’re doing something they know well.

For sales professionals, that means getting completely comfortable with the sales process. They
should know each stage of the process like the back of their hand.

Effective sales training allows salespeople to make the steps of the sales process a habit, so they
aren’t trying to remember what to do next when they’re with a buyer.

5. Keep an Open Mind

Successful, confident salespeople don’t stagnate and settle for mediocre.

They have a growth mindset and are constantly looking for ways to improve.

Whether that’s through self-help books, creating long-term goals, or taking educational courses,
they keep an open mind and never settle for less than their best.

Often, when we step outside of our everyday routines we’re able to see things in a different light.
Encourage your sales reps to venture out, learn, and bring fresh ideas back to the daily hustle.

6. Become a Subject Matter Expert

To confidently communicate the benefits of your solution to prospects and customers, a

salesperson must be an expert on your product or service.

That’s up to the company to offer adequate product training.

But it’s not enough to be an expert on the solution your company offers. A confident and effective
salesperson will also be an expert on their customer’s industry, so that they’re regarded as a
strategic resource—and not just a product pusher.

Encourage reps to learn as much as possible about the industries you serve so they feel sure of
themselves when calling on buyers.

7. Learn from Successes and Failures

We will all experience success and failure. They’re both a necessary part of life.

It’s how we react and learn from our successes and failures that makes the biggest difference.
When your reps fail at something, coach them to use it to their advantage. They should learn from
it, brush themselves off, and go back out there stronger than before.

When they experience a win, they should do the same thing. Have them examine what went well,
and replicate it in the future.

While a win can provide a confidence level boost, your reps should learn to always be thinking
about the next opportunity on the horizon.

Salesman Dress Tips To Successfully Dominate the New Era

Before you start your pitch, prospect

have already begun to for their opinion
of you and your service. Appearance is
your first impression, which makes
dressing the part so important.

What Is Salesman Attire?

Dress equal to or slightly above

what their prospect is wearing.
Wear something that evokes
trust and familiarity.

Compare yourself to Packaging

Some companies spend millions and millions of dollars to design and create
packaging that has the highest possibility of attracting consumers to their products with
the hope of a purchase being made. Effective packaging captures the consumer’s
attention for longer periods of time, encouraging them to buy.

The same applies to door to door sales representatives. As a

professional salesperson, you’re the “package” that customers see
and interact with, often times even before your product or service.
You have to make this count. You have just 7 seconds to make a
good first impression as 93% of a person’s judgment of others will
be based on non-verbal inputs.

Business Insider found that most decisions made after that 7-second window are based on
the information collected during that short time frame. This doesn’t mean you need to act like
Kanye West and drop millions of dollars on clothes – most of which still look like crap – but first
impressions matter.

Clothing Has Power on Those around You

Clothes can help increase dominance and job performance in high-stakes, competitive
jobs (like door to door sales). This claim is based on a study by Michael W. Kraus, an assistant
professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management.

Kraus’ study consisted of 128 men ages 18 to 32, from diverse backgrounds and various
income levels who participated in a role-playing scenario. They simulated negotiations for the
mock-sale of a factory where the men were divided into three groups based on how they dressed
and what they were wearing:

Group #1 | ‘The Suits’: Business suits and dress shoes

Group #2 | ‘The Sweatpants’: Sweatpants, white t-shirts and plastic sandals

Group #3 | ‘The Neutrals’: “Everyday” wear khakis, collared shirts, and casual shoes
What the Suit Says

The negotiations started with both parties being given a fair-market value for the factory
and other pertinent information that would influence their decisions.

The final results:

1. Suits proved much less willing to concede during negotiations

2. Suits moved off initial offers by an average of $830,000

3. Sweatpants moved off initial offers by an average of $2.81 million

4. Neutrals conceded an average of $1.58 million from their initial offer

The Relation Between Dress And Results Were:

The more casually dressed men tended to back down easily

The more formally dressed men received more respect from others

Once aware of this respect, their negotiations became more forceful

Kraus concluded that in high-pressure, high-stakes situations, wearing clothes closer to the
more formal end of the spectrum signaled to others that “you’re successful and confident in
whatever you’re doing.”

Salesman Dress Tips To Crush Quotas

Sales reps are often given specific shirts to wear by their company, which means choosing
what to wear isn’t an option. Without diving too deep into the nitty-gritty, there’s a few tricks you
can pull out of the ‘ole hat to enhance your wardrobe and inch ever closer to crushing your sales
targets.

1. The Color Wheel

According to MarketingProfs, companies use their colors as a tool to differentiate themselves

from the competition. This helps to increase brand recognition among both current and potential
customers. It’s also a simple and effective way to unify your company’s brand across all channels.

Colors also convey non-verbal messages that evoke certain emotions and feelings. Because of
this, they need to be visually attractive specifically for your target market while setting the right
tone and sending a message of what your product or service is.
Here’s what your company shirt could be conveying to prospects at the door:

Bright Colors = Less serious tone

White = Innocence, cleanliness, simplicity

Black = Power, control, heaviness, expensiveness

Red = Excitement

Yellow = Happiness

Green = Growth and harmony, often associated with eco-friendly

products and services

2. Shoes Matter & Not Just For Looks

There’s a big misconception and false assumption that people don’t notice your shoes. Granted,
it may not be the first thing someone notices, but its part of observing the whole “package.”

Since you’re the package that consumers see, you need to choose the right style of shoes that
match your outfit in order to make a quality first impression. When wearing a suit, you definitely
want to reach for those dress shoes.

When wearing khakis, a euro-type sneaker or nice-looking pair of Nike’s will do. Be sure that
your shoes aren’t raggedy with rips and tears galore. Polish them if necessary and use shoe cleaner
one whites.

Quick Tip: To help

prevent foot, leg and
back pain, wear shoes
that offer proper
support and body
alignment, and
alternate shoes daily
to avoid overuse of
certain muscles and
joints.
Conclusion

There are plenty of variables when it comes to landing a sale, but a salesperson’s personality and
behavior are a significant factor. Sales representatives do well to cultivate traits that help build
relationships and earn trust. It is those personality traits that often help seal the deal and make the
sale.

When your salespeople are confident, they can build confidence in your prospects and customers,
and remove any doubts or fears they may have around your offerings.

Make sure your reps feel self-assured and prepared on every sales call by equipping them with a
standard sales process they can access like second nature.

IMPACT Selling is a buyer-focused sales process that works so well because it’s easy to learn and
apply. And it’s now available in an eLearning format—placing sales effectiveness at your sellers’
fingertips.

---END OF MODULE---

Self-discussions

1. Do you have what it takes to be a successful seller? Yes or No? Explain your answer. If
no, what do you need to do to become one?

2. Enumerate/Research three (3) billionaires in the field of selling. Identify their strategies
used in becoming successful.

3. What do you think are the best strategies to get the best buyers in this time of pandemic?
Explain each strategy.

4. Identify training/s you wanted to attend to improve your personality as a future seller.

Performance Task

1. Make a 3-5 video tutorial on how to dress-up like a professional salesman (with make-
up).

2. Take a whole body picture of yourself showing the proper dress of a professional seller.