10 Most Important Sales Skills

If you truly want to progress in your career, find a way to work in sales, either with your current company or employer or by taking a part-time sales job. Sales skills are extremely useful whether you work for someone else, own your own business, or even work in a role where you never interact with customers.

Here is top 10 most important sales skills one must know –

1. Product Knowledge

This is the most important skill required for an inside sales representative. You should always have intimate knowledge of the products you’re selling so that you have instant answers to all customer queries. This will help you give a strong pitch to clients which would eventually lead to sales. It also helps to gain the trust of your clients and customers. 

2. Communication Skills

It’s crucial to have good verbal and written communication skills when you’re working in this field. You should be able to communicate effectively as it highly impacts whether or not you’ll make a sale. Buyers value how the information is presented more than the information itself. The impression you leave on your customers impacts the way they perceive your company and its brand. 

Communication also includes being a great copywriter. It’s about how much sales uses email to communicate with buyers. The following points should be kept in mind while copywriting:

• The less the better. Keep it short and sweet.
• Personalize as many of your conversations as possible.
• Use bullets. Lists are easier to digest.
• Conclude with a call to action that asks the buyer to take the next step.

3. Storytelling

Good sales people always know how to weave the product and service they’re selling into story that has an arc and ends with the customer receiving what they want. It requires them to be clear and concise and engaging, and authentic. A good story will – help your company stand out in buyer’s mind , appeals to buyer’s emotions, encourages him to take action, help buyers to see how people have solved their problems using your product.for this, you ahould coach in how to tell stories, use case studies, research and other proof points that adds to the credibility of the story.

4. Listening Skills

Good listening skills definitely helps you connect with your clients much better. Rather than following the traditional method of formulating a response or follow-up question before the buyer finishes talking, you should stay in the moment and ensure to completely understand what the buyer is saying. By practicing active listening and understanding your clients’ needs and demonstrating that you genuinely care for them will also help you build a rapport. 

5. Buyer’s Research 

Knowledge is power. You need to speed up on different buyers, market trends, and the competitive landscape through research of specific buyers and companies to identify potential sales triggers. The information and knowledge gathered will help you make better decisions when it comes to selling products of your company.

6. Prospecting

Salespeople need to develop a strategic approach to prospecting and work on it daily to identify new business opportunities. This means being able to research potential buyers, conduct cold outreach and create new opportunities.  Effectively prospecting ensures customer sales in the future.

7. Customer relationship management tool skills

As sales representative, you need to understand the CRM you’re working with. Knowing the proper use of it will greatly improve your efficiency in the workplace. A few CRM features that will make your day to day tasks easier are- task reminders , bulk email sending, etc. 

8. Social Selling

A salesperson, if not an expert, should atleast know the basics of social media platforms and the latest trends. They should understand what is and isn’t acceptable for engaging prospects on social media. Personalized outreach coupled with a steady presence is important  it’s necessary to understand the best tricks and tactics for using them to your advantage.

9. Objection Handling

Sales objection when approached the right way, provide sellers with a valuable opportunity to ask more questions. A poorly managed objection can derail a good conversation. Ensure that you know how to deal with sales objections like skepticism or indifference. 

10. Technological Skills

Your role requires you to have working of various form of technology as it has quickly become vital and the trend isn’t going away anytime soon. You should know how to take advantage of various tools whether it’s call intelligence or conversational marketing software, your CRM, or a sales readiness platform. 

Mastering these 10 skills can make you the best salesperson not only in your company but in many companies. How many skills out of these 10 do you possess?