5.1 The Role Having These Skills Will Play

We will start by really examining the role these different skills are going to play in your ability to do your job effectively. Requiring certain skills in order to succeed at selling is hardly any different from having specific skills to work in any other industry or do any other job. Even those professions that are classed as being unskilled, still need the individual to be a certain type of person or be able to do certain things in order to make sure they can carry out the tasks that they are being paid to do.

However, in our case there is no doubt that it is essential for top salespeople to have certain specific skills to make any kind of progress in their career and that is purely because of the role they play on a day to day basis.If you thought that just anybody could start in sales and basically make a career, then think again as that is not true in the slightest. Instead, it takes a specific type of person to build an effective career within sales and not everybody is cut out for it and this is largely linked to the skills that are required, and the way in which some people are just lacking in too many at one time.

It is important to remember that as a salesperson you are going to be required to have certain interpersonal skills and to be able to communicate with people on various levels. A failure to be able to work alongside people is only going to lead to you making your own life harder than it needs to be because at that point it becomes harder for you to be able to convince those potential buyers to go ahead and spend their cash.

Furthermore, you do need to have a real strength of character as it is impossible for you to know what is going to be coming your way with the next potential customer or buyer. This unknown aspect is something that is the undoing of so many people who attempt sales and discover that it is just not for them. They are unable to think quickly on their feet, and the concept of salespeople having the ability to just talk to anybody is certainly true on most occasions.

The entire reason why you need to really have these skills at your disposal is because of the way in which they can make your life so much easier. The world of sales is hard enough without you making things even more complicated by lacking in certain key areas when your sales competitors perhaps thrive.

You must remember that the buyer you are talking to is going to have other options available to them, so buying from you is not the absolute everything to them unlike in previous decades. Clearly there is a role for these skills to play and how you apply them is something that is going to be very personal to you and you alone. However, you do still need to know the key skills that should form an important part of your setup and that is what we will look at now.

5.2 The Key Skills You Cannot Do Without

So, now that you have understood the role these skills are going to play in your sales career, it is time to look at the various skills you simply cannot do without.Now, it is impossible for everybody to be absolutely perfect in them all of the time as that is just not physically or mentally possible, but that is not to say you will not have at least some of them.

1. Being able to understand what the buyer wants

This may sound rather basic, but the number of salespeople who do not listen or fail to comprehend what it is the buyer wants is astonishing. How can you expect to successfully sell a product or a service to somebody if you do not know what it is they are looking for? How can you tailor your responses or your entire sales pitch if you do not know if you have something that they could want, or perhaps need? A sales pitch needs to have something in it that the buyer is able to grab hold of and to identify with and if that is missing because you have misread the situation, then you are only making your life so much harder when that does not have to be the case.

2. Work in a responsive manner

By this, we mean for you to focus on working in a responsive manner towards the buyer. Listen to what they are saying, seek to understand it, and then react accordingly. Those salespeople who simply ignore what is being said as they feel the need to complete a certain sales pitch, will only get so far in their career before they come to a halt as buyers no longer appreciate this kind of salesperson.

People get on better with salespeople when they feel that they are understanding what they are saying and are then giving them the correct answers back that tie in with their thoughts. This may sound rather simplistic, but it is a basic skill that can, at times, be quite difficult for some to master.

3. Understand psychology

This is not an easy skill to have, but those salespeople who have a basic understanding of the psychology of sales, which is the idea of need or fear of loss, will always get on better than those that just basically try to make it up as they go along.

You must try to grasp the concept of psychology for both yourself as well as the buyer to give yourself the best possible chance. We are not saying you need to have a degree in psychology by any means, but understanding how you can directly affect what an individual is thinking and ultimately deciding to do is something that can really swing a potential sale in your favour.

4. The ability to build trust

Building trust in the relationship between yourself and the buyer is not only essential, but it is a key skill you need to develop. You have to be able to come across as being trustworthy in order to build that relationship because you need to remember that it is all too easy for them to go elsewhere and to another supplier if you do not fit the bill, and trust is one issue people will not just put to one side. Without trust, you basically have no sale and no chance of turning it into one. Never make something sound too good because the number of people who still live by the mantra that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is, would surprise you.

5. The ability to communicate

You must be able to communicate in a clear and concise manner to get anywhere in sales. A salesperson who just goes on and on will turn people away from them, so you must master the art of being able to put your point across in as concise a manner as possible. If you waffle, then you are going to lose that sale as people will switch off and stop listening to you long before you have finished talking.

You must be able to communicate clearly and without confusing them any further because what do you think would happen to your chances of completing a sale if you simply go ahead and make it sound even more complicated than it perhaps already does?

6. The ability to act on what the customer is saying to you

If the customer has a question, then act upon and answer it and if you do not know the answer, then this is the best time to be honest and find out as quickly as possible. A customer is never going to buy from you if they feel that they say something and it is just ignored as each customer wants to feel they are special in some way and not just another sales target.

Have you heard of the idea that actions speak louder than words? Well, that is certainly the case with sales and if you show you are indeed true to your actions, then you will see that those customers are going to do likewise with the way in which they then go and buy from you.

7. Show you are an expert

There is a real need for you to understand your products or service inside and out simply because potential customers are always going to see you as being the expert and you need to build their confidence in you by not letting them down with these thoughts. Educate them on what it is that you are selling, but never go over the top or you will just come across as being smug and that is hardly going to encourage people to spend money with you.

If you fail to come across as an expert, and appear to basically be lacking in knowledge of your product or service, then it will end the chances of you finishing the sale because would you trust somebody in that position?

8. Sell on different mediums

You need to be able to turn on the charm and sell to people no matter if it is face to face, by telephone, or even online as each option has its own difficulties and issues to overcome. Indeed, it can often be the case that face to face sales will be the easiest, even though for some people it is difficult as they hate dealing with people as directly as this. Being able to deal with questions, comments, and close deals via email, phone, or in person will greatly enhance your chances of turning yourself into a successful sales agent.

9. The ability to work on a personal level

The ability to work on a personal level is certainly something that any good salesperson must be able to do because even though you may be selling the same product time and time again, each time you interact with an individual is a new beginning. You are dealing with a new character with new needs or wants and a new way of looking and thinking about your product.

There is a strong need for you to then try to connect with them on their level and in a way that they will be able to understand what it is you are offering them. Treat everybody as an individual and as a unique person and you will be amazed at the way in which they can change their entire attitude towards you simply because you have taken the time to see them in this way.If you view them as just another buyer and do not make that connection, then how on earth can you expect to build that all important relationship?

10. Able to use technology to increase productivity

There is no doubt that the use of technology has been on the increase in recent decades and the way in which the cloud is now being utilised is going to be a massive game changer in the next few years. This means that salespeople out on the road are able to access even more information on the go which, in turn, makes it easier to deal with questions and to close the deal faster than ever before. 

If you are the kind of person that hates technology, then now is the time for you to learn how to love it because if you are serious about getting involved in sales in the world today, then there is only one way in which it is heading and that is the involvement of more and more technology.

There are various other skills that could have been included here such as being able to talk effectively on the telephone, the ability to use marketing to your advantage, and even how to manage your pipeline to increase your productivity. However, the 10 listed above are undoubtedly extremely important and should be skills that we believe everybody should possess for working within this industry.

5.3 How to Identify Your Weak Spots

As you look at the list of skills above, there is a pretty good chance you are starting to think about the ones which apply to you and those you are not as strong at.That is perfectly normal and it is actually very good for you to be of the opinion that you are a work in progress rather than already being perfect.

However, this then begs the question as to how exactly you manage to identify your weak spots in the first place and the answer to that is simple. You are going to have to get honest with yourself. There is no point in you believing that you are absolutely perfect because this is not going to be the case. Everybody, and we do mean everybody, is going to have a weak point and the problem is that in sales, this can be the difference between you making a sale and missing out.

Now, if you are going to be working for a sales company, then your training should allow your sales manager to focus on those parts of your approach you are perhaps not that strong on. If this is indeed the case, then at least it will let you see the areas that are going to require more work, but at the same time it should be backed up by the belief that there are certain parts that are stronger and there are certainly moments where those stronger areas are going to carry you through difficult sales pitches.

In other words, identifying your weak spots means you need to take a long hard look at yourself and you need to be prepared to be honest with yourself in order to make any kind of progress.

FACT

Sales is a talent-based profession, and so the best sales training will only improve the performance of an individual on average by 20%. So a 5% can become a 6%, but an 80% can become a 96%.

Source: salesforcetraining.com

5.4 How to Improve those Missing Skills

Once you have identified the skills that you are weaker at, it then begs the question as to how you then go about being able to improve on them so they are no longer an issue. The first thing we have to say is that the best way to improve on those skills which are perhaps lacking somewhat is to make sure you accept that there is an issue, because this alone will open up your mind to the need to improve in the first place.

At this point, you then need to be prepared to put in some work as there is no magic solution that will ultimately lead to you suddenly acquiring all of the skills you need.This may also sound like a cliché, but you need to be prepared to learn from your mistakes and there are going to be a number of them as you set out on your career in the world of sales. You need to be willing to accept that you make errors, but it is key that you study what went wrong, what you should have done differently, and then try to put those changes in place the very next time you are trying to make a sale.

Learning from your errors, and accepting that you have made them in the first place, is the only way in which you can ever hope to learn and to develop your skills all on your own. However, there is also a reason why new salespeople are often put with an experienced member of  staff prior to being allowed out on their own and that is connected to the way in which you can learn from those who have been there and done it all before.

Having what is effectively a mentor is certainly a good idea as they will be able to identify the areas you are having problems with and then actively demonstrate how you get around those problems and build your strength in those parts which were previously of concern to you. It does, therefore, help if you get on well and trust your mentor so you are more willing to absorb the information they are throwing your way.