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Soft Skills That Every Marketer Needs to Master
4 min read
Well, soft skills are basically non-job specific aptitudes, which are generally considered as social skills, such as how you interact with others or how good you are at solving a situation, etc. Called Soft Skills in English, some predominant characteristics may be:
- Communication skills
- Leadership
- Work ethic
- Creative problem solving
- Time management
- Conflict resolution
- Teamwork
While in business, "hard" skills can be learned and are necessary to perform activities well.
However, soft skills are very important, as they are the personal attributes that help people interact effectively with others.
Research from Harvard University indicates that 85% of a professional's success in performance is due to the good development of their soft and personal skills.
Soft skills that every salesperson needs to master.
It is clear that if you cannot manage your sales funnel, you will lose many sales opportunities.
Of course, this depends a lot on the skills your sales team puts in place when picking up the phone or sending a cold email to a customer.
That's why we give you 10 soft skills that we believe every sales person needs to be 100% proficient in:
1. Be organised
If he or she is a systematic person (who follows your sales pitch to the letter), during the first customer contact, he or she will surely be able to maximise his or her chances of closing and be efficient along the way to be able to attack a larger number of negotiations.
2. Willingness to learn
It goes without saying that before being on a sales call, he or she has to go through a training process. However, those who are willing to go the extra mile will do it faster and generate a return for your business more quickly.
3. Ability to demonstrate experience
If your sales person becomes an expert on your product and the market, they can build trust and handle objections easily.
4. Handling Objections
No matter how good your product is, people will try to make excuses for you or tell you straight out: no.
Here your salesperson needs to quickly and confidently turn every objection into an opportunity to show new value.
Important fact:
A salesperson should never answer "no" in a sales meeting.
Regardless of the question/objection, a talented salesperson must be able to move the conversation in a direction that is favorable. According to Marketing Donut:
- 44% of salespeople give up after one "no" from a customer
- 22% give up after two "no"
- 14% give up after three "no"
- 12% give up after four "no".
Combined with the fact that 80% of prospects say "no" FOUR times before they say yes, Marketing Donut recommends a "Five No's" strategy, where sales teams continue to hold on to it and work through the Five No's before the customer can be fully qualified.
5. Another Soft Skill, every salesperson has to have attitude
You must thrive in a world of rejection.
He or she must always be hungry for more success.
He or she must have a short memory for success and failure.
6. Be master of a sense of humor
The ability to lighten a tense situation is really important.
And who doesn't like to smile anyway?
Conversations become more interesting, people pay more attention, and the tone resonates better.
7. Have a sense of Urgency
Your salesperson cannot be totally lax in negotiations and succeed.
He or she has to manage a sense of urgency, which has to be controlled in the process, so as not to cross the line into desperation.
8. Be authentic
If your salesperson cannot be sincere, no one will trust him and therefore, they will not be able to close deals.
9. Knows how to put in value
Talking about characteristics is easy.
However, talking about the end value to a user is sometimes complicated, but not impossible to sell.
Clearly this can be learned along the way, with a lot of training and experience.
10. Key soft skill, knowing how to listen
Remember that listening and hearing are two different actions.
A customer does not like to be "talked at".
A prospect likes to have his needs and desires recognized, through a conversation where your salesperson has to put your product in value, hand in hand with what he understands about your client.
Running through a sales pitch is 80% irrelevant to the prospect's needs and is a lazy way to handle negotiations.
Implement soft skills in your sales team, right now!
Soft skills refer to both character traits and interpersonal skills that will influence how well a person can work or interact with others.
The term soft skills covers a wide range of skills as diverse as teamwork, time management, empathy and delegation.
These are personal attributes that influence how well a person can work or interact with others.
They facilitate the formation of relationships with people, build trust and reliability, and lead teams.
They are essential to your success in the workplace, the success of your business and your personal life.
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