A brilliant salesperson is a fantastic asset to any brand. They’re the ones who are out on the front line, pulling in new customers and building relationships. They act as ambassadors and advertisements, all in one.
So, it’s important to hire the right people for the role.
When you’re bringing on a new junior sales representative, there’s a lot to think about. What experience do they have? How personable are they? Can the customer relate to them?
A lot of what you need for a junior sales rep will depend on the nature of your business. For example, a rep who’s working fully online will need a different skill set to one who’s out visiting customers face-to-face. B2B sales reps need different skills to B2C reps. And so on.
However, there are some broad qualities that the best reps embody. In this blog, we’ll take you through ten of the most important skills, qualities and traits which make a fantastic junior sales representative. We’ll also cite some of the bad customer service examples to avoid.
Scroll 👇 to find out what makes a great junior sales representative!
The 10 qualities of a great junior sales representative
1. They understand the importance of relationships
‘Relationship Marketing’ is all the rage right now, but it’s nothing new. ‘Relationship Marketing’ is just a fancy new phrase for ‘Making friends with your customers’.
Skilled salespeople in every profession, from hospitality to healthcare and beyond, have always known that relationships with customers are vital for sales.
A good junior sales rep will understand the importance of strong customer relationships. They’ll treat the customer as a human first and as a potential buyer second. They will foster loyalty, and build sales using empathy and human connection.
Customers with whom you have a good relationship will come back again and again. With a person-focused, empathetic sales rep, that relationship will get off to a great start.
2. They communicate respectfully
A good junior sales representative will be respectful at all times. A bit of banter with customers is fine - it’s all part of building those all-important relationships! But it should never cross the line into disrespect.
What do we mean by ‘respectful communication?’
Well, your SDR should be considerate of each customer’s particular needs and circumstances. This means:
- They should listen.
- They should make the effort to use their name, pronouns, and so on properly.
- They should treat the customer as they would a valued friend.
They should also consider when they communicate. While there is a time and a place for cold calling, your junior sales reps shouldn’t hound people to talk when they don’t want to.
For example, a respectful communicator won’t just turn up out of the blue; they’ll schedule a time to meet or extend a meeting invitation.
If your business operates via cold calling, a respectful communicator will ask the prospect if this is a good time to talk before pressing on with their script - and they will respect the answer, even if it is ‘No’.
Ideally, a respectful communicator should also be happy to take direct inward dials from customers. What is direct inward dialing? Basically, it’s a system that allows you to assign virtual phone numbers to employees.
Through this system, customers can bypass annoying phone menus and avoid spending hours on hold. It’s great for reducing customer frustration, but isn’t always popular with staff. Encourage your junior sales reps to be open to this kind of direct customer communication.
3. They’re responsible with their tech
Your sales rep is likely to be handling some sensitive customer data, so it’s vital that they understand the importance of cybersecurity. Train them in your security protocols, and make sure they’re aware of the potential consequences of any data breach.
A good junior sales representative will be interested in the tech you use, and happy to learn how to use it. For example, they will have an understanding of things like data-led sales pipelines, and be willing to contribute towards them.
It’s also important that they are digitally discreet during work hours. For example, if your rep is travelling from place to place in your uniform, or in a branded vehicle, it’s important that they’re not putting your branding or logo all over social media in inappropriate ways.
Things like a bring your own device policy can help set boundaries and expectations. As some companies encourage their employees to post on social media and others do not, it’s probably worth clarifying what you prefer.
4. They are extroverted
Sorry, introverts, but you need to have a lot of social energy in order to be a good salesperson!
Introversion does not equate to a lack of confidence, but it does mean that people get tired out by a lot of human interaction. Sales requires a lot of interaction - so you need a rep that can handle talking to people (and not just any people - often complete strangers) for hours and hours every day.
Ultimately, no matter how sophisticated your enterprise communications solution is, if you’re drained by a lot of interaction, sales isn’t for you.
5. They aren’t pushy
Ask anyone what they hate most in a salesperson. We can guarantee that ‘pushiness’ will come at the top of the list.
Yes, sales does require a certain amount of persistence. Yes, being able to hype your product is a definite advantage. But there’s a line. If the customer feels pressured or (worse) intimidated by a salesperson, then that salesperson has gone too far.
A good junior sales rep will be able to sense where the line between ‘selling’ and ‘pressuring’ lies, and will stay on the right side of it. That line is different for every customer; that’s another reason why it’s important for sales reps to have a strong sense of empathy.
6. They feedback to managers
Salespeople can be wonderful for helping you to understand your customers. Often, the deep knowledge that salespeople have of the customer base can be as useful as, if not better than, crowdsourced testing when it comes to understanding how your product is working.
A junior salesperson who naturally feeds back to managers/superiors is a real asset. You can rely on them to tell you about:
- Who your customers are and if they match your ICP.
- What they like about your product/service.
- Conversely, what they don’t like about it!
- Trends they’re interested in, and so on.
A junior sales rep who’s good at drawing customers out and encouraging them to talk about themselves is also a brilliant source of valuable customer data.
You can use their customer knowledge to build customer personas, personalize your communications, tailor your product to customer needs, and more.
7. They’re honest
Honesty is a must for any employee, but with an outbound sales rep it cuts both ways.
It’s vital that your junior sales rep is honest with you. You want them to be open and transparent about what they’ve been doing, who they’ve been speaking to, how they’ve spent their time and so on.
However, your sales reps also need to be honest with your customers. If they promise things that your brand can’t deliver just to secure a sale, you’re in trouble.
Encourage honesty in your sales reps. If your brand can’t deliver what the customer is asking, your reps should be honest enough to admit that. If your junior reps don’t know the answer to a customer question, teach them to say:
“I don’t know, but I can find out for you.”
Honesty inspires trust, and trust inspires trade. A salesperson with integrity is a true asset. Even if that honesty sometimes means letting a prospect go, it’s more than worth it in the long run.
8. They do their research
A junior sales representative who does their research has a considerable advantage. They’ll turn up armed with knowledge of the prospect, an understanding of their likes and dislikes, an idea of which tactics will be most appealing for them, and so on.
A good business will set up its sales reps with a decent amount of background info. After all, you don’t want to burden your sales reps with things like segmentation and RFM analysis when they could be out there selling.
However, a bit of extra research doesn’t hurt. A rep who Googles their prospect or looks up their business on Google or LinkedIn will be in a much better position to hit their target.
Researching your own brand is also a good idea. Sales reps get asked a lot of questions. The more your reps know about their company and the questions that are commonly asked about it, the better placed they will be to provide satisfactory answers.
9. They keep up with their customers
Salespeople are a vital point of contact between your brand and your customers. Often, the salespeople are effectively the ‘face’ of the brand. When they think about their relationship with the brand, for many customers, their sales rep will be the person that springs to mind.
So, in order to nurture a positive brand/customer relationship, it’s helpful for junior salespeople to cultivate their most loyal customers.
A good sales rep will care about their customers and be interested in how they’re getting on. We’re not saying that they should be checking up on customers in their off hours, but taking an interest in them and building relationships if possible always helps!
Of course, you shouldn’t rely on sales reps alone to manage customer and partner relationships. That’s what things like outsourced affiliate program management solutions are for.
However, a dedicated junior sales rep who’s checking in on their favourite customers always helps to cement relationships.
10. They’re always learning
The world is changing faster than ever. For example, until recently, you could only register a broad set of global domains. Now, you can set up a series of hyper-local, hyper-specific domains. Want to register au domain? You can!
This applies pretty much across the board. No matter what industry you’re selling in, changes in technology, social norms, and the world itself are coming thick and fast. Your junior reps need to keep on top of things or they’ll quickly fall behind.
Being willing to learn and adapt is vital for a salesperson in this fast-paced world. It doesn’t take long to get stuck in outdated ways. If your brand wants to stay ahead, it needs salespeople who are dynamic, flexible, adaptable, and willing to learn.
If all of this sounds like a lot to ask of a junior sales rep, that’s because it is. Some of the qualities we mentioned, such as extroversion, come naturally. But others can be cultivated.
Above all, what your sales rep needs is the willingness to become the best rep they can be. However, willingness is at its best when accompanied by real solid help and tuition. That’s where you as a sales leader come in.
You can help your sales reps to become the superstars you need. Through things like training, investment, 1:1 support, a nurturing environment, and a team culture that prioritizes personal growth, you can bring out the very best in your sales reps.
Remember, a salesperson is only ever as good as the brand they’re working for. If your reps are succeeding, that’s a great reflection on your brand. If they aren’t, look at what you can do to help them out.
How to hire junior sales representatives
Hiring is never easy. When it comes to hiring someone as important to your brand as a junior sales rep, there is a lot to think about.
However, if you keep an eye out for the qualities we mentioned above, or a willingness to acquire these qualities, you’ll quickly be able to identify the standout candidates.
How best to identify these qualities? Check out this list of the top 10 SDR interview questions.
After hiring, it’s all about the training. With a little help from you, these junior reps could become fantastic brand ambassadors, pulling in the sales and helping to get customer relationships off to a brilliant start.
The first 90 days of any position are a steep learning curve. This is especially true of sales. However, if you’ve picked the right people for the job, your new reps should sail through their trial period with flying colors.
Author bio
Jessica Day is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy at Dialpad, a modern cloud call center communications platform that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities.
Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns. Jessica Day also published articles for domains such as Kanbanize and AirDroid. Here is her LinkedIn.
