What Skills Do You Need To Be A Great Sales Person?

"You’d be a good fit in sales", said HR Director Kevin Sheerin at the conclusion of my first ever psychometric assessment, way back in 1980. ‘Really?’, I thought.

So, as an aspiring engineer, I ignored that entirely, continuing onward with plans for an engineering degree and a career in a blue chip engineering organisation. After all, I wasn't a sales person, was I?

Fast-forward 35 years and here I am, running a business development consultancy that specialises in sales and leadership and looking back on a career in sales of some 25 years and counting. So apart from the fact that I didn't know what I wanted at the tender age of 19, when I finally did see the light and pursue a career in sales, what was it that I needed to have in terms of the competencies required to be successful at this game?

As important as skills are - and we'll come to those in a moment - it is attitude above all else that will likely be our making - mark us out of successful, whether in a sales career or any other for that matter. Attitudinal qualities of positivity, confidence, tenacity and enthusiasm are absolute essentials in sales.

We often hear people talking about these attitudes and that’s because they reveal pretty much everything about the way we go about applying our skills, so it’s this combination of skills and attitudes that will determine our success.

  • People skills: if you're not interested in people then stay away from selling. To be successful in selling you must be interested in people and that means being interested in everything about them - their dreams, desires, family, motivations, hobbies, pastimes and career - absolutely everything about a customer becomes of paramount importance to you, so it’s essential to understand people first and foremost
  • Listening: it’s generally reckoned that as we’re born with two ears and one mouth, we should use them in that ratio, yet this will confer the bare minimum requirement for selling. When I really started to understand the sales process, my boss suggested that in an hour's conversation with a prospect at an opportunity meeting, I should be speaking for five minutes, maximum - the remainder of the time I should be questioning, listening and paying very close attention
  • Planning: a key attitude required of salespeople is to be proactive, especially when it comes to planning; it is us that needs to make things happen and this starts with us researching suspects (and prospects), planning our approach and choosing the communication channel. What are we going to say at the first meeting? How are we going to plan an effective week of sales calls? These things fall to us to plan and execute and the stark truth is that we won’t become a successful salesperson unless we do
  • Presenting: Being on the customer’s agenda is pivotal in selling, but there will come a time when you need to present your solution - what you and your company will deliver for your prospect. This is the time for good presentation skills. There’s a presentations resource elsewhere on this website but in essence, a good presenter needs to keep things simple, be congruent in words and actions, articulate him/herself clearly, be compelling in demonstrating confidence and belief and finally, be focussed on that point where the next question is likely to be a closing one!
  • Organisation: Of the many skills required, one is the ability to be organised. Planning is one aspect of being organised and another is taking the lead in promoting conversations and in making things happen. Effectively leading the prospect through the sales process requires you to be organised too. There may be other stakeholders who need to be involved, so what have you done to involve them? Others in your organisation may be required to contribute to the solution, so have you organised their involvement and secured their buy in?
  • Communication: The ability to communicate effectively is central to the success of all businesses and for a salesperson, it’s absolutely critical. When communicating, you transmit and receive, often at the same time so getting it right can be challenging. You must ensure that your customer understands exactly what you’re saying - there’s no room for interpretation or doubt. Your job is to lead the communication and to get people involved and this can be challenging too because every one of us is different. On a basic level however, your job is to make sure communication actually happens and, if you do this, you’re off to a great start
  • Rapport Building: I’d been in selling for 12 years before I really got to understand the sales process and when I did, it allowed me an understanding of where I was competent and, where I was not! My ability to build rapport was strong; this part of my process would regularly last 20 - 30 minutes for me and the business part of the conversation 10 -15! There was no doubt I was good at it and it's essential in breaking the ice and getting the conversation flowing but, it’s also important to recognise the point when we have to bridge to the business agenda, which means getting onto the customer’s agenda
  • Objection Handling:To master this you will need to hear objections and this invariably means you need to be good at qualifying and asking those key questions at the appropriate time. Your ability to effectively handle objections will be built on your ability to 1) identify and ring-fence the objection 2) relate to the objection and 3) respond to the objection with a compelling resolution. You know when you’ve done this effectively - the next question you ask will be another closing question, followed by the answer you’re looking for. “You have a deal!”

Image Credit - Adobe CC