Steffan Edward Bote Shares the Most Crucial Skills Required for a Sales Career
Sales is a uniquely demanding field, and employees must exhibit certain skills in order to be considered good job candidates. Salespeople need to have a special touch with communication, the determination to follow through with a sale, and the creativity to develop new methods of disseminating their sales message, among many other positive traits.
Sales executive, Steffan Edward Bote of Calgary, Alberta, shares the most important skills that all quality sales personnel share, including an explanation of how companies can help new salespeople hone their skills.
1. Prospecting Ability
Prospecting involves looking for new leads. To be a successful salesperson, professionals must be able to develop strategic approaches to the prospecting process. Salespeople must be creative and change tactics when old tactics are not working. This especially applies to the prospecting process.
To develop these skills, Steffan Edward Bote recommends creating training programs that focus on one sales area at a time, ensuring that everyone has absorbed the core principles and can apply them before moving on to the next topic.
2. Communication Skills
Communication skills may be the most important quality of a great salesperson. Without strong communication skills, it is difficult to develop the customer rapport that is the basis of a positive relationship with clients.
Salespeople need to be able to exhibit compassion, tact, and positivity. They need to have an excellent grasp on the company’s pain points and ensure that the client is comfortable with them to the point where they can share their difficulties.
Writing, speaking, and digital communication are essential in today’s sales world. Salespeople must be equally able to handle situations from cold calling to the final wrapup of a deal.
3. Business Skills
Without an eye for business, salespeople will be left confused by many of the actions they need to take. They need to be able to take in and interpret business reports and understand what forces shape the way their customers do business.
Salespeople need to understand the return on investment (ROI) both from a customer perspective and from the sales department’s perspective. It is a good idea to have expert help with the training materials for each department.
4. Special Listening Skills
Listening skills tie in with communication skills. Many business leaders like to hear the sound of their own voices and neglect to stop talking and listen to others’ concerns. Salespeople especially need to be able to sit down and fully listen to their clients.
Techniques like paraphrasing what was said can help to increase understanding. Never interrupt the client, and make sure that they understand the sales process and the product before moving on.
5. Handling Setbacks
Setbacks are a fact of life in sales. Sometimes customers will object to buying a product or will not like some aspect of the deal being made. When objections are properly managed, “no” can become “yes.” Never get openly frustrated with your customer, and try not to browbeat them into accepting your offer.
6. Storytelling Skills
Storytelling helps your company appeal to the customer’s emotions. It gives your company an easy way to stand out in a crowd. Finally, it can show customers how companies similar to their own handled challenges with the help of your product or service.
Stories should be based on research and case studies for maximum credibility. It is not enough to spin an unbelievable tale.
7. Negotiation Skills
All salespeople need to be experts in the art of the deal. Some less experienced salespeople may feel pressured into offering excessive price discounts when an objecting customer pressures them. Still, they need to be able to stand their ground and offer a mutually workable situation.
8. Presentation
When creating sales presentations, it is a good idea to focus more on the customer’s needs than on the product’s specific features. Make an informative, engaging presentation, or you risk losing your customers to boredom or distraction. They should be fully engaged in the process of choosing your product or service over the competition.
Representatives can be trained to present great presentations. Managers should record their practice presentations and critique them.
9. Social Selling
The proper leverage of social media is huge in today’s business landscape. Employees need to be trained to use social media properly, including balancing promotional posts with useful content for prospective customers. Avoiding “spamming” potential customers is a huge part of proper social media management.
Salespeople need to be trained to sell on social media and to target the best possible prospects. Your company should have a solid social media sales plan.
Leveraging Sales Skills
These nine skills come together to define effective salespeople. Steffan Edward Bote wants to make sure that sales managers understand that everyone brings their own skills to the table.
These skills do not have to be innate; they can be honed when training is properly conducted. Steffan Edward Bote believes that sales managers should look into specialized training for their employees to work on these skills.
