Resilient; Able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
Resilience is important in sales. Being able to adapt to situations and the way business is constantly changing is crucial to staying successful. Last week we considered what sales jobs are in demand. Now let’s explore skills that are in demand for salespeople today, and how you can improve them to maximize profit within your industry.
Social Selling: According to Velocify, experts must make an average of six calls in order to sell a product or service. Social selling is far less interruptive than cold calling and can be as simple as being consistent. This could involve putting out quality content at the same time every day or week for your audience. Your prospects’ buying journey may start online, so knowing where to find your buyers on social media or CRM platforms and how to provide value during their buying journey allows you to sell without ever seeming pushy.
Creative Problem Solving: “Only the inquiring mind solves problems,” Edward Hodnett. Creative problem solving starts with mindset and ends with results. Start by looking at problems or roadblocks and thinking; how can I solve this? Are you unable to meet face to face within your industry? How about meeting in your prospective customers’ parking lots or in a park (while using protective measures)? There are many new ways to interact with clients including Slack, Google Chat, Zoom, even text messaging. Creative problem solving involves evaluating the situation and assessing the best way to connect with the client to move business forward and to deliver results. This quality is crucial to a salesperson in any market.
Strong Customer Service: As important as new business development is, customer retention is key for profitability and growth. Improving your customer service involves being proactive instead of reactive. Trying out different technologies is a way to keep strong customer retention. Are you sending out email blasts with quality information to stay relevant in your customers’ minds, automating with LinkedIn, or creating Facebook Advertisements? It does not stop there. Following up immediately on your customers’ inquiries is also important in maintaining a relationship as well as proactively sharing insights and trends that you are aware of in their industry.
Social selling, creative problem solving and strong customer service are all qualities that a salesperson can improve on to better their relationships with their customers, increase revenue and eventually bring in new customers. By improving on these skills and watching market trends, you can excel in your industry and professional career.