12 Most Important Sales Skills

1. Understand the objectives

Often sales representatives fail to understand what their objective is. They feel that their duty is to bring order to the organisation. Yes, it is true, bringing order is the most vital thing, not for the salesperson only but for the entire organisation. However, that is not all.
Every standard company has standard job objectives for the sales team. It may not be an exact match between the two companies, but some common aspects are, supporting marketing efforts, creating a good reputation in the market for the company, closing with higher margins, working as a team and most vital 100% collection of AR.

2. Technical/product knowledge

A salesperson need not be an expert in the subject, however, should have in-depth knowledge of the product. Also, a salesperson remains average or below average knowing their own product only. A good salesperson should know the competitor’s products in equal depth. Then only a salesperson can add value in selling as otherwise just a support staff of buying.

3. Developing relation

Relation matters most in a sales job. Usually, customers always have several choices and whatever a salesperson says about his/her superiority, several products are always available above acceptable level but price competitive. All buyers always prefer to buy from the salesperson or company they like. However, one aspect to remember is that a customer should not take advantage of the relationship and bleed the company buying against the rock bottom prices. All sales representative’s fundamental responsibility, not selling only but bringing value (mostly good margin) for the company.

4. Handling objections

It is very important for a salesperson. When you have completed your selling, used all sales skills and asked for commitment then the customer may not show much positive response. It can be price, timing, solution or many other reasons. Here salesperson needs to handle the situation with a high level of maturity. This point required detailed discussion as well as to guide the tricks of how to handle objections.

I wish I could write separate articles on all these points, especially on conflict management. Keep watching this blog.

5. Presentation skill

Presentation means not only PPT presentation. However, it starts with positioning oneself in a presentable manner.
Follow the simple rules,
i) Use simple and clean dresses.
ii) Use less expensive accessories.
iii) Speak in a humble but confident manner.
iv) Do not react wrongly if a customer hurts you but do not hide.

In my view, customers always like a little less smart but genuine person than an over-smart person. If your English is not good may not be an issue but your attitude should be pleasing. All of us are customers of many business organisations and you can recheck which kind of salesperson you like.

Other than the above soft skills a salesperson should have clarity on what to talk, how much to talk, when not to talk, how much to listen and how to support counter a view.
The quality of giving a formal presentation is the icing on the cake.

6. Positioning of the product

It is very important to position a product for selling which can ultimately bring higher margin satisfying the purpose of the buyer. Wrong positioning can lead to loss of order and even order comes that may not be a pleasant order. One needs to have very good knowledge of the competitor’s products so he/she can identify which of his products will be positioned to overcome technical qualifications but lower in price than competitor products. Also, knowing the customer’s application, desire, must-have and would-have mindset and budget is important to position own product. To make it simple, when a customer has a budget of 50k INR then talking about the good features of the iPhone and position that can be foolish and fatal.

The above discussion considering purchase through the tender process. Almost all government customers and many private customers follow it. However, in some cases, you may find a customer is very focused on quality and ready to pay a premium for it. In that case also positioning a product is important, which satisfies his/her desire but he/she feels can see value for money.

7. Negotiation

I am not discussing much on it because this is the most vital part. I discussed the same in detail in many articles. Even, you must have seen that the first slide on top says, ‘Unless you are an expert of negotiation, your sales skills can not deliver the desired result’. So read those articles to learn negotiation and sharpen your negotiation skills.

8. Team player

Everyone says that they are team players. However, in this complicated world, there can be many reasons which are derogative to team play.
Though team play is important for every job function but an uncompromised skill for a salesperson. The reason is that every other job function can have dozens of excuses for non-performance but the salesman has no excuse as the number is ultimate.
As such, it may be sometimes humiliating, sometimes need to absorb the arrogance of poor mindset people, and sometimes need to sacrifice to encourage teamwork as the job demands this. Needless to mention, sales representatives rewards are also much higher than other job functions is a satisfying thing against sacrifices.

9. Goal orientation

I started this blog with an article where I compare sales with footfall. Eleven players play on the field for one reason which is scoring a goal. It is true in sales also. Everyone in an organisation works for order directly or indirectly and order is the ultimate goal for a salesperson. This does not mean anyhow or somehow to achieve the goal but doing it ethically. On the contrary, a salesperson does everything but at the end of the month fails to deliver numbers repeatedly

10. Time management

Sales representatives need to do multiple jobs. Meeting customers, marketing support, developing leads, presentation, arranging quotations by oneself or using the back office…endless. So, a person who has good time management skills can manage all these efficiently.

We all have 24 hours a day where we not only perform job responsibilities but to provide adequate time for our family. So, work on your own time management and avoid firefighting.

11. Closing skills

The biggest mistake of a salesman is that he /she does everything but either feels shy or forgets to ask for the order. Nothing wrong to remind customers politely that whatever you are doing all are for the order.

Also, I used to say, fast closing is very important. When the case continues for more than the desired time, mostly there is something which is against the Sales reps or organisation. Either –
Competitors entered and trying to convert the case.
Budget allocation problem
Some anti-group of customers is giving veto
If nothing else like the above then also the price of the product may go up eating up the margin.

12. Stop overthinking and over-engagement.

Some of the customers may not like a nagging salesman who visits or reminds them very frequently. Need to understand the usual speed of the project and act accordingly.
Also, overthinking may not only be bad for the prospect but your health and family peace. Try your best, work intelligently, work hard and keep rest on almighty. No one can have a cent percent win but you must develop a winning habit. It may be that your boss putting too much pressure on you, especially if he/she lacks leadership skills or less maturity in his/her position. Explain to him/her and try to tackle him/her professionally instead of he/she tackles you unprofessionally. It is often observed that juniors are more mature to deal with a situation, so never think your boss is always great. Logic works more than argument.

There are hits of several skills a salesperson needs to learn but these are some uncompromised skills directly related to your job function and success as a salesperson. One need to study each skill in depth and try to develop himself/herself.

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