You would be surprised to know that the skills you need for better sales are not what you'd normally think, like mastery of product knowledge and USP, for one. The key sales skills you really need are soft skills.
Key sales skills: What are soft skills?
First, let’s differentiate them from hard sales skills. Hard skills are the technical skills you gather from your sales training: product/service knowledge (familiarizing yourself with what you’re selling—its features, benefits, etc.), learning company systems processes and CRM management, and the like.
Soft sales skills are more intangible. They are essentially relationship-building skills—those that help you build rapport with a client, make them believe in what you are saying, and trust you enough to purchase what you are selling.
Soft skills encompass everything from the way you communicate (and that means talking and listening) and how you empathize with a customer to how confident and charming you come across.
These skills are harder to teach. Fortunately for some people, they are born with some of the skills. (There is always that one smooth-talking, highly charismatic rep in the team!) But for the not-so-lucky ones, these skills can still be taught and, more importantly, developed.
You should have a growth mindset to begin with. A growth-minded person believes in mentorship, in learning from the best, and in always trying to better himself. Be open to being coached and keep on practicing until these skills become second nature to you.
Ready?
Here are the key sales skills you need:
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1. Active Listening
We’ll start with this because most sales reps think that talking—and talking a lot—gets the job done. They forget that how well you listen to a client makes a HUGE difference. Active listening means really listening to what the client is saying, asking the necessary questions to fully understand everything they’re saying, and then confirming or validating what you’ve discussed in the end. Clients will take note of this, and they will appreciate you for it.
2. Constructive Communication
One thing you should always ask yourself before speaking: Is what I have to say useful? Always keeping this in mind is the first step to constructive communication. What you say should add value to the conversation. If it’s meaningless, don’t say it. If it’s fluff, forget it. Clients appreciate sales reps who speak with a clear intention.
How you say it also matters: forget long and winding sentences; be clear. Be mindful of who you’re talking to. You don’t speak to your boss, your prospects, your new clients, your repeat clients, your friends the same way. You adjust your tone, your choice of words, even facial expressions depending on your audience.
Being a constructive communicator also means providing helpful feedback and useful updates. This shows that you are on top of situations and that you want to keep clients involved in the project’s progress. Again, this is something clients will be grateful for.
3. Emotional Intelligence
Simply put, emotional intelligence is being smart about your feelings. An emotionally intelligent person is aware and can identify his feelings and the feelings of others—and this is one of the key things you need for building better client relationships.
An emotionally intelligent person is also aware of his emotional strengths (e.g. patience) and weaknesses (e.g. prone to anger or bad temper). By being aware of these, you will know how to navigate sticky situations—or avoid them altogether. You are also able to control how you respond to any situation, and in sales, where things can change from predictable to completely erratic in a snap, this is critical.
4. Empathy
Empathy is one sign of an emotionally intelligent person. Having empathy is understanding other people’s feelings, thoughts, opinions. You consider that a person’s point of view may differ from yours. You won’t necessarily share or agree with his view, but you will strive to understand and respect it.
In sales, understanding how your client sees a situation helps you cultivate a better working relationship. You’ll know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it.
Validating what they see is important to them. Again, you don’t need to agree and as a sales rep, it is your job to direct them to the best solutions, but just acknowledging their thoughts and feelings is such a strong step toward earning their trust. Show buyers that you’re on their side, and that you’re there to help them first and foremost. Having empathy also helps in developing authenticity—and this is something clients always look for when dealing with anyone.
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5. Confidence and Charisma
We lump these together because we really think they go hand in hand. It is said that a confident and charismatic person feels confident in himself and makes others feel confident in themselves, too. An arrogant or self-possessed person will talk about himself; the confident and charismatic person will make other people feel comfortable enough to talk about themselves. See the difference? Now imagine making a client feel that way.
Your body language also helps project confidence and charisma. You should genuinely like yourself for you to come across as confident. Smile, make eye contact, shake hands. Be genuinely excited to know the other person. Be an active listener (again, skill #1!), be open, congenial, genuine, and engage with the other person. Speak with conviction and intention and having a sense of humor wouldn’t hurt, too.
Here are other ways you can light up a room.
6. Flexibility
In sales, you have to be quick and nimble, and this is difficult to do if you are not flexible to changes and unexpected events. And trust us, these plot twists—canceled meetings, a new deadline, a budget slash, etc.—happen a lot in sales.
If you are flexible, you are able to curb frustrations. Instead of wasting time feeling upset or annoyed, you quickly jump to plan B, find alternative solutions, or make new decisions. Flexibility helps make you become more resourceful and decisive—and these are other traits you’ll need in sales.
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7. Positivity
People naturally gravitate toward people with a positive aura, a happy disposition. People—clients and colleagues—will naturally want to work with you.
Being positive also means being optimistic and not being discouraged when bad things happen. Bad things do happen in sales, and you should always have a “we can turn this around” mindset when things don’t go as planned. Clients will appreciate your can-do attitude and how you turn a negative situation into a positive one.
8. Open-mindedness
An open-minded person is open to both the good and the bad. They’re open to criticism and negative feedback. They see these as a chance to learn and better themselves. Even if the criticism is sometimes unsupported, they view it as a difference of opinion and an opportunity to understand how other people may think.
Open-minded people are also humble. They know and accept that they do not know everything. And so they are open to coaching and mentoring. They have an innate drive to excel and be better. They are not complacent in their achievements and skills. And in the ever evolving world of sales, having this trait is very crucial.
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