Four basic types of sales professionals exist in any industry: the rookie, the incompetent, the salesperson, and the problem solver, according to a white paper released by LePhair Associates entitled The 4 Types of Sales Professional and Why Yours Need Training To Be the Best.
What type of salesperson are you? And where do your colleagues fit within this typology?
The Rookie
All sales professionals begin as rookies. The rookies typically know little or nothing about the art of selling, but they make up for that in enthusiasm and persistence.
“In the traditional makeup of most sales offices, the rookie is the main line selling force and most sales professionals are people with less than four years of experience in their industry,” the white paper notes. “Most newcomers to sales will either wash out or get promoted within the first two or three years of their starting. The rookie often loses the status when he or she is promoted to Sales Manager.”
While such a promotion removes the “new guy” stigma, it puts the rookie in charge of several, even newer sales professionals. So essentially a newcomer is now in charge of other less-experienced newcomers, potentially creating incompetent emplyees.
The Incompetent
“We all know who the incompetent sales professionals are – they’re the ones that we, as their colleagues, would never buy from," the paper states. They may not realize that they are largely inept at their jobs, but their low sales figures and horrible retention rates speak for themselves.”
The incompetent sales professional often just learned a lot of bad habits as a rookie and never really received good training (or enough training). Their good intentions were overshadowed by mistakes due to a lack of knowledge.
The Salesperson
The salesperson is defined as “the professional who closes sales like no tomorrow and could sell ice to Eskimos.” Alas, the salesperson also has a dismal retention rate with customers who bought then changed their minds.
The salesperson is really good at finding new customers and selling them. But once the deal is done, the saleperson loses interest and has little ability -- or regard -- for follow up and relationship building.
That's because the salesperson is focused on the commission and rarely sees past the initial signup bonus. The actual needs of the customer are secondary to making the sale.
The Problem Solver
The problem solver has stuck it out through the rookie years and managed to avoid becoming incompetent or lazy.
The problem solver has the energy and persistence of the rookie agent, finds and sells to customers like the salesperson, and then sticks with those customers until the right solution is found.
Unlike the salesperson, the problem solver doesn't just sell to sell. He or she actually spends the time with the client to find out what exactly is needed first. Building and maintaining relationships takes time, so problem solvers' sales volumes may not be as high as the pure salesperson's.
On the other hand, the problem solver will have excellent retention rates. The broker will have pinpointed the customer's need to start with, and continue to follow up and build relationships and loyalty.
Where Should You Be?
Good sales training at any brokerage should aim to create problem-solvers, the white paper says. “Five problem solvers can take the place of scores of rookies, hundreds of incompetents, and with superior retention rates can beat salespeople three to one.”
