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to win all the time. And when they lose, they need to be able to get right back on that horse. Also, they have to have great follow-through.
Kennedy: I think also you have to realize that not everybody should be your client. You have to figure out who you can help, and help those people
and really build those relationships. But if people don’t respect you and your knowledge and your advice and your advisement to them, just move on. There is always someone else to help.
Panarella: Having people skills is definitely the number-one priority to even remotely think about getting into sales. If you’re not that people person, and you’re not able to handle the good times with the bad, you need to find something else to do.
Metzger: If you are in a sales role, you face a lot of rejection, and so you have to have buoyancy—resiliency, too, because you have to be willing not to win every time. And if you don’t have that, you’re going to just beat yourself up every night.
Bagliebter: In the banking field, it’s critical to have some specific technical skills [to succeed in sales]—analysis of credit and things like that. But, I also agree that it comes down to being a very good people person and being responsive, developing relationships, and knowing how to become that trusted advisor.
Ryan: And, of course, communication is really important. But, the other side of effective sales is someone who can listen well and is able to translate: This is what they are saying, but this is what they might have meant. I think active listening and asking questions can
Qoften make a sale or [can lead to] an even more powerful sale.
Schork: Is a sale just a sale, regard- less of what you’re selling, or does it require a customized approach, based on the specific industry you’re in?
Kennedy: I think if you’re a success- ful salesperson, you could jump into another industry, as long as you really educated yourself and you had access
to all the tools that will make you the most informed person in that particular field. When people ask me why are you so successful as a real estate broker, I say I’m a businessperson and that my product happens to be real estate.
Panarella: I feel that if you’re good at sales, you could definitely uproot yourself and go into another business selling just about anything, with the proper education and leadership behind you. Given the right tools, I don’t think it’s a problem at all.
Ryan: I agree that the skills are very transferable, but the selling could be very different. Selling a $14.99 12-pack of Heineken or Dos Equis is a certain type of sale, with a low-risk/reward profile. Whereas, with insurance poli- cies or houses, cars or banking services, the duration of the sale, the duration
of prep work, the relationship manage- ment, the time to close the sale, is so different for different industries.
Metzger: I would agree, generally. If you’re good at sales, you can translate that into other businesses. But, I don’t know if I personally could, because I go back to what I was saying earlier about purpose and passion. We recent- ly became a purpose-driven organiza- tion, and I’ve 100 percent bought into that. Maybe I could sell houses or sell
QHeineken, but I don’t think I would be as good at it.
Schork: How much of sales is a team effort versus an individual effort?
Bagliebter: Definitely, it’s a team effort. We have to involve a num- ber of different people who have different aspects of bringing our products to the client.
Panarella: Of course it’s a team. In the car business, there are so many steps, with so many individu- als touching that one customer. It’s only a smooth process if you have everybody on
the same page to help the customer.
“You have to love
challenges. Love
the unknown; love
the ambiguous;
love the tall order
that seems almost
insurmountable. That’s
the drive that good
salespeople have.”
—Mike Ryan, VP, Sales Strategy & Shopper Marketing, HEINEKEN USA
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