Prospects these days have minimal time to spend on a salesperson. Making full use of that limited time is what separates practical sales skills from the ineffective ones. For example, an effective Sales Call Plan allows the salesperson to have a clear strategy to open their call that gets prospects' attention, sparks their interest, fuels their desire, and prompts them to take action.
In this article, you're going to look into essential sales skills, probably, every salesperson should master.
This is key. Many productive salespeople are familiar with the concept "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail." You'll also find that most of them, in fact, do the contrary yet they're still successful. If you look close enough, you can see that those successes are lucky breaks. "If you leave your result to chance, you'll get chances results" or "Chances favor the prepared mind."
Being prepared is the best way to operate your sales effort.
Planning your sales call does not have to be hard or complicated. It could be as simple as gathering info and design the flow of the request.
You should be able to:
In short, it's the skill in selling in regards to creating a favorable impression. The concept of AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action - is where this skill rooted. It takes care of the 'attention' part, and it is one of the essential sales skills.
In selling, the presentation takes many forms and happens at every stage of the Sales Process. Presenting product or service well is an essential skill in selling salespersons needs to develop early and as strong as they possibly can. The dynamic change as they move ahead of a sales cycle. These days, show and tell are not enough.
Of all the steps in the selling process for sales representatives, this is the step they must rehearse the most. It could be the turning point where prospects turn to buyers, where apathetic turn to interested, and resigned to attentive.
You should be able to:
It's actually not adequate for making statements, uttering points, and stats without having the capability to demonstrate that it is based upon data or substantial evidence. This is becoming more imperative in today's hyper-competitive business environment. Why your solution stands apart from your competitors? Why are you saying so? Do you have anything to back you up?
Prospects prefer the evidence-based selling approach thus making this particular skill a valuable skill to develop.
You need to be able to:
Did the prospects have confidence in what you show and tell? Or do you employ the most common tricks previously devised that says, "If you cannot convince them, on them? If you cannot con them, confuse them!"? It is still commonly utilized even during the present-day selling ecosystem, but the difference is these days, prospects can smell 'con' salespeople from miles away, thanks to lightning speed communication technology.
Checking for buy-in requires you to pay attention to the prospects - their body language and responses.
It is almost natural that your prospects have the tendency to put aside your proposition. It's like a 'knee jerk' reaction. Thus, it is an essential sales skill for the modern salesperson to learn how to handle prospects' objections and move ahead in the sales process.
2. Acknowledge
3. Respond
4. Check
This is closing sales skills. Many salespeople make this their only objective in the day-to-day sales call. If you are one of them, you know the kind of pressure this creates just thinking about question after question your sales manager going to throw at you if you miss the plan.
Commitment should be specific, results-oriented, and realistic. You want your prospect to do something.
You go back to prospects on their unanswered query, to provide facts and data as promised, to prepare for event or program, etc. Follow up can be the missing link among the representatives who maintain and perform well from the representative who makes it a big one or two times then vanish.
Follow upstarts with recording your call. There is specific info that needs to be logged, not all, but individual info.
Analyzing a call works better if you have a system. It might be daunting, initially, but as time goes on, it will become second nature.
Essential Skills Every Salesperson Should Master
Pre-Sales call planning skill
This is key. Many productive salespeople are familiar with the concept "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail." You'll also find that most of them, in fact, do the contrary yet they're still successful. If you look close enough, you can see that those successes are lucky breaks. "If you leave your result to chance, you'll get chances results" or "Chances favor the prepared mind."Being prepared is the best way to operate your sales effort.
Planning your sales call does not have to be hard or complicated. It could be as simple as gathering info and design the flow of the request.
You should be able to:
- Identify the information you need before making the sales call
- Identify the sources for your information.
- Describe the concern of your typical prospect
- Filter out useful info on your prospect from the profile database and design question to uncover more info
- Come up with specific, realistic, and result-oriented objectives for the sales call.
- Develop a call plan to achieve the objectives
Call opening skill
In short, it's the skill in selling in regards to creating a favorable impression. The concept of AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action - is where this skill rooted. It takes care of the 'attention' part, and it is one of the essential sales skills.Here are your 3 keys to creating good first impressions:
- Develop rapport
- Established credibility
- Professional appearance
Presentation skill
In selling, the presentation takes many forms and happens at every stage of the Sales Process. Presenting product or service well is an essential skill in selling salespersons needs to develop early and as strong as they possibly can. The dynamic change as they move ahead of a sales cycle. These days, show and tell are not enough.Of all the steps in the selling process for sales representatives, this is the step they must rehearse the most. It could be the turning point where prospects turn to buyers, where apathetic turn to interested, and resigned to attentive.
You should be able to:
- a) Develop and deliver a strong Opening Statement (OS)
- b) List products feature and corresponding benefits
- c) Develop skills to present products effectively
Justifying sales message skill
It's actually not adequate for making statements, uttering points, and stats without having the capability to demonstrate that it is based upon data or substantial evidence. This is becoming more imperative in today's hyper-competitive business environment. Why your solution stands apart from your competitors? Why are you saying so? Do you have anything to back you up?Prospects prefer the evidence-based selling approach thus making this particular skill a valuable skill to develop.
You need to be able to:
- a) Prove key message with reprints
- b) Employ visual aid effectively
- c) Prove message during your product presentation
Check for buy-in skill
Did the prospects have confidence in what you show and tell? Or do you employ the most common tricks previously devised that says, "If you cannot convince them, on them? If you cannot con them, confuse them!"? It is still commonly utilized even during the present-day selling ecosystem, but the difference is these days, prospects can smell 'con' salespeople from miles away, thanks to lightning speed communication technology.Checking for buy-in requires you to pay attention to the prospects - their body language and responses.
- 1) Assess verbal and nonverbal clues
- 2) Probe for more info
- 3) Move towards commitment
Handling objections skill
It is almost natural that your prospects have the tendency to put aside your proposition. It's like a 'knee jerk' reaction. Thus, it is an essential sales skill for the modern salesperson to learn how to handle prospects' objections and move ahead in the sales process.Here are 4 steps you want to use when handling objections:
1. Clarify2. Acknowledge
3. Respond
- Show product features and benefits that refute or minimize the objection.
- Use third party info to emphasize any claim.
- Restate the related feature and benefits of the product.
4. Check
Getting commitment skill
This is closing sales skills. Many salespeople make this their only objective in the day-to-day sales call. If you are one of them, you know the kind of pressure this creates just thinking about question after question your sales manager going to throw at you if you miss the plan.Commitment should be specific, results-oriented, and realistic. You want your prospect to do something.
- a) Remind the prospect of the benefits you've discussed during your presentation
- b) Highlight the affirmative which reinforces their receptivity and prepares them to 'Yes.'
- c) Builds your confidence and conviction, preparing you to ask for a commitment
Follow up skill
You go back to prospects on their unanswered query, to provide facts and data as promised, to prepare for event or program, etc. Follow up can be the missing link among the representatives who maintain and perform well from the representative who makes it a big one or two times then vanish.Follow up call consists of two components:
- record your call
- analyze your call
Follow upstarts with recording your call. There is specific info that needs to be logged, not all, but individual info.
Analyzing a call works better if you have a system. It might be daunting, initially, but as time goes on, it will become second nature.