This is our list of sales skills with examples to give a glimpse of what it takes to be successful in selling today. Selling is a purposeful and producer focused profession. Every time we engage with a customer, send an email, or have a meeting, we must ask ourselves, “What is the purpose of this?” This leads on to questions such as what sales skills are required for each step or stage? how do we approach our selling activity? What is the difference between hard and soft sales skills etc? Today, sales expertise, talent and the sales experience is now the top reason buyers choose a supplier. So, skills, knowledge and the sales mindset takes on renewed significance. When we consider what customers are looking for, what they are trying to avoid, and what tips the scale in favor of the winning supplier, the sales task is clear. We need the skills to build our sales tactics around deep industry insight and expertise. To clearly demonstrate that we can solve the challenge at hand. This is what the modern buyer is seeking and what converts them into paying customers. Instead of hard selling customers on our offerings, our focus is on serving them. Or another way to look at this is to aim on having our time together be valuable for them, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. We must be able to position our company to be relevant to our customers ongoing and evolving needs. This means we must first understand what those needs are and how they are changing. Then we must make it clear how our expertise can address those challenges or pains. Then we need to build our sales skills to nurture and stay in contact with customers more frequently, educating them, not selling to them. Listening to them, not telling them. Do what it takes to be perceived as a Visible Expert—a respected subject matter expert and trusted advisor. This leads us on to the rise of relevance as buyers seek out, are loyal to, and refer suppliers that they believe can drive their business success. Increasingly, it takes specialized sales expertise to beat the competition. Today, sales talent is now a key differentiator. A salesperson with great sales skills is the top factor that tips the scales for buyers. That means the quality of our sales skills directly affects the bottom line. The modern buyer is business savvy and expects more than the value that comes with the purchasing the product. They want more than the value our company adds in. They want unique, relevant, personalized value. The only place they can get that is from us, the seller, human-to-human. They expect us to create value in every interaction with them. The rate of change of technology is driving an increasingly competitive selling environment, lowering barriers to entry for companies and products. While the expectations and preferences of customers continue to evolve. These forces are changing how businesses and salespeople operate – from selling tactics and business models to product offerings. What are sales skills? We know that selling is an exchange of one product or service for something else in return (usually money). The key is streamlining our sales process so that our efforts result in higher sales numbers and higher returns on our time investment. In a nutshell, selling is successfully influencing the buying decision of the client.  “Selling success is contingent upon the sales skills of the salesperson,  not the attitude of the customer.” Our role as the salesperson is to be effective in all our sales efforts, so our activity and communication facilitates the decision making for the customer.  To do this, we must be able to. ·         Open meaningful conversations with a customer. ·         Understand the business issues of the customer. ·         Help customers to understand these issues. ·         Build an effective solution. ·         Link the proposed solution to the issues. List of Sales Skills with Examples Sales is about getting a prospect or customer to take action. “Teach customers something new and compelling and provide reasons for them to act” To improve selling opportunities, we need to understand the buyer, their pain, what they want to gain and then we need to add value to open up the buyer to change. Selling today is all about recognising the true motivations of buyers and aligning our presentations and solutions to match their needs and desires. Be an expert. To be an exceptional salesperson we need to start with knowledge. We are knowledgeable on the products we sell alongside the market or industry. We are experts on product uses, benefits, operations, procedures etc. Because of our knowledge, we don’t have to sell ourselves as hard as we can narrow down the relevant information the customer needs to understand. We know that our personality is an important factor in sales, but it pales in comparison to our knowledge and the ability to answer the questions a customer brings to conversations. We understand that our buyers aren’t looking for a new friend, they are looking to improve and enhance their business results. Our sales mindset. Those of us who consider our ability to be malleable (a growth mindset) will strive to develop it by setting challenging goals. We consider effort an inherent part of the learning process and setbacks to be fruitful experiences to assimilate. We are characterised by a greater passion for learning and a decreased anxiety in the conception of failure. This leads us to stretch and expend efforts to reach our full potential. We are more responsive to feedback, more resilient and persist for longer, cope better with change, have better self-management, higher self-esteem, wellbeing, and mental health. No matter what level of sales ability we have, we know that effort ignites ability and ability turns into accomplishment and achievement. Creative Thinking. Did you know that sales creativity is a higher order thinking skill (HOTS)? Creative thinking is an important life skill for the 21st Century thatList of Sales Skills with Examples