10 Soft Skills Every Salesperson Needs to Get Ahead

Almost every small business or big company has a team of salespeople. Presenting and selling a product or service is not an easy job. Besides knowing what you’re offering, there are plenty of soft skills every salesperson needs to master. While the number of people in sales grows, it becomes obvious that some people do this job better than others. So, what makes the salesperson good at their job? Is it empathy or great communication? The answer to this question is everything but simple. There is a wide range of hard and sales soft skills a person needs to be good at sales. Take a look at how you can improve your soft skills while selling and gain more profit from this job.

What makes a salesperson good at their job?

It’s not a secret that great salespersons bring the biggest profits to their companies. This certainly doesn’t mean that they profit all the time. Closing the deal is not easy, but it’s the goal for everyone in sales. However, this is not the part of the process that keeps the customers coming back. A great salesperson always builds a strong relationship with a customer, which often leads to a win-win situation. With this skill, even without closing the deal, a salesperson will bring more customers back and increase revenue in the long run.

There’s more to sales than just bringing profit to the company. Making customers smile and satisfied with the purchase also brings a great reputation to the brand. So, improving sales soft skills is a process that constantly evolves, and by doing so, everyone can profit.

Work on building a relationship

If we wanted to summarize sales soft skills every salesperson needs, it would be – building a relationship with customers. Emotional and logical intelligence plays a big role in creating a trustworthy relationship. By having this skill, salespersons can create a bond and keep the customers coming back for more products. For example, an average shoe store will have more profit if people who sell those shoes put a smile on people’s faces. A trustworthy relationship will bring recommendations, positive online reviews, and plenty of new customers.

Tell a story

Whether a product is good or bad, there is always a story behind making it. This story can be about the interesting process of production or an empathetic anecdote with a previous customer. For example, if you are trying to sell a product your company produced, tell your customers more about this process. This can be a great way to make them more interested in buying while bringing interesting details to the conversation.

Focus on growth

When working in sales, there is always room for improving one’s skills. People with a mindset which is focused on growth know that their experience is the key to gaining wider knowledge. No matter how good a salesperson is at their job, there is always room for improvement of sales soft skills. For people who practice this job daily, experience is the key to success. A growth mindset is one of the best soft skills a person in sales can have.

One of the best ways to incorporate this skill in your sales technique is to change the perspective of a bad income. While some people see it as a failure, others think of it as a chance to change their ways. Losing the chance to close the deal can be a perfect opportunity for growth, which ultimately turns into a learning experience.

Be able to adapt

Handling customers is one of the most stressful jobs one can have. Depending on the type of product or service you sell, handling customers is a never-ending learning experience. In order to learn how to deal with the most demanding customers, it’s important to be able to adapt to different situations.

Being a good listener is one of the best sales soft skills. While a customer is having second thoughts or delaying the purchase, a salesperson should focus on finding out their needs. During this process, there is always room to distract a customer with a product that will better fit their needs. If you can adapt, you will minimize the stress when dealing with demanding customers.

Be empathetic

It’s not easy to understand the mindset of most customers. Being indecisive and having trouble with decision-making are just some of many frustrating thoughts. However, a good salesperson should always try to be empathetic and put themselves in the customer’s shoes. This soft skill helps a salesperson understand other people’s needs, which further improves their selling technique.

Develop resilience

Resilience is another one of many sales soft skills to learn. Learning it will be the key to avoiding disputes during stressful situations. In sales, there are plenty of customers who act everything but nice. A professional salesperson should become resilient to unfriendly behavior and try to stay objective and calm at all times. Handling a situation with resilience makes this job a hundred times easier. However, this skill usually takes years to develop, since it depends on one’s experience.

Work on communication skills

When a customer wants to learn more about the product or service, simply answering with yes and no is not enough. In order to bring the product closer to the customer, an experienced salesperson needs to develop great communication skills. Staying focused, friendly, and open during communication is the key to closing a deal. When it comes to sales soft skills, great communication will probably summarize most of them.

Be (emotionally) smart

Logical intelligence is a must-have trait of every successful salesperson. However, emotional intelligence is not a skill everyone has. Luckily, this soft skill is possible to learn, especially for people who are honest with themselves and their feelings.

A great way to practice emotional intelligence in sales is to be self-aware and pay attention to verbal and non-verbal signs. Depending on the customer’s mood, there is always a way to turn the situation into a win-win outcome. 

Stay humble

Telling plenty of positive things about the product is always a good idea. However, showing off in front of customers has the opposite effect. Presenting a product with too much pride can seem ignorant and distracting. In the case of answering a question a customer asked, it’s better to back off than talk about things you don’t know. One of the best sales soft skills is staying humble and knowing what you should or shouldn’t say.

Overall, there are plenty of soft and hard skills a salesperson should learn. Only after incorporating all of them can one say they’re experienced at their job. Working in sales is everything but easy, so constant improvement is always recommendable.