Strengths will take salespeople only as far as their weaknesses will allow. The problem: Some salespeople work on things they’re good at and don’t spend enough time trying to overcome these weak points.

Below are the top five areas salespeople need to work on, according to a recent survey of sales managers by consultant Mark Tewart.

Tewart also offers advice on how salespeople can go about improving upon these areas.

1. Listening

Customers and prospects continue to list failure to listen as a major weakness of salespeople. The problem: Some salespeople prefer speaking to listening or are too anxious to rebut objections. Others allow themselves to get distracted and jump to conclusions.

Solution: Salespeople can improve their listening skills by asking questions and then letting customers get their entire point across before saying anything. Top salespeople must be able to tune out distractions and concentrate on the customer.

Finally, sales pros should repeat what they’ve heard from the prospect/customer to confirm accuracy and prevent misunderstandings.

2. Qualifying prospects

The time it takes to qualify a prospect as someone who has a high probability of buying is nothing compared to the time that can be wasted on a prospect who has no need for the salesperson’s product or service in the first place.

Advice for salespeople: Try to develop a standardized set of qualifying questions that may alleviate any doubts about a prospect’s chances of buying.

3. Customer focus

Many customers have more to do than time allows. They’re too busy to waste time doing anything other than meeting their immediate needs. So customers appreciate salespeople who focus on meeting those needs instead of what’s being sold.

4. Enthusiasm

Prospects and customers want to do business with salespeople who are upbeat, positive and demonstrate that they like what they’re doing. Dull won’t cut it.

Prospects sense salespeople’s attitudes in everything they do — from the way sales pros answer the phone to the way they walk into a meeting.

When salespeople come across as positive, their prospects are likely to feel positive about them.

5. Rejection

Rejection is a fact of life in sales. It comes with the job. Salespeople have to be able to deal with it appropriately.

There are two negative reactions to rejection. The first is to become oversensitive, cautious and then retreat. The second is to become too aggressive with prospects, attempting to overcome the rejection with heavy-handed tactics.

Advice for salespeople: Try to understand the causes of rejection and take corrective actions. The way you handle rejection may mean more to your success than any other attribute. Learn from lost sales, and review what could’ve been done better.

Tags: customer focus, Listening, prospects, rejection, survey