The DriveSales™ | Here are the Top Essential Soft Skills Every Salesperson Needs to Become Great Sales Rep!

If hard skills are the foundation of sales, soft skills are the mortar that hold them together. The importance of soft skills for sales professionals is backed up by recent research that shows soft skills training is one of the most significant trends in the labour market.

Overall, 80% of respondents believe employees’ soft skills are important to a company’s success, and 92% consider them as at least as important as hard skills. Hard skills might get you in the door, but the soft skills are what help you close the deal.

We buy from those we connect with!

“Clients respond to people who they perceive understand their position and are on their same wavelength,” says Jonathan Farrington (Top Sales Magazine).

We gravitate in life towards people with good energy, who have a warm personality, self-confidence and bring a positive mindset in all they do. Those are just some of the soft skills the best salespeople have.

Their prospects and customers have faithful trust in them as a salesperson. This leads to excellent customer retention throughout their sales career.

What are the Soft Skills in Sales?

“Soft skills include the personal attributes, personality traits, and communication abilities needed for success on the job. Soft skills characterize how a person interacts in their relationships with others.”

Soft skills are a set of interpersonal skills that help a salesperson to relate and communicate with others. These skills can also help a salesperson work more efficiently and reach to his/her full potential in a sales position.

With soft skills comes success!

A salesperson’s soft skills affect how comfortable customers feel throughout the process, but which ones have the most impact?

Although different organizations may value certain competencies more than others, competency in these areas is often an indicator of success:

1) Adaptability — The ability to adapt quickly is critical in sales as buyer preferences and the sales landscape are constantly evolving, and sales reps need to adapt accordingly. For example, “social selling” has recently become popular as sales reps are now generating leads and new business through social media platforms like LinkedIn. For many, this has replaced or complemented traditional activities such as cold calling or sending emails to connect with potential customers.

More recently, one of the ways COVID-19 has transformed selling has been that sales reps have had to adapt to the communication channels used. Businesses weren’t used to adopting video conferencing platforms like Zoom until we needed an alternative solution for face-to-face sales pitches without being in person.

2) Empathy — The importance of this soft-selling ability lies in the fact that only 3% of the population consider sellers to be trustworthy. You get the impression that sales reps only care about closing the deal when it really is what is best for the customer. For this reason, the ability to empathise with others and fully understand where they come from is a remarkable factor in building trust.

3) Confidence — Confidence is an emotion that can enhance a professional’s selling point, increase their credibility, and make their presentation sound more compelling. Customers may be more willing to purchase a product from a seller who they believe is knowledgeable about the product.

Sellers often approach strangers, so you must feel comfortable initiating conversations and arouse the interest of the prospect.

4) Problem-solving — Problem solving refers to the ability to find solutions to current and future problems that may arise. In the context of selling, a sales rep must be proactive in responding to things that can slow down the sales process. Suppose a sales rep understands that it takes multiple decision makers to close a sales deal. In this case, they can be proactive and ask everyone to join the initial conversation or Product Demo to resolve the issue

5) Resilience — One of the most common things sales reps’ experiences when selling is rejection. No matter how good or experienced you are in sales, you will miss more opportunities than you win. However, one difference between successful and average salespeople is their ability to recover and focus on the next deal, also known as resilience.

How to Improve Sales Soft Skills?

1) Reflect on your work performance- It’s important to understand the accomplishments and challenges you’ve experienced with your current level of soft skills. Reflecting on your work performance can unveil your strong abilities and the ones you may want to improve. Recall recent interactions with customers and how they responded to your sales pitch.

2) Practice your Delivery- Practicing your presentation can strengthen your communication style. Practice in front of a mirror to see yourself as the customer sees you. You can also record your presentation to monitor your non-verbal cues and speech patterns.

3) When you’re done, you can send the recording to a friend or family member, or you asking to impersonate potential customers while making your sales pitch. You can provide feedback on how they perceive your credibility as a seller.

4) Make it an ongoing process- Build confidence and competence through consistent practice. This is not a one-time way of learning. Reinforcement is essential. The more a person boosts skills, the more confident he becomes. The more confident they become, the better their sales experience.

5) You can improve the skills of any sales professional over time through continuous reinforcement, which can include scenarios, practice activities, daily microlearning training, and ongoing observation and feedback from employees.

6) Identify and close skills gaps- Focus on proactively identifying potential skill gaps through continuous reinforcement, practice and observation before skill gaps result in lost sales opportunities.

Now, as an effective SALESPERSON! We can do three things from here.

1. Not ignoring the opportunity and blaming the situation for revenue loss.

2. Taking important notes and going back to revisit your sales strategy with the growth mindset.

3. Reaching out to The DriveSales™ if you need any specialized help for sales.

To conclude, what you choose to think also provides some idea of your development as a consultative salesperson. It is something like Jonathan Farrington quotes “Clients respond to people who they perceive understand their position and are on their same wavelength.”

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