As an entrepreneur, you will find that the job consist of variety of hats. One of the most important hats, especially within the beginning stages of your business, is the position as a sales representative. As a sales representative, you need to have a strong, strategic, and communicative attitude when selling goods or services to businesses, government agencies, organizations, or consumers. Two main traits crucial for succeeding as a sales representative are a person’s enthusiastic personality and a person’s tolerance and drive. For the first characteristic, the ability to communicate with a genuine, or seemingly genuine, enthusiasm to others is crucial for sales. It provides a sense of trust and openness with the person you are talking to. As for drive, you will ineffably face a variety of speed bumps along the way. There will be many failures, but there will also be an assortment of successes. Having the ability to be cope with that’s ups and downs will play a large role in your motivation.

So what does the best sales representative look like? What can I personally do to optimize the best sales for my business?

There are a variety of different sales representatives that all share the characteristics of the two main traits stated above. While everyone varies based on personality and work experience, people tend to fall into the three main types for a sales person: 1. the Chameleon, 2. the Entertainer, 3. the Student

For the first type, the Chameleon, as implied by the name, is skillful at quickly adapting to a variety of different situations. These individuals are able to understand how the client sees himself or herself or would like to see themselves with the product and leverage this by creating a mirroring image. This means they feed off of the person’s imagination and bringing into something tangible. A good Chameleon sales representative is highly attentive and shrewd. Furthermore, they have strong mediating negotiation skills that are perfect when pushing your new product.

The second type of sales representative is the entertainer. The entertainer relies on strong, charismatic, and often times intimidating presence as an essential tool to close a sale. The Entertainer representative reverses the typical dynamic between the seller a buyer and convinces the client why they need this particular service or product. This aggressive type of personality is often scene more in the private sector such as banking, finance, or consulting. Most case scenarios, these people are often very successful and assume various managerial positions due to their robust personality.

The third and final type of sales representative is what we call the Student. The student is very astute of his surroundings and, often times, does his or her homework before meeting with a person or company. The student’s ability to desegregate useful data at a moment’s notice and analyze the overall background of a client is highly informative and effective of the overall material. As efficient as they are with their sales, their somewhat lack of assertiveness and leadership often holds them back from assuming a managerial position. Regardless, the student’s futuristic ability to strategically plan for a variety of steps makes this person a very strong asset for hitting your sale goal.