As a sales leader, making hiring decisions can be very challenging, but necessary task. From being the right fit for your team, to having strong characteristics of a successful salesperson, there are many factors to consider.
[Working in Sales] involves carefule planning, prospecting, problem solving, and selling all rolled to one.
While we tend to focus on the individual skills necessary to be successful within sales, the skills that make up a great team are equally as important. The best sales teams are those made up of driven individuals who work together in order to accomplish great things. In order to help you make the right hiring decisions, we've outlined the top seven skills to look for to build a strong sales team.
1. SELF-MOTIVATING
In a way, what you accomplish while working in sales is entirely up to the individual and the team at large. The number of calls a team is making in the course of a day, the quotas they are setting for themselves, all come down to how hard they are willing to work and how well they are able to push themselves towards bigger achievements. The best sales teams are those that are driven and self-motivating, that take the initiative and push themselves further as a team.
2. CONFIDENT
Sales reps aren’t just selling a product or a service when they’re on a sales call—they’re selling the pitch itself. If your team lacks confidence in their abilities, customers will notice and they won’t be encouraged to have faith in a product or a team that seems to have so little in themselves. Confidence is so important, and remains one of the top sales skills because of its ability to impact so much else.
3. PREPARED
The most successful sales teams are diligent; they don’t go into a sales call blindly. Instead, they do meticulous research and plan ahead for the different directions in which the sales call might go. Every customer is different; the one-size-fits-all script doesn’t exist. For that reason, preparation should always be a priority —it’s one of the top sales skills sales teams need to have.
4. COLLABORATIVE
One thing all successful sales teams have in common is a strong sense of cohesion as a group. While sales might traditionally be portrayed as a job that stresses individual accomplishments, the reality is that collaboration is one of the top sales skills that all high-functioning sales teams have. Collaborating with each other and with those in other departments can help teams as a whole develop their skills and increase their sales.
If every sales call immediately resulted in a sale the job would be a lot easier...being persistent is the key
5. ACTIVE LISTENERS
Listening is one of those skills that is stressed again and again, but for good reason. Active listening is one of the most essential sales skills that a team can have if it is going to achieve great things. Active listening means actually listening to what the customer needs and responding to those needs in a way that benefits both parties.
6. MULTI-TASKING
Working in sales is so much more complicated than just making a sales call and moving product. It involves careful planning, prospecting, problem solving, and selling all rolled in to one.
The inability to multi-task can be a huge hindrance to the sales team as a whole because it slows down the process for everyone. Where one person is not picking up the slack, someone else is having to put in extra work to make sure the whole team stays on track.
7. PERSISTENT
Every team is going to meet its fair share of obstacles. Facing objections and failures can be really difficult, but it shouldn’t stop your team from moving forward. Persistence, in the face of challenges is imperative; one of the definitive top sales skills needed for a sales team to thrive. Persistence is not just important in the face of adversity either; if every sales call immediately resulted in a sale the job would be a lot easier. The reality is that being persistent is the key to making sales all around.
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