Have you ever wondered if you’d be good at sales?
When I first introduce myself to people and they discover I am in sales, a response I often hear is something along the lines of “oh I could never be in sales, I could never convince anyone to buy anything!” – which I suppose would be beneficial if we lived in the Wolf of Wall Street era.
But it’s 2025. And slimy, pushy, insincere salesmen like Leonardo DiCaprio’s persona in movies like these in the real world are not only few and far between, but highly ineffective.
Today, the most successful salespeople are not convincing anyone to buy their product. They are finding potential customers who are interested in their solution, with a problem they can solve, and then creating an exceptional, tailored buying experience.
There is also a ton of diversity that failed to exist in sales previously – salespeople today have a variety of backgrounds and experiences just as our buyers do. My current sales team, for example (some of which are pictured above), are neither slimy, pushy nor aggressive and still find great success in their roles. Also, fun fact: the majority of our 13 sales reps are women.
Over the past 11 years as an Account Executive, I’ve found that sales doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it can be condensed into 4 simple steps: EDUCATE, ASK, INFORM, and NURTURE.
- EDUCATE: Present your product or service out into the world so that potentially interested buyers can find it
- ASK: Ask questions to ensure those that are interested truly have a need you can solve
- INFORM: Present your product or service in a simple, easily consumable format that makes it easy for customers to buy
- NURTURE: Continue to build your client relationships and ensure they are satisfied with their current solutions, so that they will want to buy from you again in future
Check out a more detailed explanation of each stage in my previous blog, Defining Sales: Educate, Ask, Inform & Nurture.
So, if this is all sales really is, what skills are most beneficial to excel in a sales role?
#1 Empathy & Attunement: Understanding how your clients are thinking and feeling
Some people are innately more empathetic than others, however empathy is a skill that can be developed and improved through practice, self-awareness and a genuine desire to understand. “Selling” is essentially finding/offering a solution to a problem, and you cannot find a solution without understanding both the problem and the person presenting it. Therefore, the ability to listen to your customers’ needs and understand what is important to them is key.
Empathy also helps ensure your content and messaging stays relevant to the client, and I cannot stress the importance of relevance enough. Sales is not a numbers game. It’s about forming and building relationships and helping people buy, none of which can be accomplished by frivolously spraying general information about your product like a fire hose in anyone’s direction that will listen. Instead, do your research so that you know what might be important to your customer, ask the right questions to confirm, and then tailor your outreach/communication/presentations to their specific interests and needs.
#2 Responsiveness/Organization: Managing your processes and time for the most efficient outcome
Being in sales is like having your own little business. There are a million different ways you can focus your time and energy and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get to them all, so it’s important to focus on activities that will generate the best outcomes for you and your clients.
The only way to know how best to spend your time is to stay organized. Emails sorted neatly into client folders, a searchable area designated for note taking for each account and conversation, a calendar with scheduled meetings well in advance, opportunity notes for proper forecasting, an easily searchable document repository, and so on.
An organized salesperson is also a responsive salesperson. Many sales are lost because a salesperson took too long to reply to a client, often because they were focusing on other non-selling tasks. Unfortunately, in the meantime that client found someone who was able to get them the information they needed, faster. If you’re delayed in your replies, you’re the bottleneck – and your customers are being prioritized by someone else.
If organization is not your strong suit, that’s okay. If you’re willing to invest some time, it’s a skill that can easily be learned.
#3 Confidence: Knowing the value you bring to the table
It’s important to have confidence in yourself, your product and your pricing. If you don’t believe in all three, your customers won’t either.
This makes some people nervous who might not consider themselves “naturally confident”. However, none of us are born confident. It’s a learned trait which is great news because that means it’s something you can get better at.
Here are a few examples/suggestions of ways to build confidence:
- Confidence in you: look back at your past accomplishments and areas where you’ve succeeded in the past. Even if you are new to a role, you can look at past experience or even just acknowledge the fact that you won’t know everything but you are resourceful and will always help your client find an answer.
Keep a solid network of people and supporters and reach out to them for guidance and insight where needed. You can even ask them for feedback on your strengths. Positive perspective from others is a great way to build your personal confidence. - Confidence in your product and pricing: reach out to current customers who use your product (reference customers are a great place to start). They will have no problem telling you all the great things your product has done for them and the value they received, so that when you go into conversations with potential clients you have a better understanding of real-world benefits and the value your solution brings to potential customers.
#4 Communication: Presenting and listening clearly and effectively
Once you fully understand your customer’s needs and requirements, being able to clearly and simply communicate to your customer how your solution can help is an extremely important skill. After all, in many cases we all have access to the same information – it’s fairly easy for a customer to research your product, pricing, features and services online. So your value comes from condensing all of that information for them. Your customer’s time is limited and valuable, so the more you can condense the vast details of what your product does down to the very tailored and specific details that only they need, the more value you will bring and the easier it will be for them to make their decision.
The most important form of communication in sales though, is not talking, but listening. Being able to ask the right questions and actively listen to the answers makes the difference between a good salesperson and a great one. Not only does this help you understand your customer’s needs better, it prevents you from losing deals later on because you’ve missed some key information or requirements by jumping into solutions too soon.
#5 Adaptability: Being flexible as things change
In sales, change is constant. Depending how long your sales cycle is any and all of the following might change:
- Your buyer’s needs
- Your buyers timeline
- Your buyer (may leave the company)
- Internal resources (may also leave the company)
- Your product and/or service
- Market trends and competing products and services
- Your sales process or internal policies
And much more! Which is all very stressful because of course in sales your company expects accurate deal forecasting from you.
This is why it’s important to continue to ask questions throughout the sales cycle instead of solely relying on the information provided in your initial discovery call throughout. Continue to build and manage client relationships so that as things change, they are open to sharing those details with you so that you can best help them.
Some people are innately more adaptable, but in sales, adaptability is often built and strengthened through experience. Most successful salespeople learn best and adapt better over time, through error and failure. However, you can fast-track this learning by expanding your network. Talk to other salespeople, and learn from their mistakes and shared experiences.
These may not have been the top skills you had in mind when you first thought “sales”, but in today’s world they are certainly key.
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