Sales consultants are considered the backbone of the company, so their skills and traits are the centers of the company’s success. Their role is essential to the company’s revenues, an increase in profit, and maintenance of income flow. Therefore many CEOs seek to find the best candidates for the sales consultant position and ensure that the entire team has the necessary qualifications.
This profession is somewhat popular among fresh graduates, but finding an adequate candidate in the pool of potential employees can be very difficult. This process is even more challenging if the market is big and you have to deal with many candidates in a very competitive environment.
Keeping this in mind, we will dedicate this blog to helping you hire the best candidates by sharing some of the essential skills and traits you should seek.
So let’s begin!
Who is Sales Consultant?
A sales consultant is a professional who specializes in marketing and sales strategy for goods and services. The duties of consultants are somewhat similar to the responsibilities of sales representatives and can include providing information and selling products and services to customers.
They act as a liaison between businesses and their clients, making suggestions for goods and services while ensuring client needs are satisfied. They frequently establish and achieve goals for their sales crew.
At the core of their duties, consultants learn the products and services offered and set targets for the sales department. The best sales consultants have a great relationship with the marketing sector to prepare strategies and monitor sales and metrics.
Additionally, they are expected to analyze market trends, monitor competition, and ensure that the team is motivated to perform and meet targets.
Skills and Traits of Successful Sales Consultants
Possessing the appropriate abilities when meeting prospects as a sales consultant is essential. These skills and traits fit into different categories. Some of the skills we will mention can be considered part of one’s persona, and some people use them efficiently. These can be classified as personality traits.
Meanwhile, other categories of skills require years spent in perfecting them. Examples of these skills can be visible when we say that a person is organized, analytical and detail-oriented. These can often be divided into analytical and communicational categories.
Keep reading to understand each of these categories better, what it takes to achieve them and why they are relevant for the sales consultant position.
Analytical Skills
Analytical skills are one of the essential categories for anyone working in sales. This group of skills is relevant for achieving disciplined behavior and results. Also, skills that fall under this category help sales consultants preempt problems, react promptly and assess situations for the benefit of your business.
First in this category of skills is an actual analytical mindset. Usually, sales consultants who obtain these skills have gained experience.
According to trusted sales training companies, customers are more likely to be receptive to fact-driven, insightful, and professional salespeople who know to recognize needs and adapt to them.
Therefore, being analytical and observant often brings a solution to customer needs, which is the main idea behind their service. This skill is closely related to the two fundamental traits that sales consultants should obtain: being organized and detail-oriented.
Sales consultants must keep each deal on track while managing multiple accounts/customers simultaneously. That entails participating in the appropriate meetings, showing up prepared, and being up-to-date with information such as prices, inventory, competitors, leads, and top sales methodologies.
Similarly, being diligent in the performance of your tasks is also an essential skill that is necessary for sales consultants. The best sales consultants perform their tasks on time and are responsible and disciplined, ensuring they never quit and get the job done.
Diligent consultants continue working with clients to build personal relationships, transforming prospects into loyal customers. Staying on top of leads and making quick follow-ups are essential for closing sales.
The essence of selling is aligning a customer’s requirements with a particular commodity or service that fulfills those requirements and that your company can offer. Many things can go wrong, and problems may occur. A good sales consultant has the necessary skill to recognize and address these issues promptly.
The best way to resolve an issue is to have an open mind, making it easier for sales consultants to imagine original solutions. A sales consultant can, therefore, quickly adapt to new circumstances rather than being stuck in their ways.
Lastly, being comfortable with the latest technical developments and implementing them in day-to-day business is something you want to see consultants do. Primarily this is because all successful and modern enterprises keep up with technologies, but also because you can take advantage of the benefits technology offers and make more profit.
Communication Skills
Maybe the most critical set of skills that sales consultants should have is the ability to communicate well. Sales consultants must communicate persuasively and effectively with both clients and colleagues.
It is essential because the core of the selling process revolves around persuading customers using strong verbal and written communication. The entire process is fostered by using adequate language to make the product more pleasing to the customers.
A good sales consultant knows how to shape the storyline and communicate the best trait to achieve their goal: selling. It means that a consultant can explain the value in a way that makes the customer see it.
In communicating the message to customers, sales consultants are required to have powerful public speaking skills. You should expect that the consultant is confident and well-spoken when they are making arguments and demonstrating a product. It portrays their calmness and assurance, reflected by the customers, which is what you want to see.
Relating to the communicating message to customers, a sales consultant should also demonstrate active listening abilities concerning the message communicated to customers. It is particularly crucial while speaking to a client on the phone because they can’t observe your body language or eye contact.
With good communication also comes great relationships building as essential skills. A good relationship between a sales consultant and a customer results in more outstanding quality and quantity of sales. Therefore consultants should be able to discuss different topics and share details to build good relationships and maintain clients.
Similarly, rapport building also leads to more trust between the sales consultant and the customer. In this manner, customers will better take the salesperson’s advice, which is why this represents a great skill that your consultant should have.
Personality Traits
Some skills we mentioned before have all been in the domain of learned or acquired knowledge. Sales consultants are sometimes naturally gifted and quickly grasp all analytical and communication skills. On the other hand, certain personality features cannot be trained, which are equally crucial for any consultant and give them certain advantages.
One of the most important ones is charisma. It is what sets average sales consultants apart from great ones. A consultant sells himself and your product, so customers are more inclined to buy from charismatic, open people.
Attitude is also essential, so it is relevant for your sales consultants to ease into the sale with a warm introduction. Using engaging language, smiling, and doing your best to convey a friendly and non-threatening aura might help.
Optimism here comes to light. Optimistic consultants will get more attention from buyers faster and easier than pessimistic sales reps. In addition, optimists are known for their perseverance. They don’t give up on rejection and tend to encourage future sales, making your business thrive in the long run.
Even though this is the personality we are talking about, you should seek a consultant who has worked on himself and practiced positive language and wise choice of words.
Conclusion
Finding a great sales consultant is a long and exhausting process that requires patience and extensive research. Knowing what you are looking for in a person besides academic background and experience is very relevant.
Therefore, opting for a great communicator who is an optimistic, thorough person who catches details and knows his job well is the key to success.
We hope our outline helped you establish a baseline for the searching process and that this helped you understand the best skills and traits that a great sales consultant has to have.
