I have worked as a resource manager for 3 months and a part-time sales person for 1 month. One day a colleague asked me a question, ” do you know how to be a good salesman?”. I hesitated for a while and found no answer.

Yeah, I have no clue how to do sales and be good at it. And the most difficult part for me is to find new customers which might be the hardest for all the sales person.

I never experienced making cold calls or paying a blind visit because I was too shy and didn’t have the courage to do that. I even don’t have a LinkedIn or Facebook account through which I could contact the potential customers.

What an unqualified sales person I am! If you want to be great in sales, please pay enough attention to below key qualities a good sales person should have.

1. Don’t think in terms of sales but rather in terms of building a business. Great sales people are building a business, not just trying to make a sale. When you think beyond a sale, you’re going to get other people’s attention much more easily. They’re going to be more interested in what you have to say. You want something that’s going to survive beyond one sale.

2. Develop champions of your products. Use business contacts who have been happy with your products to help generate references and referrals. Once you have sold to them, customers can help you sell to others by offering positive testimonials and leveraging a refer-a-friend campaign created by your business. “Don’t be afraid to ask, ‘Is there someone else I can talk to and also help?”

3. Be willing to invest in networking, community and relationships, knowing that the difference between a contact and a contract is the “R” that stands for “Relationship.” Invest in your community. Don’t look at it as an expense since you need to develop these relationships.

4. Don’t see failed sales attempts as failures but as investments in the process. If you don’t close a business deal, don’t think of it as a failed attempt. You should know that some attempts pay while others don’t, but they’re all investments in the business.

5. Be constantly in think, plan and prepare mode in order to continue to build their client base and keep their pipelines full. You can’t ever have an “off” button.

6. Invest in the education, development and personal motivation, knowing that these are the tools of a sales professional. You need to continue to invest in your game, much like a professional ballplayer is always practicing.