Willem Verbeke: Selling, it's an art in itself. One person sells ice cream to a polar bear, so to speak; another cannot sell a cold bottle of water in the desert. But what makes someone a good salesman? It's in the genes, says Willem Verbeke, special professor of Sales and Account Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
'Customer-oriented salespeople who try to understand and help a customer have a particular gene. Called in 'Jip and Janneke-speak' the curiosity gene'. So not so much people skills or a smooth talk.