Soft Skills – really?

Soft (informal definition ‘n a weak or foolish way’).

He is ‘soft’ i.e., not strong, not resilient, not powerful, not the leader…

WOWZA we really are putting down the key skills that are needed to communicate effectively and that ultimately are what drives and converts business, what manages expectations and what mitigates problems.
I’m on a one women’s mission to ditch this terrible definition.
Join me if you wish, there’s room in my club.

How about renaming it ‘Powerful sophisticated communication skills whereby you are driving growth in an intelligent manner’?

Let’s go back a step and think about where this has come from. It was created to differentiate between technical (or ‘hard’ skills), specific, measurable and what used to be deemed more intangible interpersonal skills, that are essential for a business to thrive.

Now the ‘intangible’ communication skills have become revered, they have earnt their place in the ‘must have’ no longer hanging out with the ‘nice to have’ skills.

Why is this? Is it because the conversations that are being had have evolved? After all, the client journey has shifted considerably and the need to have more meaningful engagements has risen. Consider that 80% of buyers are finding solutions, which means by the time they reach out to you they have already determined there is something they need and have narrowed down who can potentially help them solve that problem.  With that in mind, the skills needed by Salespeople have shifted.  Their ability to have intelligent, positive ‘trusted advisor’ led interaction, read clients better and solve problems simply, has increased. The need to Account Develop (not ‘manage’) is crucial.

What powerful sophisticated skills are needed to be a successful salesperson?

If you are reviewing the skills that are now needed – these are some of the key skills now needed to thrive:

Planner

Planning one’s territory, quarter, month, week, and day for optimum effectiveness.
The crucial word here is effective.

Mindset

Are you completely sold on your solution? Do you know the success of it – reverse engineer daily (starting from the client’s point of view, Client X had this issue, costing them this in a year, they tried a,b,c we got them onto XYZ solution and now they are enjoying this outcome’.
Are you sold on price?
What’s your intent? To be a long-term business partner? A solution to provide or close the deal?

Organisation

Sharp with being commercially minded, know the energy and effort versus outcome for each client. Know the priorities of each day. Know the ‘blind spots’ (does your email determine your day? Do you treat all clients equally? Are you a people pleaser and find it a challenge to spend less time with D clients – therefore buying you back valuable time to reach out to and nurture key accounts)? Do you find you rushing proposals to get through the day? Where did the day go?

Adding value

Being helpful, making each touchpoint count, you are always being helpful and seen as an industry expert so your clients open your emails and return your calls. They come to you for advice.

Opportunistic

Read the CRM, eyes up, ears open, and sharpen questioning skills to ensure every stone is turned.

Curious

Great at prepping for a meeting, questions that they are asking you beforehand, questions you can ask them, how much are you letting your assumptions and beliefs get in the way and blind you to opportunities (i.e., ‘they won’t want that, they don’t have the money for that’, ‘they said no last time to that’).  Being curious is a wonderful trait.

Listening

Questions (curious) listening and being present. Seem so obvious and yet many reps still show up and throw up.

Educator

Are you able to educate the client on areas? Are you able to educate clients who think they know more than you? Can you explain what your solution does in a simple way that easy to follow?

Meeting/presentation

Are you making your interactions relevant, meaningful and engaging?

Are you starting the meeting before the meeting? PREsuasion? I.e., ‘PRE’ the meeting, due diligence a few weeks out before your meeting takes place so that 80% of the weight of the meeting is covered before the actual ‘meeting’ so that you turn up and they are already convinced you are the right person to partner with.

Reading the client

Are you equipped with reading situations (know some observation techniques) skills in NLP or Extended DISC or other personality profiling to better understand how to read the client’s motivations, strategy, preferred communication method, how they buy, how they measure trust.. the list goes on, reading signals is now a must.

Emotional Intelligence

Are you able to be objective about knock backs and therefore able to draw value from each – seeing ‘wisdom’ from each fall?

Competitor

How do you feel about your competitors? Do you know the alternatives enough that you can tell the competitor has been into see that prospect because of the way that prospect is asking for certain things (that the competitor does).  Do you get fired up and emotional, view it as a threat or happily and calmly utilise the opportunity to open up an intelligent conversation about the client’s complete needs and position yourself as a partner, educating on the alternatives in the field and the differences between those alternatives?

Objections

Connected to Mindset, Emotional Intelligence and to Observing (reading the client) objections are usually obvious if you are awake and present.  Know how to assist the client in their need for clarity.

Negotiator

Know the steps to value, and what assertion means.
So many skills that were once considered ‘soft’ are now crucial in our success.