Achieving your sales quota is no easy feat. We all know that it takes a great deal of hard work, long hours and dedication. It can become disheartening when you put in so much effort and still somehow find your sales performance lacking.
Being a great sales rep requires more than just a natural aptitude or ‘gift of the gab’. There are particular skills which, when honed and developed, can make those hard-won conversions far easier to come by. Read on to learn the top skills you need to be working on to increase your sales performance training.
Research Skills
The better informed you are about your customers, your competitors, and current market trends, the better your sales performance will be. Knowing what it is your customers are looking for and what problems they are trying to solve will help you make an engaging pitch and close high-value deals more quickly. While most research starts online these days with a look at rival product websites and a google of your prospects, there are many ways you can improve your research skills. Consider learning how to get the most from your CRM, how to use social listening to discover more about your clients and competitors, and how to make use of the new AI research and competitive analysis tools appearing in the marketplace.
Active Listening Skills
One of the top skills to develop as a sales pro centres largely on know when to shut up and listen! Active listening - the level of listening you need to employ if you really want to increase your sales performance - requires a high degree of focus and empathy. Not only do you need to really hear what your prospect or customer is saying, you also need to be able to decode the subtle nuances in their conversation which will alert you to their real business pain and preferences. Asking the right follow-up questions at the right moment will allow you to gain greater insights into what they’re looking for but also allow you to build rapport and develop meaningful and long-lasting customer relationships that lead to higher revenues.
Conflict Resolution Skills
If your conflict management and resolution skills are below par, expect your sales performance to suffer. Conflict, rejection and complaints are regular occurrences in this industry, and we’re not just talking about customers. In the high-pressure environment of a team, conflicts can quickly and easily arise between peers and between pros and sales leaders. Undoubtedly conflict is bad for business. In the most obvious example, that’s because poorly handled negotiation conflicts or complaints from a customer can deteriorate quickly into a loss of business. But all conflict is damaging: issues between members of a sales team slow down the sales cycle, result in roadblocks to excellent customer experience and ultimately always distract from the task at hand: selling. Increase your sales performance by learning and practising how to manage conflicts proactively and handle objections. Importantly, always try to turn conflict into a positive - perhaps it’s a springboard to a new lead or a way to find a great new solution for your team.
To become. or indeed remain, a top sales performer it is critical that you continually develop and hone your sales skills. Whether you need to work on any of the above top skills or other vital sales techniques such as social selling or presenting skills, the CPSA has a wide-range of results-driven sales training that will increase your sales performance.