Do the best salespeople look like salespeople?

by Jan 4, 2025sales0 comments

(AI-free post)

I was recently talking about world fortunes, when my counterpart made the remark that there are buoyant and discreet billionaires.

And it echoed to a few of the reasons why I say that the best salespeople don’t look like salespeople.

And this is true on trade shows as well.

What the best salespeople on trade show look like

If you’ve been attending trade shows regularly you might have noticed that the best salespeople are discreet.

Or you probably haven’t, since they are discreet. 😉

So next time you go to a show try to observe these qualities as you walk up the aisles.

Mastery of silence.

There is a reason all civilizations say silence is golden.

Listening to your potential customer is the core of the business, and a salesperson who knows how to master silences, leaves room for the customer to speak. And don’t we like to be listened to and understood?

Is it a coincidence that the word silence is an anagram of the word ‘listen’ (hi Lauren)? If you speak another language than English how does it sound in your language? (In French it doesn’t work, too bad).

Not only listening gives you a window into your visitor‘s mind, but it gives you the mental space to observe and capture his non-verbal communication, and since we’re in a face-to-face encounter, non-verbal is golden.

In a world where NOISE is all around, how does silence sound to you?

Mastery of emotions.

Mastering one’s emotions is probably the most difficult and essential skill in sales.

It’s underrated how difficult the job of sales is, for an essential reason REJECTION.

Rejection is painful because as humans we’re wired for connection and fitting in a group (all our cognitive biases are made for this purpose). A rejection lights up the part of the brain associated with physical pain. If you’ve ever lost a close one or an important relationship, you know the sensation.

Well, for salespeople these sensations are part of the job. It takes a lot of self-control to overcome them and go back on the horse every time.

No wonder every culture on this planet sees emotional mastery as the holy grail and the true sign of mastery, self-mastery.

In a world where media, governments, companies, ngos are trying to elicit out of us emotions to act on them, keeping one’s cool when everyone loses their minds is worth GOLD, and the subject of my favorite poem (if from Rudyard Kipling for the curious).

Mastery of the value they provide.

Last of the golden nuggets you could observe on the booths of the world is value delivery.

In a world where talent and fame are often mistaken, a salesperson focused on delivering value instead of making a noisy show is golden.

Showmen tend to capture the light leaving their audience in the shadows.

But delivering value is about giving it away, not capturing it for your personal ego boost.

That necessitate expertise which can only be acquired as you withdraw from the world, to later deliver it, preferably as a personalized solution and exceptional customer service that requires to give the space, away, to the customer.

All that is very nice, but as you’re probably telling yourself, if they are discreet how do they stand from the crowd?

Well, that’s for another post, but you would be right, before you can make a sale, you’d need a minimum level of engagement, and that takes totally opposite skills.

Balancing a good sales team for shows is indeed a difficult job.

Like with any team composition, from a football team to your company’s team.

If you want to dive into the subject a little more, you can subscribe to my feed on Linkedin or check my blog posts (link in comments).

Until then, enjoy the observation lessons on shows.

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