Top 11 soft and hard skills Every Salesperson Needs
Let’s break the stereotypes!
Very often we say that a good salesperson should only know what to sell. In reality, this profession requires many other key skills.
While technical sales skills — such as prospecting, qualifying prospects, negotiating — are essential in the business industry, it is the personal skills that make the difference.
In a sales career, and usually in professional life, hard skills intersect quite often with soft skills. This mix is essential, as it directly influences the performance of a salesperson or a worker.
WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED FOR SALES?
If your goal is to become a great salesperson, then you’ll need to develop or polish some essential sales skills. You can follow a short, face-to-face training with an intensive program — like IconoClass offers — to boost your necessary sales knowledge or to quickly improve in your sales job by following a short, online training — IconoClass Academy.
Next, it’s important to start paying attention to the soft sales skills you’ll need to master — these personal strengths that make it easier for you to interact with others and help you do better in your role.
HERE ARE THE KEY SALES SKILLS EVERY PERFORMING SALESPERSON SHOULD MASTER
A lot of factors can influence the performance and efficiency of a salesperson. Besides that, the sales profession is a complex one, and it involves both hard skills and soft skills.
Qualities of a salesperson: 6 soft skills to master!
1. Psychological resilience
“Nothing is irrecoverable lost, we can find a way,” said Boris Cyrulnik, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
Knowing how to cope with a difficult moment is an essential quality for a salesperson and a strong ability for those who want to have a sales career. For sure, the life of a salesperson has beautiful moments, but also difficult ones: a “NO” from a prospect, a customer who complains that the product does not bring the expected benefits, etc.
Thanks to resilience, you will overcome all these difficult times and face challenges with a positive attitude.
2. Perseverance
With a lot of ups and downs, a sales job can give the same sensations as a roller coaster ride! Despite the “NOs,” failure, or opposition, salespeople should never give up or be discouraged.
Being persistent allows you to move forward and succeed even at times when some may say to themselves that they will never close that much-wanted deal. It’s a fact that good salespeople are determined, have confidence in themselves and the way they sell. They are not overwhelmed by failure, and they continue to strive to achieve their goals — it is everyday efforts that will make the difference.
3. Curiosity
Good salespeople know how to how to put questions (primarily open-ended questions). This curiosity allows them to learn important details about their prospect or client, but also to create a link with them, to find their “needs” so they can propose the best solutions.
Besides, in the sales profession, you must always have the curiosity to discover and learn new tools, work methods, etc. that can facilitate the work.
4. Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is an essential quality, both in professional and personal life. Knowing how to manage emotions, taking a step back from your feelings, and those of others is a challenge — but this ability is essential for adopting a healthy attitude at work.
This skill is closely linked with empathy — essential when working in a team, as it’s important to understand the other in his reality and his otherness.
5. Time management
Already a cliche, but time is a precious resource, especially in sales — where we often hear the phrase “Time is money.”
This soft skill has a significant role in each professional life, as it underlines the effectiveness and organizational ability of someone.
In sales, salespeople are advised to find the right method of time management to get the wanted without feeling under pressure or, on the contrary, without wasting precious time.
Some have developed their time management system by focusing only on one priority task at a time for hours. Others turn off all distractions so they can better focus; others plan their calls with prospects at specific times during a working day, etc.
6. Effective communication
An essential soft skill, communication is not just about expressing yourself well in writing or making persuasive speeches, but knowing how to deliver the right message to the right people, using the right words and especially at the right time.
Good salespeople can adjust their message and communication style to suit their interlocutor; quickly understand a customer’s needs, and respond effectively, based on responses received.
Communication is also a critical element in a team, and successful salespeople must be able to pass a message clearly and understandably.
This skill is strongly linked with the ability of storytelling — a powerful skill that makes the difference between an effective salesperson and one who encounters difficulties in catching the prospect’s attention.
All great salespeople master “storytelling,” and they know very well how to build a “sales conversation,” and above all, they naturally know when to integrate their pitch into a convincing story that helps the prospect to link the product or service with his situation.
Technical skills for the salespeople: 5 hard skills to master!
1. Write and deliver compelling commercial offers
Structuring effective sales presentations is a skill that you can develop fairly quickly and improve with experience. The more you write and deliver demos, the more you will be able to adapt them to your prospect’s needs.
Some tools can help you to put together a compelling sales presentation structure. Your goal is to improve it as you go along with your prospects.
2. Master sales prospecting
A key business lever, phone prospecting, is an essential tool that salespeople use to acquire new customers. It’s crucial to master cold calling techniques and make an excellent first impression over the phone — one that doesn’t immediately require prospects to buy a product/service without knowing anything about their business or their needs.
Having a sales script adapted to the steps of cold calling makes it easier for sales reps to optimize their interactions and increase their chances of closing.
3. Qualify prospects quickly
It’s effective to have the ability to make quick and reliable decisions about the likelihood of a prospect of becoming a customer — based on the information gathered from your interactions. Qualifying prospects consist of learning and understanding the type of customer profile, their needs, etc.
4. Follow up as a PRO
You should not stop until you have a clear answer from your prospect. The sooner you get the “Yes” or “No” from each prospect, the better. In this context, the art of follow up is an essential skill that can bring the ball to your court.
Like every technical skill you acquire, the more you practice at it, the better you will improve. How often should you follow up? What is the correct frequency of follow-up? — all these elements must be included in a well-structured plan that will facilitate your follow-ups.
5. Master sales closing techniques like a pro
Closing is an essential step in the sales cycle. All the hard and soft skills listed above together contribute to your success in closing more deals.
The better you qualify your prospects, the less time you will waste with prospects who are not interested in your product or service. Your communication skills will help you better build relationships with prospects, and your persistence will keep you “on fire.”
The “closing” is the culmination of all these sales skills, which make a harmonious mix allowing you to advance in your career. Some salespeople miss out on great opportunities because they often wait too long for “closing.”
So, a good salesperson should master closing techniques and know when is the right time to close their prospect.
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As we have noticed, in sales, it’s not enough to have “a commercial soul.” This job requires strong personal qualities and well mastered technical skills.
Of course, the list of soft and hard skills that a salesperson should master is non-exhaustive, so do not hesitate to share with us your opinions on the essential skills of a #bizdev or your experience.
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See you soon,
Community Manager @ https://www.iconoclass.eu/
