Effective sales skills help your sales pros experience success, which increases your profits.
Whether your seasoned sales pro or planning training for your current sales staff, identifying the key sales skills helps you strengthen your sales efforts. While all of these skills are important, you might need to focus on specific skills to match your current priorities or areas of weakness.
From the home office in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico here are the
Top 10 Sales Skills Every Sales Pro Should Have
10. WRITTEN AND VERBAL COMMUNICATION
One of the most important sales representative skills is communication since the job requires constant interactions with customers. Effective verbal communication requires your sales reps to listen closely to what customers are saying and respond appropriately to build rapport and eventually close the sale. Sales reps might need to understand how to explain complex details about the product in simple terms that customers can understand. Written skills are often used when emailing customers about the sale or making notes in your CRM software.
9. NEGOTIATION
Whether you sell cars or office equipment, customers will likely try to negotiate the price. Negotiation skills for a sales representative are important. Your sales reps need to understand how to approach negotiations, including creating the initial proposal and following up with counteroffers. Look for sales reps who protect your profits by not going too low on the price while also keeping customers happy by letting them have some success in the negotiation process.
8. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Emotional intelligence is beneficial in any position, but it can be especially helpful to a sales rep who needs to understand a customer well to make the sale. Your sales reps need to read the emotions and preferences of your customers quickly and adjust their sales approach accordingly. This skill helps your reps quickly establish trust and build a relationship with customers, which increases the chances of a sale.
7. FLEXIBILITY
A related skill that benefits the sales process is being flexible. A sales rep who approaches every customer and sales situation the same won’t have as much success as one who understands that every interaction is unique. A customer might need a different approach from the salesperson to feel confident in the purchase. Customers ask different questions or want different solutions that the salesperson might not have dealt with in the past. Being able to roll with unexpected situations and requests keeps the sales process moving in a controlled way.
6. PROBLEM-SOLVING AND CRITICAL THINKING
Customers might come to you planning to buy the product you sell, but the sale isn’t guaranteed. Sometimes your sales reps need to be creative and use problem-solving skills to make the sale. Critical thinking skills allow a salesperson to analyze the situation and available information to create a strategic approach. Problem-solving and critical thinking can also help them overcome objections from customers, easing their concerns and convincing them to make the purchase.
5. PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE
Strong product knowledge is essential for a successful sales rep. Without fully understanding the product, the salesperson can’t effectively share its features and benefits. Deep knowledge of the product allows the sales rep to answer customers’ questions quickly and effectively, which helps build confidence in the company. This is something a sales rep can easily learn if they want to, but it can take a long time to learn everything about complex or multiple products.
4. PROSPECTING
An effective sales representative understands how to use prospecting effectively to keep a constant influx of new customers. This includes researching both the product and the target audience to understand how to generate new leads. Prospecting is something you can teach or help your sales staff improve upon.
A related skill is lead qualification. Sales reps need to understand each customer to determine if they’re a good lead and if you have the right products for them. They also need to understand which products provide the best solutions and how the customer might implement them, so they know how to approach the sales interaction.
3. CLOSING
All the lead-up skills don’t matter if a sales rep doesn’t know how to close the deal. A strong closer understands that they can’t force it, but sometimes they have to play the long game to get the sale. Previous sales statistics can demonstrate strong closing skills.
2. GOAL-DRIVEN
Ambitious self-starters often make the best salespeople. They’re motivated by commissions and sales quotas. These sales reps set goals and push themselves to achieve them as fast as possible. As they do this, they’re also increasing sales for your company.
Having a growth mindset and a desire to continue learning and growing is also important. A sales rep with a growth mindset understands that they might not have all the answers now, but they can continue learning and improving to get closer to where they want to be.
And the #1 Sales Skills Every Sales Pro Should Have is….
1. INTEGRITY
We as sale people often get a bad reputation as being sneaky or deceptive. Unfortunately, some people in the field do whatever it takes to make the sale, even if it’s not ethical. A true sales pro always acts with integrity and helps build the company a positive reputation, increasing sales.
Selling with integrity also facilitates long-term relationships, encouraging previous customers to come back for future needs.
Have a great weekend,
David
Payment Lynx Daily 