5 of the Best Sales Skills to Train in for Business Success

Running a business is all about pushing sales, getting new customers and retaining customers.

To set your business off on the right foot, it’s important to take the time to enhance your selling skills. 

Getting the right coaching can help you to stay up to speed with changes and new techniques that match current trends so you can keep your business moving.

This article will talk about the top skills taught by the best sales training companies that can help you take your selling skills to the next level. 

Time management 

As a business owner, you’ll typically have your hands full. On an average day, you’ll prospect for potential customers, send and respond to emails, make pitches and follow up with customers – among other tasks.

Not to mention the administrative work involved to keep all records in check, and that’s all before you get to the accounting tasks.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed or distracted by a single task at the expense of everything else. 

That’s why learning time management is important to figure out how to handle the workload efficiently.

Some time management techniques that training companies usually teach in courses include:

• How to prioritise tasks.
• Planning the day. 
• How to track and evaluate how you use time.
• Methods like the Pomodoro technique or habit stacking.

Once your workflow becomes more streamlined, you can more easily find the time to win over more customers. 

Prospecting 

No matter how well you grasp all other sales skills, you aren’t likely to hook the right fish if you’re casting your net in the wrong sea.

That’s why prospecting is usually one of the most important components of the sales process. 

Learning how to map out an accurate buyer persona and sieve out low-quality prospects helps avoid wasting time and resources. 

Consider getting trained by sales companies such as Shapiro Negotiations Institute with courses that take a deep dive into prospecting.

While hunting for customers may be taxing, you can stay ahead of the game with the right training, saving yourself some time. Some prospecting skills to learn include: 

• How to make both warm and cold calls.
• Networking effectively.
• Asking for referrals.

Tenacity 

As OutboundEngine indicates, you have a 5 to 20% chance of getting a new customer to buy from you compared to 60 to 70% for an existing customer.

With these odds, it’s important for salespeople to buckle down and invest in their approach to winning over prospects. 

In marketing, the Rule of Seven refers to the number of times the prospect needs to be exposed to your marketing message before they buy from you.

By way of extension, this statistic applies in sales as much as in marketing.

The implication is that salespeople should expect to need to make contact with a prospect and push through objections around seven times before making a sale.

Overall, these statistics point to the fact that it takes grit and strong staying power to get new prospects to latch onto your offering to grow your business.

That’s why it’s important for you to learn how to develop tenacity. Training programs can teach you how to stand the heat, stay motivated and control your emotions to avoid burnout. 

While some people naturally have a strong fighting spirit, coaching can play a big role in developing and continuously nurturing a tenacious attitude in business owners.

Negotiation

Making deals won’t always be smooth sailing, and encountering objections is a common part of the process.

As a business owner, you’ll frequently deal with objections and have to figure out how to negotiate the best outcome to settle deals profitably. 

Without the right skills, it’s easy to miss the mark when deliberating with customers, throwing the sale off track.

However, when you’re equipped with the best techniques, you can breeze through negotiations and seal deals at a profit. 

Some of the main competencies you can learn from the best coaching companies include: 

• Persuasion 
• Relationship-building 
• Decision-making  

Communication

Clicking with customers, tuning in to their needs and closing sales more quickly requires exceptional communication techniques.

Training can help you to understand all the different facets of effective communication needed to keep your business on track. 

To master the art of communication, it pays to learn concepts like:

• Watching out for body language and voice cues.
• Reading facial expressions in face-to-face and online video talks.
• Empathising with customers.
• Active listening techniques.
• Making the right word choices in a given context

Consider investing in courses designed by companies with expertise in communication techniques. 

It also helps to practise the techniques you learn in a controlled setting. For example, you can find peers to help you practise to gain more confidence.

When you continue to polish your communication skills, you have a higher chance of landing solid deals with customers.  

Achieving success in sales

With the best coaching that covers the essential elements of selling, you heighten your chances of closing more deals.

Choose courses from reputable companies so you can learn key abilities like time management, prospecting and tenacity in the shortest time.

Plus, when you master the art of effective communication and negotiating techniques, you can level up your selling skills.