Sales Training Aid: Measure Your Potential Quiz

Do You Have What it Takes to be a
Professional Salesperson in the 21st Century?

Measuring Your Aptitude for Professional Selling

Quiz for the 21st Century Salesperson

Selling as a Profession

Measuring Your Aptitude for Professional Selling

Being effective as a professional salesperson is closely related to the nature of your personality. To measure how well your personality fits today's sales environment, score yourself using the following profile from noted sales consultants Herbert and Jeanne Greenburg.

ego drive

2. Have empathy - the ability to tune in to a prospect or subordinate and to accept feedback from that person.
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3. Have ego strength - the ability to rise above the rejection that often comes in sales situations.
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4. Can be forceful without being perceived as pushy.
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5. Can quickly reach decisions.
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6. Can handle detail work.
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7. Am open to new ideas.
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8. Can communicate well with others.
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Score your potential for success by adding up your total scores from the above profile and see where you fall on the sales aptitude scale below. The higher your score in the profile, the more your sales career is for the asking. Apply your interest, attitude, energy, and method, and it will happen.

Quiz for the 21st Century Salesperson

The following quiz, developed for Max Sacks International by Dr. William Cahill, gives you an indication of whether you belong in the sales world of yesterday or the future. Select your answer to each of the following questions, then review the correct answers shown at the bottom of the quiz.

focus in a good sales presentation

a) the reputation of the sales firm
b) the quality of the product offered for sale
c) the customer's needs
d) the monetary savings the product will introduce
e) discounts and special offers

2. The greatest promise of success in sales is offered by which personal quality:

a) empathy
b) persistence
c) resilience
d) aggressiveness
e) friendliness

3. The most important communication skill for salespeople to develop is:

a) speaking
b) reading
c) persuading
d) listening
e) promoting

4. In the increasingly competitive world of tomorrow, the salesperson should concentrate on:

a) overcoming the customer's hesitations and objections
b) closing the sale in a decisive manner
c) getting the customer to sign a contract
d) convincing the customer about product quality
e) establishing a long-term relationship with the customer

5. To become more successful in the field of sales, one must begin to view the customer as:

a) benefactor
b) partner
c) friend
d) adversary
e) student

Answers to Quiz for the 21st Century

Questions

1. The focus in a good sales presentation should be on:

a) the reputation of the sales firm
b) the quality of the product offered for sale
c) the customer's needs
d) the monetary savings the product will introduce
e) discounts and special offers

1. The answer is C. A good sales presentation must focus on the customer's needs. The customer always has some requirement, some problem to solve, some need to fill. The successful salesperson of the future will be one whom the customer comes to regard as a problem-solver.

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2. The greatest promise of success in sales is offered by which personal quality:

a) empathy
b) persistence
c) resilience
d) aggressiveness
e) friendliness

2. The answer is A. Empathy allows a salesperson to understand the problem which a customer faces, and that allows the salesperson to offer viable solutions.

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3. The most important communication skill for salespeople to develop is:

a) speaking
b) reading
c) persuading
d) listening
e) promoting

3. The answer is D. Listening is the only means by which a salesperson can learn what a customer's needs really are. Salespeople frequently listen only long enough to develop a general idea of what they think their potential customers are asking for. At which point they switch to a more assertive mode, trying to convince the customer that their product is just what is needed.

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4. In the increasingly competitive world of tomorrow, the salesperson should concentrate on:

4. The answer is E. It is the ability to create true customers, or long-term clients, which will become the criterion by which professional salespeople of the future will be judged. A salesperson will not simply be judged by how sales can be closed, but also how many of these sales will lead to repeat business.

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5. To become more successful in the field of sales, one must begin to view the customer as:

a) benefactor
b) partner
c) friend
d) adversary
e) student

5. The answer is B. A partner shares the workload, helps find solutions to problems, and a salesperson who acts as partner to his/her customers shares in their success.

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Scoring
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If you answered all five correctly, you have an orientation towards sales, which, if properly developed, should lead to success as a sales professional in the years ahead.

If you answered four correctly, your sales orientation is basically sound.

However, you may need some further exposure to the concepts of partnership selling.

If you answered two or three correctly, you are caught between the past and future, you would undoubtedly benefit from a training program which stresses: future-oriented techniques. Then you would need to go out and put these into practice in order to convince yourself that they really can work for you.

If you scored less than two correctly, your sales orientation is clearly locked in yesteryear. Unless you become re-oriented toward the marketplace of tomorrow, you may face obsolescence in the very near future. However, the bright side is that, if you do receive training in partnership selling techniques, you will see a rapid improvement in your selling skills.

To learn more about selling in the future,
see FutureSell: A selling Guide for the 21st Century Salesperson™

Selling As A Profession

If you have a favorable aptitude for sales, and you understand what it takes to be a professional salesperson in the 21st century, your job opportunity is backed by a strong job demand. You can make it to the top of this growing market as a professional salesperson, regardless of age, sex, color, experience, or formal education. Career Opportunities Research by Herbert and Jeanne Greenberg in Harvard Business Review found the following

When comparing on-the-job performance of people ages 40 and above, with that of their counterparts under 40, there were no statistically significant differences.
Virtually the same percentage of men and women performed in the top quartile of their sales force after 6 months and 14 months.
Ethnic minorities perform on-the-job as well as their white associates.
With effective training and supervision, the person without previous sales experience is as likely to succeed as the experienced salesperson.
People with little education can do the job as effectively and as readily as those with college degrees.

It's ironic that despite these solid opportunities, the reality is that most people don't expend the energy necessary to build successful careers. That's why selling often communicates a mixed, unprofessional public image. Most anyone can apply for a sales job. Many companies don't require special training or education for salespersons.

Many people, and some managers, look upon salespeople as fast talkers, flakes or floaters. Job-hunters, looking to get-rich-quick, apply for an opening, quit, and drift from one company to another. Even unemployed college students take sales jobs to tide them over, until they land a good job. College surveys show that selling as an occupation ranks at the bottom. What a dreary picture this paints.

On the upside, despite its poor public image, business leaders tell us selling can lead to excellent career opportunities. Selling can provide a person with purpose and a healthy income. Peak performers revel in rewards from management. They have few problems landing top jobs. But, if you're looking for success, you have to stretch your skills and steer a different course in your thinking and planning than the average sales person. You have to do what it takes to improve your abilities. Otherwise, you will wallow in mediocrity.

A great salesperson once observed, "When selling becomes a procedure it ceases to be a problem. If it's not a procedure, it'll always be a problem." A sales professional follows a procedure. Max Sacks International has developed a proven sales procedure, the seven steps of the Track Selling System™ http://www.maxsacks.com/traksell.html.