Some thoughts about salesmen

Salesmen should be ethical and moral; they should conduct business with integrity. They need to be communicative, to be good listeners, that is to be truly listening to the customer’s needs and to try to fulfill them; they need to be proactive and real costumer’s advisors. I can go on and keep typing salesmen must have traits and characteristics for ever… However the point that I want to make here is the following: Most of these things, the things that a salesmen must have and that without these one is almost bound to fail are not taught or learned in universities and business schools. These are not knowledge and education but personality characteristics and qualities that one should have or at least try to cultivate. I really don’t know in which degree sales can be taught and universities can train successful salespeople. I think that not everyone can become a salesman since not all people have the necessary personality traits and characteristics that are critical for such a job. One may learn all the sales techniques (from the basic to the most advanced) and still fail, while another one may not even attend a seminar about sales and be a brilliant salesman.