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Top 10 Competencies for Inside Sales Reps

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Tue, Jan 27, 2009 @ 06:49 AM
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Last week, V. Ryan Sarti of SwiftKickGrowth asked a great question on the Linkedin Inside Sales Expert Discussion Board.

What do you believe to be the top 10 competencies for inside sales people?

What qualities and skills do top performers have that others don't? Take out activity. What are the other skills and qualities that separate the wheat from the chaff?

That made me stop and think...here was my response.

Top performers are:

  1. Passionate about what they do
  2. Coachable...they embrace learning new skills and ideas 
  3. Not afraid of change 
  4. Relationship builders both internally and externally 
  5. Able to build a plan and know how to execute
  6. Able and willing to mentor others 
  7. Interested in trying new techniques 
  8. Not interested in negativity 
  9. Able to communicate as well with the written word as with the spoken 
  10. Healthy in both mind and body

I would love to hear what you think so please post!

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COMMENTS

I couldn't agree more, these are the qualities that make up Top Performers and future sales leaders. It is a challenge to find someone that exemplifies all these qualities, but it is something all top performers should strive to achieve.

posted @ Tuesday, January 27, 2009 8:55 AM by Silvana Sears

Trish, 
I am interested by what you mean by: 
"4. Relationship builders both internally and externally" 
 
Can you share? 

posted @ Tuesday, January 27, 2009 9:43 AM by Charles Rich

Charles, it would be my pleasure to share. What I mean by #4 is that Inside Sales reps need to develop relationships with:  
 
prospects and customers 
 
partners 
 
marketing communications 
 
product marketing 
 
engineering 
 
support and customer service 
 
field sales personnel  
 
You get where I am going. Reps who just come in every day and "do their thing" are doing themselves a disservice. Expand your network and you expand your ability to call in resources when appropriate, have a larger view of the market and increase your liklihood of success. 
 
Hope this helped!

posted @ Tuesday, January 27, 2009 11:58 AM by trish bertuzzi

Charles Rich, thanks for getting us all clear on #4. Based on Trish's response, having the skill to build internal and external relationships would seem all the more essential in a tight market, when tensions run high.

posted @ Tuesday, January 27, 2009 10:32 PM by Rob Macdonald

Great article, without number 1 you are no where

posted @ Wednesday, January 28, 2009 5:41 PM by Trev

I couldn't agree with these attributes more. I am very proud of the fact that I have made a career of Inside Sales and your top ten list definitely "fits the bill" for a star. If more companies looked for these attributes and realized the significant ROI of having a top-notch Inside Sales Team, there would be more opportunities available for "lifers" like myself to continue adding value to any organization!

posted @ Friday, March 27, 2009 9:57 AM by Frank Manzardo

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