The 10 Most Effective Selling Skills in Business

Want to make it big as a sales professional? Master these 10 most effective selling skills and burn a new trail in your career

A career in sales offers tremendous opportunity to create wealth and business success. A sales professional is a valuable asset to anyone with a product to market. If you want to grow, you have to learn how to sell or invest in people who can sell for you.

Professional development takes time. The most effective selling skills require years of training, experience, and commitment to master. But the payoffs are immense.

10 Effective selling skills every salesperson should know

1. Prospecting via inner and outer networks

You have to generate leads. More than half of the game is learning how to penetrate your networks and contacts. You cannot rely solely on responses to ads, SEO optimization, or marketing material. Even in today’s world, manual efforts to reach out is essential to continued success.

The Salesforce teams referred to this strategy as “harnessing your inner circle”. You’d be amazed how many people you can meet by tapping into your relationships with family members, high school friends, and old acquaintances.

2. Knowing the product inside and out (and believe in it!)

Study the product until you know it better than yourself. What are its main features, how does it benefit your target market, and why is it valuable?

Zig Ziglar has stated that believing in your product is one of the most effective selling skills. He said, “If you believe your product or service is fulfilling a true need, it is your moral obligation to sell it.”

It’s much easier to sell something you see as valuable. Then you can map out exactly why it helps your prospect and how he will benefit from the purchase.

Do you believe in what you’re selling?

3. Getting the prospect to talk about themselves

It’s amazing how simple “selling” really is when you break it down. Effective selling skills are not exactly the ability to convince someone to buy something they don’t need. It’s more about understanding the prospect’s needs and aligning your offerings with them.

But how do you find out his needs and wants? Ask the right questions.

Use open-ended questions to get your prospect comfortable and talking about their situation, thoughts, worries, and desires. Actively listen. You’ll quickly find out that most people tell you how to sell the product.

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4. Responding to the target audience’s needs and wants

What comes after the questions and listening intently to your prospect? Bridge his problems to your solutions. Illustrate how your product can relieve the problems he is currently facing.

Get the prospect to talk, listen carefully to what he says, and then respond with a viable solution. That, in a nutshell, is the core of the salesperson’s job. It’s simple in theory, yet difficult to learn.

5. Managing multiple clients at once

Time management is essential for consistent sales performance. Think about all of the steps involved with one prospect:

Initial phone call to qualify
Setting a face-to-face meeting
Answering questions after the first meeting
Responding to emails or following up
Setting another meeting to discuss closure
Wrapping it up
Following up after the sale

A smart salesperson utilizes a CRM to manage deals and automate necessary steps. It simplifies the sales procedures and organizes your steps, depending on the given business model.

6. Giving captivating sales presentations

Successful salespeople understand that their most effective selling skills revolve around communication. They know how to present ideas in a compelling way. They know how to illustrate the benefits of a product in easily-digestible segments.

Presentations are key to communicating these vital points. They also require preparation, research, and practice. No presentation is the same, so you cannot walk into it “cold” thinking you’ll walk away with a sale.

7. Selling over the phone, email, and video conference

Today salespeople are expected to sell over various communication platforms. Businesses have integrated social media, phone calls, emails, and video conferences into their strategies. Plus, keeping track of various correspondences is a skill by itself.

Expand your communication skills and learn how to use these different strategies to your advantage.

8. Maintaining strong relationships after the sale

Business relationships go far beyond the initial sale. If you want customer referrals and a robust network of supporters, you have to stay in contact. Make a point to follow up with your past clients. Keep your finger on the pulse. Repeat business is easiest to close!

9. Setting goals on a consistent basis

JC Penney once said, “Give me a store clerk with a goal, and I’ll give you a man who can make history. Give a man without a goal, and I’ll give you a store clerk.”

Goal setting is an overlooked aspect of sales development, yet it is one of the most effective selling skills to learn. Everything becomes clearer with a well-defined goal in place. Get into the habit of setting weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals for yourself. Stay accountable.

10. Learning from defeats and setbacks

Finally, nobody said that selling is an easy job. It takes a long time to get good at it. It’s a long path filled with objections, no responses, and failed deals. The question is: can you handle that? Can you pick yourself back up and make ten sales calls tomorrow? That’s the real test of a great salesperson. Your attitude dictates your longevity in this profession. Learn from mistakes and move forward.