The Top 5 Qualities of An Effective Sales Executive

Every ship needs a captain. Every team needs a coach. And every successful salesforce needs effective sales executives. But what are the qualities of effective sales executives that separate the great from the mediocre? Answering this question can revolutionize your hiring process and reliably secure high-performing talent that drives revenue, growth, and morale. 

If your company is looking to bolster its executives’ ranks with high-quality and highly productive sales leaders, look for these five must-have qualities of an effective sales executive during your next interview.

The Top Five Qualities of An Effective Sales Executive

An effective sales executive needs to possess the attributes of a highly proficient salesperson as well as those of a resolute leader. Striking a balance between sales skills and interpersonal ability is the key to efficient sales management. While some qualities of effective sales executives vary, the vast majority possess the following attributes. 

1. Passion

One of the foremost qualities of a sales executive is a passion for what they do. Passion is infectious. Externally, it helps convince clients. Internally, passionate sales executives create energetic, competitive environments. They lead their sales teams to approach challenges as opportunities.

2. Great Communication Skills

Outstanding communication is a universal quality of effective sales executives. They have to update their superiors, identify and collaborate with sales managers, and ensure that their department understands, accepts, and internalizes directives. 

Great sales executives maintain and prioritize channels of communication both internally and externally. When the leader is receptive, flexible, and approachable, team members can contribute important information and feedback. Mutual communication prevents easily avoidable yet costly problems and solves them quickly to max out productivity.

3. Adaptability

Sales executives know when and how to shift strategies in changing markets. They cater approaches to outpace the competition and appropriately suit clients, products/services, and sales team members. To keep a growth mindset, it is imperative for sales execs to constantly assess what management and sales strategies do and do not work, adjusting accordingly.

4. Consistency

An efficient sales executive treats every prospective account with a measured touch. Dependability and persistence increase the chance of acquiring and keeping clients’ business.

Accomplished sales execs also develop and oversee astute marketing strategies, performance standards, and objectives. They motivate and hold the sales team accountable as fair leaders to guarantee the strong execution of plans and goals.

5. Ability to Create High-Performing Sales Teams

Influential sales executives know the components of polished sales teams. They are responsible for creating teams that competently address the organization's sales needs. Decision support tools like PerceptionPredict's Performance Fingerprints objectively project someone's efficacy pre-hire. PerceptionPredict also helps analyze current teams' productivity, so leaders can reinforce teams' aptitudes while identifying and correcting shortcomings.

The Role of a High-Performing Sales Executive

A high-performing sales executive is the driving force behind an adept sales team. Identifying the right candidate for sales executive positions is imperative for reliable growth; and provides a highly valuable competitive edge compared to sales forces led by lackluster leaders. The best sales executives master the art of balancing and prioritizing interwoven roles in a way that maximizes the whole teams' success. 

Outstanding Market Research

Sales executives are responsible for researching the characteristics and wants of target audiences. This research generates data that helps investigate the problems for which those audiences need a solution. Sales executives structure sales strategies with those problems and solutions in mind and help pursue prospects.

Hiring and Training Sales Representatives

Like branches to a tree, the sales team is an extension of the sales executive's strategy. High-performing sales executives find high-performing sales reps and managers pre-hire, assess current team members' strengths and weaknesses regularly, and establish adequate and ongoing training regimens.

Finding the right people to hire or promote can be tricky because of inherent hiring bias. And keeping up with the performance of a whole team can be daunting. Predictive analytics companies like PerceptionPredict can help. PerceptionPredict's advanced analytics software analyzes your company's data to predict candidates' future KPIs and track current sales reps' productivity.

Delegation

Because they always have problems to solve, it is easy for sales execs to get swept up in the minutiae of keeping the sales team up and running. Excellent sales executives delegate wisely. They know how to spot obstacles and expertly craft efficient gameplans without micromanaging or hand-holding. To solve problems and reach goals, they strategize which tasks to assign to whom based on team members' unique skill sets.

The Skills Required for a High-Performing Sales Executive

To fulfill these duties, effective sales executives require a diverse and ever-growing skill set. While every industry, company, and role will have varying expectations and scope of work for their sales executive, some universal qualities can help you identify high-performing sales executives. We recommend you search for these three skills before onboarding your next sales executive.

1. Data Literacy  

Rapidly advancing technology is providing more opportunities for sales forces to harness the potential of their data to improve operations. A solid foundation in utilizing emerging technology and a willingness to remain up-to-date on best practices for capturing, analyzing, and implementing the sales data results is critical for high-performing sales executives in today's market. 

2. Skillful Sales Enablement 

Sales enablement is a strategy that emphasizes providing sales teams and representatives with the best tools, training, and resources to boost productivity and sales. A good sales executive understands the revenue-driving potential of sales enablement, identifying and implementing effective technology, techniques, and training events that enable their entire salesforce to improve customer relations, grow leads, and maximize conversions.

3. Strong Leadership Ability

Possessing the qualities of a strong leader may seem like an obvious requirement for effective sales executives. However, many companies still make promotions based entirely on sales performance and fail to consider the soft skills vital to running a cohesive and productive team. While some candidates for your leadership position may have an excellent sales track record, an inability to empathize, train, provide constructive feedback, and motivate subordinates renders that skill moot and may lead to a significant performance and morale slump. 

Create a High-Performing Sales Team With PerceptionPredict

Sales executives depend on highly productive sales teams that are experts at converting target audiences and existing clients. PerceptionPredict is an advanced tool that optimizes hiring and managing the right salespeople for the task at hand and ensures effective sales executives are able to build a sales team that exceeds expectations.

PredictionPredict uses advanced analytics designed by industry-leading psychologists, sales experts, and industrial organization consultants to help sales executives avoid costly hiring missteps and obtain demonstrably top-performing sales talent. 

Our predictive analytics synthesize company data like performance reports and sales metrics to construct a model of candidates' 'sales DNA.' This feature anticipates the future KPIs of prospective hires, including revenue-driving capability, projected performance levels, length of tenure, and more. Our proprietary software also eliminates harmful and counterproductive biases that may be affecting your hiring process.

Book a demo to learn how PerceptionPredict harnesses cutting-edge technology to help companies cultivate extraordinary sales teams and hire with absolute confidence.