Persistence, Reliability, and Positivity are Characteristics of a Great Salesman

Yes, persistence is key because you want someone who is constantly spot on with messaging and consistent with his or her words. If you have someone who waffles and goes back and forth in a wavering manner, then customers will see right through that. A client can sense when a sales person is uncertain of himself or herself, and that can be a fatal blow for any sales organization.

Now one of the more overlooked traits in a sales person is their reliability. Ask yourself; does this person show up every day with the same fire and consistency as they did on day one? Do they have what it takes to be here every day and seize every opportunity in front of them? If so, you have the potential for a successful salesman.

The last quality to emphasize and look for in interviews is a personality that exudes positivity. You can't have people who are negative, talk bad about personal issues or old employers. You need someone who finds the positive in everything and can spread that positivity to the rest of the team. Negativity can be cancer to a successful sales team and will have detrimental effects.

Finding a sales candidate that has charm, personality and wit can truly be a winning factor for a sales team. This trait can encourage better rapport-building with customers and open new networking opportunities between companies and clients. It has been said that people who smile while they talk project a sense of comfort. 

Shane Bohannon has completed training in business management consulting at George S. May in Chicago, Illinois. He has successfully managed large sales teams for corporate business and now run his travel firm, Global Concepts

Planning a Vacation Destination

The possibilities are endless when it comes to choosing a vacation destination. What you have to base your decision making on are your preferences that are available and necessary. The options are open to nature, beaches, local attractions, historical landmarks and much more. If you're looking for a tropical vacation, you have more options to consider globally. If you are looking more into the national level outdoors stuff, you have several national parks that offer camping, hiking, mountain biking and much more.

When considering your next choice on vacation plans, you will want to consider the weather, seasons you are visiting and any other local requirements. Weather is critical because you don't want to show up to hurricane season in shorts and a tank top. By researching the seasons you can get ahead of the weather but also get an understanding of local amenities and their availability. Activities like fishing could be better during certain seasons and hiking may not be wise in blizzard-like weather.

Once you've decided on a location, you can research the travel aspect, which is usually boiled down to airfare costs. However, there are the options of renting a car or taking a train as well. Airfare is the most likely scenario unless you enjoy road trips. That being said, the further in advance you book your airfare, the better chances you'll have of getting better prices and good seats.

Accommodations are necessary unless you have friends in that location that you can stay with. Finding a hotel in a location that is convenient for you is critical. You don't want to lug things around across town if it's avoidable. Finding a hotel is easy on the Internet but often those deals you see online can be padded and misleading, and without the right research you could find yourself in a very ugly and uncomfortable situation. Do the research, lock in the dates and work with your budget.

The best approach is to find a Travel Agent, who can do all of these things for you while offering the best deals while having the most insight into local attractions and amenities. Shane Bohannon is one of the best travel industry experts available and has over 20 years of experience in this industry.

Effective Team Training Tips

Emphasizing Ethics is a great start to your training curriculum. There are many ways to deliver training to your employees but before doing so you want to embed all of the standards and expectations you have for your team. This moment to display your team ethics and company value is a chance to develop a mindset in your team that is unified. 

Messaging is critical to success as every team member must be consistently accurate and knowledgeable in the company's mission and the market value of the service or product. Perception is important when you are facing customers, and even if your role isn't a customer-facing role, you have to acknowledge that everything you work for is to leave a positive impression on your customers.

Of course, every team has to have goals, even those new hires who are hired to stop the bleeding or fix a problem. When you create milestones and goals, you give a reason for incentive for your team. You also give them a means for which hey can track their progress and highlight their development. When review time comes, you should be spending less time talking about perception and more time reviewing accomplishments and strengths.

If you can establish your team and have a mix of roles where some are more experienced than others, then it's a great idea to pair them up from time to time. If you have people already in functioning roles, you can have new hires shadow them for a few days. This method helps develop strong senior leaders on your team that can be extremelyhelpful. Having several methods and personalities will allow a new hire to learn new techniques and understand the team chemistry.

Shane Bohannon of Global Concepts has been a top producing sales executive for over 15 years.

Sales Messaging and the Golden Pitch

The first step to sales messaging is to put together a value proposition. Now the value proposition isn't always perfect at first but it explains who you are, why you are relevant, how your offering is a solution to a widespread problem and why a customer should trust you.

In establishing who you are, you are essentially knocking on the door the same way a salesman would. You may introduce yourself as a person or a representative of the company. Introductions are usually coupled with some phrase or sentence that helps you connect with your audience. For example, "Hi Tom, my name is John Smith, and I'm with Acme Company. I noticed you were a member of a LinkedIn group that I also joined three years ago."

This type of introduction helps you establish your identity and also a connection that can trigger some questions from your potential buyer. You want to trigger questions, as the more you engage with a prospect, the more information you can relay to them. Now the next step in this process is to establish your intent and deliver a message that resonates.
The most important piece of a golden pitch isn't to wow your customer and make them throw money at you. The idea of a golden pitch is to build trust and establish yourself as the expert in that field. You are working on building a relationship where you can relay information to them, and they can learn from you. Educated buyers make better buying decisions and often you can convince a customer to pick your product over a competitor simply because you have educated them on the process better than your competitor.

The only way a golden pitch can establish a sense of trust and integrity is to be consistent. Your messaging must be consistent across the board meaning your business cards, your website, your voicemails must all convey a very similar message that helps brand you along with your product.

If you can synonymously identify your product solution with a widespread challenge that your customers want to be addressed, you will always get a callback. The reason is, they will always look for your product and your service to be the expert in that field. 

Shane Bohannon is now the Chief Executive Officer and owner of his travel company, Global Concepts