Salespeople are some of the most beloved characters in Hollywood.

Salespeople make for great characters in movies. They’re usually depicted as successful, persuasive, with a lot of money and a dominant personality.

But in real life, people have a very different impression of salespeople. They’re characterized as being sleazy, pushy, or even unethical.

Why is there such a big divide between “Hollywood salespeople” and what we see in real life?

The truth is, salespeople on TV possess certain characteristics and personality traits that the average salesperson just doesn’t have.

Much of this comes down to mindset.

Here are a few key traits that separate great salespeople that win the respect of the masses from the rest...
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Confidence

Confidence in sales comes from a few things:

First is knowing your own value as a salesperson. Even if you’re not great at sales yet, you’re playing an important role — you’re helping diagnose your prospect’s problems and seeing if you can help fix them. That intent alone makes you valuable.

Second is knowing your product’s value. If your product is good, then you have an obligation to sell.

Third is knowing your sales process. If you’re prepared with a sales script and a process for moving your prospects forward, then you’ll have more confidence in asking them to move on to the next step in your process.

Lastly, you want to know your prospect and how to clarify what you don’t know about them. This way, you can tailor your pitch to their specific situation when it comes time to share information about your product.
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Courage

Part of courage is being able to stomach rejection after rejection and still keep getting back up again.

But it’s more than that.

Courage is also the ability to be vulnerable and honest — especially when your product isn’t the right fit for your prospect, or when they say things that are unexpected or just plain wrong.
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Coachability

Being coachable means that you’re secure in yourself, who you are, and your value as a salesperson.

Having a growth mindset and a constant drive to improve won’t just make you a better salesperson — it’ll help you bring out different “vibe” on your sales calls.
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Consistency

Most great salespeople don’t always feel like they’re on top of the world.

Sometimes, they don’t feel like being disciplined. They don’t always want to be focused.

But they do it anyway.

Great salespeople are able to deliver great results regardless of what they feel.
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Curiosity

The best salespeople are extremely empathetic — and curiosity is the root of that empathy.

Dig into your prospect’s problems and understand how they’re solving them currently, and what specifically you could do to help them get better results.

These concepts are easy to talk about — yet it’s another thing to really “get” them.

So go practice, practice and practice some more.
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