“How Do I Know I Have What It Takes?”

I’m currently working as a salesperson. This is my first job; I’ve been told many times over the years that I’d be good at sales, and it seemed like the best way to support my family without any formal training. It’s been about six months, and honestly, it’s not going that well. I’m starting to question all the predictions I heard as a kid about my sales talent. Is there a way to know if I have what it takes to succeed in this industry?

—Not Yet Sold on Sales

IF everyone says something, it must be true, right? Until you listen to the most frequent comments I hear in my office about sales….

People have spent their lives being told or believing things like: “Oh, you’re so outgoing, you’d make a great salesperson!” “You’re too honest, you could never sell anything!” “I’m just not the aggressive type, I don’t think sales is for me,” or “I was never the kid who made lemonade stands or sold things during recess — I’m not a natural salesperson.”

If these statements were all based on fact, we’d have to conclude that a successful salesperson must be an extroverted, aggressive, dishonest, manipulative, born-to-sell kinda person. Luckily, that image is just a caricature of the stereotypical salesperson, and definitely not an accurate barometer for judging the field.

Dishonest, aggressive people might sell once, but never twice. In reality, sales is about being able to develop trusting relationships. Although it’s helpful to have inborn sales skills, and 70 percent of successful salespeople do, the other 30 percent of top salespeople rely on training as opposed to their innate natures. Both introverts and extroverts can do really well in the profession; it’s just that they’ll typically go about that in different ways.