A salesperson has to be educated and well-versed in many other areas, honing both soft and hard skills. So what skills are essential for a sales specialist? The majority will name sociability and the ability to persuade at the top of the list. Well, it makes sense, though these two skills aren’t the only ones required. Here are some more points to a salesperson’s skill set.
Domain Knowledge
It goes without saying that a person should know the theory of their specialization. Communication with leads, closing techniques, post-sale customer management, etc. shouldn’t be based on an intuitive approach only. When a person puts some practice behind knowledge, they can come up with their own effective methods.
Product Knowledge
Besides sales theory, a specialist needs to know the industry they represent and the products they are selling. A salesperson should be able to answer clients’ questions in detail momentarily unless it is a unique request that requires discussion with top management or other team members.
Communication Skills
This skill encompasses several significant competencies: in particular, conversational intelligence, active listening, literacy, conflict resolution, and building rapport. A salesperson should be outgoing and able to find common ground even with complicated clients, talking their way through the doubts and delivering the value with words.
Analytical Thinking
A sales specialist needs to plan campaigns and think over approaches to different clients. Therefore, information gathering and analysis are a part of job responsibilities. Attention to detail and analytical thinking helps to understand a client better and, thus, to come up with efficient plans.
Strategic Planning
Every sales strategy is a result of careful planning; it doesn’t turn out well spontaneously. One more important task is sales prospecting. Besides, a sales specialist often assists a marketing team in creating client engagement strategies. So as you can see, there is a lot of strategic planning for a salesperson to do.
Empathy
The idea of an empathic approach is gaining momentum. Whether we are talking about banking or grocery shopping, analysts keep emphasizing the growing role of empathy – understanding clients and resonating with their problems. An ability to walk in a client’s shoes and demonstrate a caring attitude will be of great help.
Problem Solving
Every sales specialist comes across a problematic client or problematic case. The circumstances can vary, but in any case, they call for intellectual flexibility and conflict resolution. A sales pro should be able to focus on their goal and deal with any obstacles efficiently.
Time Management
Well, it is a skill every person will find useful, if not life-saving. A sales specialist needs to switch between different tasks and clients. It requires good concentration and careful planning of a daily routine, especially if we are talking about people working in the field.
Digital Literacy
From emails to customer relationship management software and social media – a list of tools a salesperson uses daily is very long. Struggling with any of the tools slows down the entire process. It also causes inaccuracies in analysis and difficulties with planning.
Ambitiousness
A desire to grow professionally, the ability to learn new things, and a strive for continuous improvement manifest a person’s professionalism and motivation. Without these two things, it would be difficult to tell whether a person is going to make a good sales specialist. In the end, change is all around, and every field and profession needs to adjust.
To Sum Up
We won’t claim that this list of skills isn’t an ultimate set of traits and competencies. Probably, there are other abilities and competencies that will be helpful for a specialist building their career in sales. To keep up with the market demands, a salesperson should follow the trends, keep learning, and be eager to test new hypotheses and methods in practice. The more skills you can feature in your CV, the easier it will be to do well at work and grow professionally.
