- Invest time in training. Training will help you to hone specific skills, gain more insight and understanding of the process as well as how to make the results that you’re aiming for happen.
- Work on being a confident communicator. It may be useful to tackle a big fear to help improve this skill – public speaking. Around three quarters of us hate public speaking and yet it can be essential for everything, from product demos to sales presentations. The more you practice public speaking the better you’re likely to get at it and the more confident a communicator you’ll be.
- Ask others. If something goes wrong, ask for advice from others about why they thought that was and what they would have done differently.
- Include roleplay. Anything can happen in a sales situation and roleplay can help you to be prepared for it. Practice every day situations as well as the more challenging, such as overcoming common objections, extreme conversations and finding out why prospects are stuck.
- Stay up to date. The sales industry is constantly changing and you can improve your sales approach by staying informed, whether that’s via publications or podcasts.
- Review your sales calls. A review approach will allow you to identify if the same issues are coming up repeatedly and to find a different way to tackle this next time around. Your attitude, authenticity and how well you grasp buyer pain points will all be important.
- Look for a mentor. A quality coach can help you improve performance by at least 19%. Look for a successful sales person who will be able to provide feedback and advice, as well as inspiration and participation in roleplay.
- Be ready for questions and objections. If you’ve practiced and prepared for this it won’t throw you off track when it happens.
- Work on prospecting. For example, use techniques such as warm calls and webinars.
- Listen to feedback. Constructive feedback is crucial to improving your sales skills. When you get it be open to it even if it’s hard to hear, as this will enable you to identify a path to improvement.
- Be authentic. It’s important to understand how to build a rapport with a customer and most of the time this starts with having authentic conversations about work or life.
- Try different closing techniques. There are lots of approaches you can take to closing a sale, such as a summary close where you reiterate key information in order to move the sale on.
- Iterate on your sales cycle. This will make it easier to improve both skills and numbers.
- Learn how to listen. Active listening and paying attention are essential for a sales person, whether that’s with respect to identifying potential obstacles and helping to close the deal.
- Track and monitor. Set yourself goals and track how far you get each month. Identify metrics, such as close rate, so you can compare your progress from one month to the next.
Our 15 tips to improve your sales skills
Being successful at sales requires a particular skill set. Studies have found that those who go through sales training can be 15+% more effective at closing deals and improve profit margins too. With that in mind here are our 15 top tips for improving your sales skills.