You must ask three questions before you hire, manage, train, coach, and retain effective salespeople. These questions will help you evaluate a person's ability to perform meaningfully:

• Can this person sell? (selling skills)
• How will this person sell? (behavioral strengths)
• Will this person sell? (attitude-value structure)

Whether you sell a service, trucks or cars, computers or lingerie, the three questions never change!

"Can this person sell?" is determined by the level of selling skills and knowledge that a salesperson possesses (and is dedicated to learning new things every day). A person can have a pleasing personality and the most positive attitude, but can't sell a lick. Selling requires sales skills and a solid grasp of the knowledge and principles related to the science of selling.

"How will this person sell?" or, what's this person like? Is he too pushy? Not pushy enough? Is she organized and structured...or a loose cannon? Personality and sales success are hard (impossible?) to separate.

"Will this person sell?" includes an individual's "value structure." This is the real accelerator of sales performance. Is this person a self-starter (or do you have to jump- start every effort)? Can this person deal with rejection? How about long hours? Is this person willing and eager? What is this person's attitude toward sales as a profession? Does this person enjoy selling? How well does this person handle stress? The answers to these questions help determine if a person has long-term selling potential.

So, what qualities are critical to sales success?

Here's a checklist of 22 of the most essential:

• Positive expectancy
• Belief in company, product, and self
• Ability to think on one's feet
• Product knowledge
• Time management skills
• Neat, contemporary appearance
• Ability to deal with rejection
• Strong problem solving capacity
• Courage to ask for the order
• Conviction to hang in there for the order
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Empathy
• Balanced communication
• Conversational skills
• Strong ego
• Self-starting ability
• Perseverance
• Listening skills
• Emotional maturity
• Physical stamina
• Resiliency
• The ability to get along with others.

Customer focused, positive, and responsive salespeople are the most essential ingredient to long-term sales success. And since selling is a one-on-one activity, it requires effective, caring, happy, and competent salespeople - unless everything you sell if through a vending machine.