The Anatomy of a Complete Sales Consultant: 5 Fundamental Skills

Professional baseball players often have a specific super skill, whatever it may be, that leads to stardom.

This content is a translation of  The Anatomy of A 5 Tool Sales Consultant , written by our VP of sales at Rock Content, Matt Doyon, and posted on his blog.

You can also see that in a sales team, where  reps  often develop and seek recognition for having extraordinary ability that makes them deliver good results.

Many of them are communicators who overcome through the power of persuasion. Others are simply more “aggressive” than everyone else and build their way to the limit. There is still the rare species of observers who are always hunting something.

And finally, there is that seller who has a little of each skill gathered in a single professional.

In baseball, a player who meets the main characteristics is called a  5 tool player , something like “the complete 5-function player”.

In sales, the 5 functions of a consultant is what makes the sales representative complete.

That is the type of representative who has all the necessary strengths and who alone would already provide a good performance.

However, when they coexist in a single person, these 5 functions lead to maximum success.

In this post, I am going to show you the 5 functions of the anatomy of a complete sales representative:

1. Emotional intelligence

The  emotional intelligence  is at the core of everything a complete sales representative says and does.

It can be defined as the  ability to understand and manage emotions efficiently, in oneself and in others.

To generate empathy, communicate and solve problems efficiently, emotional intelligence is based on 4 main pillars: self-perception, self-administration, social perception and social administration.

According to an  article by the NIH  (National Institute of Health),  emotional intelligence is 4 times more important than a high IQ when it comes to achieving professional success.

That’s the super valuable mindset of a complete sales representative.

This is the skill that most consultants (especially low performers) seek.

They note that the most outstanding colleague, the  top performer , always stays in control, coordinates difficult negotiations efficiently, handles objections intelligently, and most importantly, delivers incredible numbers, month by month, quarter by quarter. , every year.

2. The sales process

A complete sales representative knows where you are in any conversation. Understand what has already been said and what still needs to be done to progress.

Regardless of using a method of organization or simply making a mental list, follow the steps of a well-defined sales process and do not deviate from the path that has already proven to bring maximum results.

The  sales process  is the result of a complete sales representative. There is a secret engineer living within that type of salesperson, he is what inexperienced observers usually call “an artist in sales”.

However, that is not a good definition. The sales process is something that can be explained, learned, taught and replicated for constant improvement.

The efficiency of a complete sales consultant comes from your mastery in knowing exactly what step to take and when to maximize profit.

It is what lets you know when to ask for more information and when to present it. It’s what tells you when to spend the most time on a potential sale and when to put it aside.

A clear sales process is the key model for the entire conclusion of a full sales representative’s business.

3. Tirelessly prospecting

Concluding a sale is something that can be done anytime, anywhere.  A complete sales consultant understands and uses that as a fuel that fuels their activities.

The consultant works even harder and smarter than most of the sales reps around him, and is constantly opening new opportunities through all possible channels.

Jeb Blount talks more about that essential skill in his book  Fanatical Prospecting .

Beyond a pipeline to generate actions, tireless and determined prospecting is about the mindset of the sales representative, the sales philosophy and the approach in the way of managing the business.

There is never a bad time for a fanatic prospector.

When a lead inbound appears, the consultant runs to contact him. If there are no qualified leads at the moment, you will work on an outbound scheme to find prospects, carefully selecting the ideal consumer and addressing them with well-prepared calls and emails.

And the recommendations still exist.  A complete sales representative runs after every opportunity to build a recommendation pipeline.

As soon as a new client signs the contract, they ask for recommendations. If a customer receives the product or completes the onboarding, ask for recommendations.

As those in the service and support team develop the QBR, ask for recommendations. When a customer scores high on the NPS, they take the opportunity to appreciate the positive feedback and ask for recommendations.

A customer has a problem that can be solved quickly, take the opportunity to help them and ask for recommendations. When the client renews the contract or does an upsell, ask for recommendations.

Whether it’s to tell the company and product news, congratulate the customer on their home time anniversary, or just wish them a “Happy New Year”, a fanatic prospector is always looking for recommendations, recommendations and more recommendations.

Check out our selection of content to inspire you to generate more sales opportunities for your business!
• Sales techniques: how to conquer your customers?
• How to deal with sales objections?
• Sales Speech: 5 communication techniques with potential clients
• 8 skills necessary for a successful sales executive
• Types of sales: which ones exist and how are they different?
• Sales process: how to structure it to generate solid results
• Marketing and sales: how to integrate them to generate more profits?

4. Insatiable curiosity

People’s purchasing decisions are based on their  own reasons and motivations  and not those of a sales representative.

The best sellers understand that question and often ask more than present, listen more than talk, and diagnose more than prescribe.

A complete sales representative is, by nature, insatiably curious. You want to genuinely know more about the person you are talking to and really care about understanding what is going on.

Have fun naturally with the process of solving the puzzle. You want to understand the problem and find the solution.

Each new  stakeholder  in a sale is a new opportunity to explore more, understand deeply, and prescribe with an understanding of the whole context.

Not only does it say or teach, rather, it involves the client in solving the problem and building that solution, maximizing the client’s understanding, their confidence in the result and making them buy their idea and follow the best possible path.

For a full sales representative to be extremely curious, it is not enough to start and end on phone calls. You must be curious in your own work, constantly criticizing and requesting evaluations from other professionals.

It is in a day of endless self-improvement.  He is hungry to learn more about the latest trends, techniques and technologies.

The curious sales representative is often the first to use the new tools available to work more efficiently. He is an avid reader and looking for mentors to help him expand and enrich his knowledge, never being satisfied with having the game fully understood.

5. Perseverance and passion

If you haven’t seen  Angela Duckworth’s Ted Talk yet , I recommend that you do so immediately. You saw it? Look at it again.

Grit, in English, is a word that goes well with the senses of passion and perseverance.

Doing something passionately determined means having perseverance and energy for a long period of time to achieve long-term results.

It is the mindset that allows people to do the same activities multiple times with focus instead of frustration.

A complete sales representative is passionate and persevering.

It recovers from losses quickly and continues to move forward forever. Celebrate victories quickly and then return to work. He does not continue to travel to established truths and seeks new angles to attack the problem until he finds a gap, that opening in the wall. When he loses, he swaps the left hook for the right jab and continues to fight until he gets the title.

Finding the complete sales representative

In any profession, the best, the  top performers , perform various activities at a high level for a long period of time.

Some of you, as contributors, want to bring those five skills together for maximum performance. Others are here looking for the next great professional for their sales team.

Over the next five weeks, I’ll post a series of five posts to delve a little deeper into each of those key elements of a full sales rep and explore those features further.