All salespeople are different. All salespeople are not perfect. Even the top salesperson has his/her own weaknesses. But what makes them outsell you is that they capitalize on their strengths and downplay their own weaknesses. They use their strengths to make it work for them.
How to make use of your strengths?
Firstly, you need to know exactly what your strengths and weaknesses are. Do up a very honest list of all your strengths and weaknesses.
These are lists of my own strengths and weaknesses as a salesperson.
Strengths
- Friendly
- Authentic
- Strong Mentality
- Good-listener
- Positive attitude
- Approachable
- Funny
- Likable
Weaknesses
- Poor Follow Up
- Empathize too much with the customer
- Unconfident
- Lazy
- Hate to sell
- Uncomfortable when talking about money
- Talk too fast
- Don’t look trustworthy and professional
- Impatient
- Impulsive
Know your strengths and use your strengths
Capitalizing on your strengths don’t mean that you don’t have to improve on your own weaknesses. It only means that while taking time to work on your weaknesses, use more of what you are already good at.
Personally, what I do best is that I talk to every customer like they are my friends. I build relationships with people. I can be as candid and humorous with them as I would be to my friends.
For example, because of the fact that I hate to sell, I choose to believe in the product that I am selling and is useful to my customer. Therefore, instead of selling, what I do is recommending something that is genuinely helpful to my customer.
All you need to do is to pick out your best strengths and use it to your advantage. Everyone definitely has strengths that can be useful in sales. There is no such thing that you are not suited to do sales. The only thing is that you have not realized that your strengths exist at all. Even the shyest and introverted person can do sales.
Improving your weaknesses
What should you do to improve your weaknesses? Ask for genuine opinions from the people around you. Learn from the top performers. Even if they are not willing to share, observe the things they do and learn from them. You will have to make a conscious effort to work on them.
However, you can’t rush to improve on all your weaknesses at once. You will have to take time to focus on removing 1 weakness at a time. Most of these weaknesses are habits that are already stuck with you.
Just like myself, it’s so difficult to slow down my speed of talking. People always feel rushed and stressed talking to me. It is a habit that I still have difficulty getting rid of. I do, however, try to take a deep breath and consciously slow down (when I do remember).
So what are your strengths and weaknesses?
