If you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, what can you teach a salesman? 

Only two things, according to Vanderloop Equipment’s (VE) salesmen, Larry Schamberger and Brian Neuman.

“It's easy to teach a new salesman product lines and where a product best fits or doesn’t, but the list of traits that cannot be taught is significantly longer,” says Neuman, a newer sales rep.

Interacting with customers professionally and having punctuality are top of the list for Neuman.

“They have to be able to show up, interact and follow through,” he says.

Schamberger, a veteran sales rep at VE's Beaver Dam, Wis., location, notes that you can’t teach accountability. Salesmen should own their mistakes and not attempt to pass the blame or make excuses. Being truthful with the customer is imperative to maintaining a good rapport.

“Admit to it. You'll learn from it. Move on,” he says. “Be upfront and honest. Don't start a lie because once you start, it just snowballs, and it never ends well.”

Those skills are not enough alone though. Sales reps need to be personal with their customers and deliver upsetting news gracefully and in a timely manner — which might be easier depending on the region you are from, according to Neuman.

“In our industry, bad things happen and delivering bad news in urgency is very important,” says Neuman. “We're lucky being in the Midwest, we have that Midwest nice and that Midwest urgency built into us. I've traveled to a lot of places, and they’re polite, but their urgency isn't like in the Midwest, or ingenuity, too.”

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