The 4 Essential Traits of Wildly Successful Sales People

The 4 Essential Traits of Wildly Successful Sales People

Are great sales people born this way or can they learn?

Given I’ve just spent time with the best in my business, I have been asking myself this very question.

Every year at Kuoni we treat our top sellers to a VIP trip. This year it was to Mauritius and Dubai.

It’s a great opportunity to have fun with a fabulous group of people. I’m so proud of what they’ve achieved.

But it’s my job to analyse what makes them so good and so we can look for others with these traits as well as teach others what they do.

There are four traits that make these sales superheroes so successful.

And although some of them were born with them, most are learnable skills (although some a lot harder to adopt than others).

And some of them might surprise you…

1.     They Care (Obsessively)

They really care about delivering exceptional holidays for their customers.

In fact, I think they might care more than they do about their own holidays!

Take Sharna. She worked at Kuramathi (a Kuoni exclusive island in the Maldives) for 4 years before joining our Metro store.

She honed a real talent for handling customers out in resort, often in some really challenging situations. As a result, she has an army of devoted customers.

Or Zoe.  There’s nothing that Zoe wouldn’t do for her customers,

In fact, when in Mauritius, she convinced the driver on trip to take a detour to check something out specifically for a repeat customer!

Vicky’s warmth, bubbliness and confidence are a winning formula and a hit with her customers in Milton Keynes. Vicky passionately communicates her love for the Kuoni brand and what it stands for to anyone who’ll listen!

Outstanding service is critically important to these guys. They pride themselves on achieving excellent service scores.

No stone unturned, no task too difficult in the quest for the ultimate holiday experience of their customers.

2.     They Have a Thirst for Knowledge

Amy had never worked in travel before coming to Kuoni quite recently and she’s a top seller already.

How?

She has a thirst for self-development and knowledge building.

Similarly, Zoe is a sponge for knowledge - asking for maps, taking pictures of every room and restaurant, asking great questions to take in as much as possible.

She told me “The expert in my job title is a lot of live up to and I want to do my best to deliver to that.” What an attitude!

Dani, who came to us after roles as cabin crew and running nightclubs, lights up the room and has a passion for building her knowledge bank. She learns the smallest of details to really catch customers attention.

“Customers love it when I tell them they get access to their very own GoPro at Kandolhu (Kuoni exclusive island in the Maldives) and they can use it for the whole trip to take amazing under water shots.”

People need to understand that if they want to be the best at what they do, they can’t stand still. They need to keep on learning.

As a business, we can make learning as easy as possible for the team to access.

BUT it’s clear that you have to have a natural passion for self development which is ‘always on’. That bit is harder to teach.

3.     They Build Relationships

Adele credits her ex-Manager Roberto Balasco for her adept relationship building skills.

“Roberto’s advice to me was to get to know everyone at head office, to build connections. That way you can access a network of people who can help you and get things done faster.”

Adele goes to great lengths to connect with her customers even keeping abreast of the football scores. She can hold a good football conversation despite having no interest in football herself.

So, do you need to recruit a team of extroverts?

No, not all stereotypically outgoing as you may expect.

But what strikes me is how inquisitive they all are in other people, be it suppliers, customers, each other.

They ask lots of great questions and show genuine interest and care then reference that knowledge in conversation later. 

Curiosity is not something that can be taught. It is something that can be nurtured. 

People are happy to talk about themselves and you just need to coach your team to ask the right questions.

4.     They Have a Competitive Streak

This group could literally turn any given situation into a competition!

Jaime’s passion for making her customers happy shines like a beacon, as does her drive to deliver outstanding sales. “I am motivated to continually beat my own results and chase down others on the top sellers report to get back on to next year’s top sellers trip”

Emma is relentless at making a sale. Her rise to fame as top sales person of the VCC came almost from nowhere.

She works around the clock and is always on duty to be available to her agents and customers. She’s also a master at follow up.

Sam L is famous for her incredible service and charm and rightly holds others accountable for not matching her standards.

She carefully plans when she takes her holidays to maximise revenue and commission for the year.

Sharna’s drive to succeed and progress her career is palpable. 

Natalie has a calming manner and works part time (just 2 days one week three days the next). Amy describes her as “a machine”.  Efficient and highly knowledgeable, she has mastered how to be uber productive.

Sam W is also an example of calm, understated confidence but she has an obvious drive to succeed. 

Michelle couldn’t really answer why she’s a top seller, yet the way she talks, it’s clear that she oozes confidence and assertiveness.

They all want to be, and expect to be, successful.

Can you teach someone to be super driven and competitive? I believe that it is a spark that can be lit and all the better if you are exposed to someone with these qualities and open to learning from them. 

The success of this very special group of people is all the more remarkable as they juggle work (which clearly means a lot to them) with life and for many of them, kids too. 

They’re incredibly positive, likeable people with infectious personalities, with sometimes bizarre hobbies (Emma has two pet chinchillas and is always chasing them around the house!) and some have certainly developed a taste for the finer things in life (Jaime always has 4 bottles of Veuve Clicquot in her fridge at any given time).

So, there you have it, the 4 traits of sales people who are WILDLY successful. 

In fact, many of them have been so successful, they’ve progressed to new roles within Kuoni.

And we’re excited to help others to step up and fill their shoes.