What skills are essential for success in sales today?

Sure, there are people who defy the odds; people who are despicable characters and successful in spite of themselves. However, the truth is that most successful people, understand the importance of the likeability factor. http://www.marcogiunta.com/the-likeability-factor-do-you-have-it/

Marco Giunta
Marcogiunta.com

Jay,
In the area I'm involved with (ERP and related systems) I would say 'solution selling'. Too many sales people take a 'product-pitch' approach to selling. In 'solution selling' you need to be good at diagnostics, identifying the stakeholders and determining what is a win for each of them, and developing business cases.

Jay, here is a view on sales in today's market, not the 80's view point.
1. Be focused on problem solving and decision making process of your prospect/client. This will help you address 90% of the prospecting, rejection, objection, pricing and other issues in other ways.
2. Realize that 90% of the buying decision has nothing to do with your product. By the time the client calls you they have worked through most of the decision making and you are now "reacting" rather than guiding the decision process. No matter where you come in to the decision process, always review how they got to this point, very relieving and most times they have missed big issues that will derail your sale or make you the hero.
3. Sales is a continuum of learning and growing both personally and technically. What have you learned today that will help you, your company, your clients?
4. Items 1-2 require a great deal of people skills, adaptability, courage to challenge others thinking and being a leader in problem solving. High level questioning skills are required.

Good Luck!
HG:)

Probe - Support – Close!
Probe: Identify the problem/ pain points. Ask questions to understand the need, want, desire etc Plus the standard BANT Questions. Get to the real issue and need.
Support: Explain how your product or service can solve the problem. Support with facts - how you have helped other customers in similar situations, industry stats etc if applicable etc. Wear a consultant’s cap not a sales person’s. Explain what will it take to solve the problem and how you are you equipped.
Close: Ask if you can solve the problem and the proposal meets the price expectation – will you sign or when will you sign the PO/ Contract. If you are getting in to a price negotiation – ensure that all other issues except price settled? Final stage – If I agree to the price, will you sign today?
Arvind Sehtia
CEO
http://salesinsideinc.com

Great question!!
There are a lot of different ways to approach sales, but they all tend to rely on the same skill set. Note that these are skills, not talents: talents are inborn, but skills are learned. Anyone can learn to be an effective salesperson, and good salespeople can become great ones by honing the following sales skills.

Maintaining Self-Confidence
This is the absolutely most important skill a salesperson can cultivate. Why? Because all the other skills are based on persistence. If you have every other sales skill listed below but you give up at the first hint of a “no,” then you'll never have a chance to use those skills. The first time you speak to a prospect, they might not want to talk to you because they're having a bad day... but if you call back a week later they'll be eager to buy.

Self-confidence doesn't end with persistence; if you believe in yourself and your product, your prospects will be inclined to believe as well. Self-confidence will also incline you towards a more assertive closing approach, which is vital to your selling success.

Good Listening
Most salespeople are natural talkers. Unfortunately even a great speaker will only get so far without a little listening. Taking the time to ask your prospect questions and really listen to the answers shows respect for them, and gives you a clearer idea of what they want. So how can you tell if you're doing enough listening? The next time you cold call a prospect, ask an open-ended question and then hit the mute button and leave yourself muted for at least a minute (or until you are absolutely sure the prospect is finished). By forcing yourself to be quiet, you will notice right away how strong your urge is to jump in and say something before the prospect has stopped talking

Persuasiveness
Emotion plays a major role in sales. There's an old saying that “features tell, benefits sell.” Features are the facts about your product or service; benefits are their emotional connotations. For example, a 0% interest rate on a credit card is a feature... being able to save money while buying the things you need is a benefit! Persuasiveness is the skill that allows you to convey these emotions to the customer. If you can make your prospect feel how great it will be to own your product and how much their life will be improved when they have it, you can sell it to them

Building Strong Relationships
This sales skill is just as important to a salesperson's business life as it is to their personal life. Building and maintaining healthy relationships is the key to developing a strong network. And networking will allow you to reach far, far more prospects than you could manage on your own.

Remember the theory of “Six Degrees of Separation?” Let's say you're trying to reach the decision maker at a major company but you don't know anyone who works there. A call or two to your network contacts yields someone who knows someone who works for your target; armed with that person's name and direct phone number, you now have access to the prospect.

Self-Motivating
Even the best salesperson is a work in progress. You can always find a way to develop your skills, work on your pitch, and learn more about the products and services you sell. But the drive to constantly improve yourself has to come from within. Your manager might direct you to make some changes if your sales start to plummet, but if you are constantly working to become a better salesperson you can start working on the issue before it affects your numbers.

There are a lot of great answers here. The only disagreement that I have is the comment by Harlan about the 80's. We sold with the customer's needs and relationships, problems solving, and all the other items discussed back then as well.
Really, the thing that isn't defined is what kind of sale? Is it transactional, relatiohship based? Is it consultative? In general I agree with everyone, depending on the situation and the type of sale.
You must match your client's needs to the product. Be a problem solver. As Zig Ziglar says "You will get what you want, the more you help others to get what they want." My biggest recommendation to a person new to sales is to:
Take off your selling shoes and start listening. You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion.
Pay attention to the customer's needs, be a problem solver.
Get to know the customer first, both professionally and personally. It will open up a window into what is important to the company and the person you are dealing with.
Develop the relationship. I'm not talking about a social relationship. They already have friends and golfing buddies. What they want is someone who will help them to achieve their goals that they can share their concerns with and recieve reliable advice.
Learn. Learn your industry and learn theirs. Be knowledgable and a resource to your customers.
Work hard. Outwork your competition (that includes outsmart as well). Go that extra mile.
Be pleasantly persisitent, don't give up right away. Anything worthwhile takes time. I can't vouch for Ms. Vanella's numbers, but they sure sound correct.
A lot of talent gets wasted because a person gives up on the profession too soon. Hang in there.

The skills essential for success in sales today:
1. Top of the list is people skills. If you cannot flex and be a people's person, forget it.
People are moody and finicky. Not every morning they get out of bed feeling like
"top of the world." Anybody hand up in the air:-) Some of them have a smile on their
faces, but if you pop a question to them, you can trigger a can of worms. A good salesperson
must know when to step forward, when to step backwards, and when to twist and wiggle
in between.

2. Know the customer

3. How to Build Relationships

4. Networking

5. Prospecting

6. Set Sales Goals

7. Monitor Sales Goals

8. Achieve Sales Goals

9. How to be humble

10. How to give back

I have listed 10 essential skills for success in sales today. There are more, but I'll stop here.
If you need more or would like help in exploring the ten that I have given, please let me know.

I think the most important is to know yourself. AND, more important accept what you are not and user others to fulfill.
1. Are you visionary /strategist, tactician, planner, producer?
2. Are you a lead generator /researcher?
3. Are you a presenter /prospect qualifier?
4. Are you a deal maker /closer, client conversion?
5. Are you a people person /customer service/retention?
Even when someone is good in all areas there is usually one that shines brighter.

For example I am really hot at #1, so #4 happens by default, am extremely good at #3, #2 is enjoyable if I have good data (moves more towards automation), and #5 doesn't interest me what so ever.

How about you?

Ability to build rapport is I think what makes someone great in sales. It involves, asking great questions, having a sense of humor, ability to commiserate, being empathetic, finding common ground, and sometimes even mirroring clients.

I feel the inadequate sales education of the good old car dealer has reached all industries by now. While the process on the buy side from needs analysis, exploration, selection to a decision has significantly evolved, sales not only stood still but the worst of all - a huge portion of sales people INSIST that the good old ways are still the best and REFUSE to recognize the change.

The mapping between a purchase process and the sales process is about 20 - 30 years old. Today there is no match anymore. Without even reviewing if there is still a match sales leader have no problem arguing against change for months instead of taking just one day off and actually reviewing the current situation in great depth.

A good portion of the skills may be the same but it's application, tools and way to leverage those skills have significantly changed. And the current success trajectory shows ;)

Below are seven key attributes I most often find in the best, most successful sales managers. In this case, I’m defining success not only by how well they hit their number, but how well they inspire, empower and prepare their teams for sustained success as well.

1. Creativity
Even with a well-defined sales process, a consistent brand position and standardized tools, successful sales managers are constantly innovating and improvising to get more out of the market and their teams. This goes for everything from objection-handling to internal contests and more. The very best sales managers are both creative and disciplined, meaning they’re able to not only come up with great new ideas to test, but also effectively triage and measure their effectiveness.

2. Consistency
You can’t play favorites. You can’t adjust expectations too often. When your sales reps are facing adversity and a highly-dynamic selling environment (often where “no” is the most commonly-heard answer), consistency on the part of the sales manager is extremely important. Consistency drives trust and credibility for sales managers, which allows them to get away with occasional bursts of creativity without implying that the entire ship is turning a different direction.

3. Curiosity
Great sales managers drive their bosses and often their marketing counterparts nuts. They’re always asking questions – why is it like that, how did that work, why didn’t we try it this way, should we participate in this new user group, etc. Similar to creativity, however, curiosity is best executed when there’s a level of discipline and accountability behind it. Asking questions is one thing – having a productive opinion and volunteering to help identify or execute the answer or solution is quite another.

4. Conflict Management
No matter the size, age, nature or overall make-up of the sales organization, there will be conflict. I’ve heard some inside sales managers describe their culture as somewhat akin to middle school. Ineffective sales managers, this environment, take up the role of that vice principal you remember who was always in charge of discipline. More effective sales managers enforce behavior and discipline standards but do it in a more productive way – leveraging their standards of both consistency and fairness to get the team back focused.

5. Confidence
Don’t mistake this for optimism. Great sales managers don’t need to be glass-half-full people all the time. But they need to exhibit confidence in their teams, their products, their companies and the daily/weekly/regular processes that deliver results. Sales reps look to their managers daily for guidance and direction – not only in where to focus but in how to act. Confidence from the top down drives behavior, effort and results.

6. Can-Do, Will-Do Attitude
I’ve worked with sales managers who have great ideas but rarely get their hands dirty. The best sales managers lead by example, regularly roll up their sleeves and work right along side you. They join you on sales calls, build the next-month sales promotion, dig through lead list options with the marketing team, and otherwise focus plenty of time and energy not just on managing but also doing.

7. Calm
Not necessarily calm as in quiet or shy. Calm as in patient. Even-keeled. Passionate at times but generally a combination of consistent and confident, steady when the day or the last sales call or the markets are roiling. This provides a foundation for the entire team to drive from.

Interesting discussion!
I will focus on skills especially for IT service provider.

Regarding the information age, it's all about outcomes instead of outputs, which was our focus during the industrial age. It's about the value we create for our clients, about the results,we help them to drive. Asking executive buyers, what differentiates vendors from its competition the most, it's first of all how well a vendor can apply their capabilities to the specific client needs, How easy the vendor is to do business with, the economic value of the vendor’s offering and the ability to clearly and honestly communicate.

First of all, I see these prerequisites:
- change mindset from "I have to sell products" to "I will solve a client's problem"
- change mindset from a go-to-market to a go-to-customer perspective
- change mindset from internal design points to an external design point, the customer

Now, the relevant skills:
- creativity and innovative thinking always with the primary focus to solve a client's problem
- listening and analyzing skills to recognize the big picture
- networking skills to manage successfully a complex agreement network at the customer
- ability to deal with the different buyer roles and their different patterns
- use a common framework to be able to model the customer first, to analyze their desired outcomes and to communicate in a structured way backwards from the customer
- business acumen regarding the industry's big picture, process skills, language skills to translate between IT and business
- execution skills which are closely related to the structured communication skills across the internal supply chain

Sales people need to learn how to challenge their customers. They have to bring a different point of view and take control of the customer conversations.

Research by the Corporate Executive Board showed that B2B sales people fall into five categories:

The Hard Worker
The Problem Solver
The Challenger
The Relationship Builder
The Lone Wolf

The Challenger was found to be far more effective that all the others. New thinking for those of us who grew up in the "Relationship" selling models. The book, "The Challenger Sale" is a must read.

P.S. - Marketing and Sales organizations need to reinvent how they develop messages, sales tools, and sales training to enable selling models which break the status quo. Corporate Visions (www.corporatevisions.com) is my go to provider for this work.

Brian

1. Identification of the pain points and needs of the customer

2. Building rapport - A thing to do in the first meetings when most of our sales reps are busy selling rather than conversing with the client to set the selling premise - Solution/Consultant/Strategic Partner

3. Being on top of the decision-making-matrix of the client/organization

4. Understanding Motivation and power-bases of the organization and the people in the buying process - This is kinda knowing behavioral systems

5. Having a robust marketing prospecting program in place alongside a Sales process - complimenting each other in closing the sales process

6. Negotiation skills and being ethical

7. Analytic skills to chalk out everything from ideal meeting time, to overall sales cycle time to weekly plans dedicated to each account. To be on top of all numbers and targets.

8. Consistent reading and research on Sales techniques and insights

9. Networking

10. Hard-work or rigor.

1. Research and prepare. Before you engage with a new customer or a new opportunity "you must be prepared to not be prepared." That is to say, you are so prepared that you are able to be relaxed, open minded, and ready for any path this conversation may take you and your customer. Top sales professionals don't just "wing it." They understand their customer's industry, their customer's business and the job responsibilities of the individuals they will be working with. They also recognize the characteristics of a high quality opportunity.
2. Diagnose. The amateur salesperson "presents," but the successful professional "diagnoses." Quality diagnosis is the ability to guide the customer through their actual situation in a manner that brings awareness, clarity and ownership to the problem they are experiencing, or the opportunity they are missing. Top professionals understand how the absence of their solution might be affecting their customer, both their business performance and their individual job performance.
3. Dollarize. The key skill required to accomplish this is the ability to help the customer quantify the financial impact of the situation. "How much is it costing them not to have what you are about to propose?" Understanding the cost of the problem provides the customer with a tangible measurement and a clear incentive to take action.
4. Collaborate. A fourth critical skill area is the ability to collaborate with the customer to "co-design" the solution to be proposed, in a manner that leaves the customer with pride of authorship and the confidence to invest.
5. Communicate. Creating a competitive edge requires a new way of thinking about the sales process and how you interact with your customers. This forms the foundation for the interpersonal communication skills that enable you to work with customers and colleagues in a way that builds mutual respect and, ultimately, long-term success for both your customer and yourself.

http://www.nichesuite.com/

people skills. next question?

You must remember that it's a rejection of the product...not you. Sales is a tough area and you cannot be thin-skin. Become competent and confident in your product and you will be okay.