6 skills of highly effective sales professionals

Type on Google about this topic, and you’ll get plenty of blogs stating what according to them are the best. Everyone is right at some level. But what I plan to list out here are the skillsets that a sales professional in a tech industry needs to have. And as you can imagine, a lot of the skills are cross functional between different industries, so master the ones below and you can expect great success irrespective of what you are offereing as part of your product or service portfolio.

1. Trustworthiness: 

This isn’t a skill but a characteristic that you as a person should have. A lot of consumers might think of this as a quality that’s not prevalent within the ‘sales industry’ and that’s why it’s all the more important to possess it. I’m sure you as a customer would like to do business with someone who has your trust. The same is the case with practically all the customers. If you have this crucial characteristic, you’ll be amazed to find out the amount of references your current/past customers will offer you. Being trustworthy is not just a lifestyle choice but also makes business sense.

2. Following-up: 

This is an extremely important skill, so much so that, your entire career depends on it. From the time you get into a sales role, you should get into the habit of keeping a note of the people you have to get back to and at what periods of time. Today, this task is made a lot easier with software that reminds you of the actions you have to take. But even those software need some inputs to work. Software or not, it’s essential to have a mechanism on your own to be able to get back to people. If you want to learn about the statistics on follow-up and methods you can incorporate to imbibe this skill please refer to my previous blog on the subject.

3. Prospecting: 

To put it straight: You’ll be successful in sales if you get enough business for your company. You’ll get enough business, if you have a lot of prospects to talk to. You’ll have lots of prospects if you had generated enough leads to begin with. And the only way you’ll have enough leads is by actively prospecting to get them. Prospecting is a skill that if missed, can being down a highly successful sales professional to a zero pretty soon. There are a number of ways you can prospect and No, calling/social media aren’t the only ways. To get more insight into this topic, read my earlier blog by clicking here.

4. Following-through: 

This is something that you will not find often in any of the sales books, that’s because a lot of sales books or manuals stop once the sale is closed. But if you really want to make a difference in the way your customers perceive you compared to the rest of the lot, this is an important characteristic to have. Quite often, sales people promise a lot during the sales cycle and then go missing once the sale is made. In the tech industry, there is a sales team and then there is a delivery team, which means that, once a sale is made by the salesperson, the delivery team is then entrusted with the delivery of the project. While it’s not your job duty, but it’s important that in the early days of execution, you as a sales person that sold the deal, stand by your delivery counterparts to ensure that the delivery is running smoothly. This will also give the customer the confidence to know that you follow-through on the promises made to them. 

There can be times, when due to unforeseen reasons, certain things that were promised during the sales cycle cannot be accomplished. In those cases its important to be upfront with the customer and offer solutions that act as a workaround to the issue at hand. This method is much better than trying to leave the delivery teams to handle the mess, as it not only affects the company’s credibility when dealing with future projects, but also messes up your reputation as someone who cannot deliver on the promises made.

5. Listening: 

Contrary to the popular belief, this is much more important for a sales professional to learn, compared to speaking. Remember that the sales person is not someone who rambles off a rehearsed ptich and gets the sale, but the person who is empathetic to the prospects needs, and the only way to know the needs are by listening. While it might seem as a very simple skill, a lot of sales professionals lack this vital skill. This doesn’t come naturally as you might think, you have to be deliberate about learning it. It’s always a good idea to take notes when you believe that you’ll miss out on some crucial information. This should be done subtly while not making the prospect feel ignored (its a good idea to take permission before pulling out a pen and paper). For more tips to nail this skill down, click here.

6. Negotiation:

I’m sure a lot of you were waiting for this skill to be listed out here. So yes, here you have it! It’s one of the skills that a sales professional has to learn if you got to cross the finish line. There are a lot of books on this topic, some aggresive, some passive-aggresive and the some others. There isn’t a method that fits all, as its a quality that is dependent on a salesperson’s persona as well. 

Important point to note is that negotiation isn’t about getting everything you want, because if you do, you would have won the current deal but good luck trying to get the next one. Do a simple exercise and you’ll know what I mean: put yourself in the prospect’s shoes. Now, imagine at the end of the negotiation the person selling you the deal got all that they wanted and left you short-handed. Would you feel happy or slighted? And, would you like to do business with that person again? 

What I have found that works for me is to have the empathy and emotional quotient while negotiating a deal. Get the listening skill right and you’ll be able to understand the prospect far better to offer something in return that can be seen as a win for both sides. Get to this point, so that you not only have this deal but have a good chance at getting the future ones too.

CONCLUSION:

While there are many more skills that are necessary to be extremely successful in sales, the ones listed here are among the most essential. As with any skill, practice and persevearance will make you a natural at this profession. A profession which is among the most rewarding careers one can have.