10 Essential Sales Skills Every Professional Should Master

I would like to emphasize the title which says 10 Essential Sales Skills Every Professional Should Master. So it doesn’t matter what your profile is, you should know these 10 sales skills.

Do we have that clear?

If you can stay attentive for the rest of this article, thank you.

So here are the 10 sales skills I recommend you learn today to be successful in life:

1. Dale Carnegie Was Right: Something Is in the Name
2. Understanding the Want
3. Understanding the Need
4. Power of Emotion
5. People Buy with Emotion but Justify It with Logic
6. The Right Confidence & Attitude
7. Peace with Failure
8. Getting Beyond Anxiety
9. The Warrior Energy
10. Rapport Building & Negotiation

Without wasting any of our time, let’s start with probably the most important soft skill of sales.

Dale Carnegie Was Right: Something Is in the Name

Name is the biggest ego pump we take every day. Every time someone calls us by our name, our ego makes us attentive towards that person.

Just by remembering someone’s name, you make sure that whether you close this opportunity today or not, this client will be coming back to you.

It is so basic that all it takes is for us to be attentive, polite, respectful, and generally a good human being.

Remember, knowing someone’s name and remembering it is a big win!

Understanding the Want

Want is the desire to own something. Most humans are defined by their wants, which means just by understanding the essence of a want, we can figure out how to deal with most people.

With this premise, let’s dissect want in the most scientific way possible—a thought experiment.

Someone wants to buy a car, a house, and earn a lot of money so that they can fulfill their wants. It means “wants” are materialistic by nature.

The origination of want is the desire to satisfy one of the five basic human senses.

Are you with me?

If you can follow this thought train, you realize that wants are always backed by some emotion, and that emotion is what we want to tackle in sales.

Whenever you are talking to someone, try asking questions that will help you identify the prospect’s wants and the basic emotion and the sensory satisfaction it will lead to.

Remember, as long as you can project the feel of achieving their want and then bring it into your discussion, and then connect it with the item you are selling, you will be successful 80% of the time.

Here is an example of a basic want:

Buying a house.

Let’s dissect:

The moment you know that my ‘want’ is to buy a house, there are only two possibilities: either I want to buy a house right now, or I need more money so that I can come to a place where buying a house is financially suitable. We will cover ‘needs’ in a minute as well, but for now:

Asking me a question like, “Where does buying a house fall into your timeline?” can get you through this question. Now, any answer that I will give will either make me your prospect or it will take me out of your immediate prospect list.

All this runs with the premise that you are a good person and don’t want to sell me something that I don’t want right now. You understand that there are plenty of opportunities where their wants align with your sales intent, and selling something that someone doesn’t want always ends up in a bad place where they are upset that you sold them something they didn’t want—so basically, you outwitted them into buying something, and now they feel regretful.

I am assuming this is relatable because we have all been sold things that we didn’t want, and we know how it feels to be at the losing end of this deal.

Now let’s go one step further.

Understanding the Need

Get basic and use first-principle thinking. I mean food, shelter, water-level basic.

Economics is the basic building block of society. The moment money was invented, wants erupted. Before that, things were bartered when there was a need.

The question, “Do I need that?”, is hardwired in our biology, but most people are not even aware of it because most people don’t go deep enough before making a purchase. These are impulse buyers, and if the person you are trying to sell something to is smart, assume that they will ask themselves this question.

Because we cannot judge someone’s intelligence aptly, it’s always a good practice to answer the question “Do I need that?”

For impulse buyers, the moment you answer this question, the sale is 99% done as they can now justify their purchase logically.

But if you are trying to sell to an intelligent person, answering this question is important because if you fail to answer this question in the most basic way, they will not buy in.

Extending the above example, if I say that buying a house falls in my timeline but after 2 years, now as a good salesperson, your goal is to identify what is my need right now and whether you can help with that or not.

Well, if you are one of our allies, the answer will always be yes, and then you will be able to build a stronger relationship with this prospect. You have a rapport with them as they know that you didn’t try to take advantage; they will come back to you when their wants and needs align with what you are selling.

Alternatively, if I say that buying a house falls in my timeline within a month, just answer the question “Do I need that?” and then move on to the next step, which is using the…

Power of Emotion

Because needs always have emotions attached.

Extending the example further, I want to buy a house because:

1. I need a bigger, better shelter for my family (caveman-level emotion).
2. I need the sense of accomplishment that comes from buying a home (ego satisfaction).
3. I need to invest my money so that it will grow further and provide security in times of scarcity (hoarding resources).

Now here is a question: Which of these emotions has the highest conversion potential?

Take a minute before reading the answer.

Don’t skim-read; try to answer at least—think!

The answer is:

It doesn’t matter. It was a trick question because emotional intensity can vary from person to person, and for you as a salesperson, knowing the most basic emotion originating from that need is power, regardless of how it gets satisfied.

I know, arguably the need to buy shelter for my family has the highest conversion potential because it is usually a very strong emotion. The point I am trying to make is that as long as that need and the emotion are identified, you can leverage that in your discussion with this prospect.

No offense, but most real estate consultants would just directly ask what is your budget and then show you a couple of properties they have that fall in your budget. It just borders on unprofessional, in my opinion.

Anyways, are you following the thought trail so far? If you are, then the next point is going to be an obvious conclusion to you, and if you are not following or skimming, go through the above points���I’m waiting…

Ready? Let’s go!

People Buy with Emotion but Justify It with Logic

Feeling smart because you saw it coming, did you? Of course, you did because I gave a 10-pointer index at the beginning of this discussion!

Well, triggering emotion isn’t easy, right? Excluding impulse buyers, most people go through an entire journey before making a buying decision.

You should respect that journey, even if they choose not to buy from you.

Once you start respecting the journey they took to get to a decision, it’s self-reflection time.

You failed somewhere, but now you have an opportunity to figure out where you failed and possibly redeem yourself if this is still an ideal customer for you.

Keep repeating, People buy with emotion but justify it with logic. This is your mantra because you either failed to identify the emotion—which means identifying the need and want—or you failed to give the necessary amount of technical justification.

Be curious; ask questions like “Were you satisfied with the recommendation or not?” or “If you had to paint a picture with words of what you are looking for, how would you describe it?”

As the Bible says, Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

If the door closes because they weren’t an ideal customer for you, no worries—there are plenty of fish in the sea. If the door is closed because you haven’t knocked on it enough, then it’s a lost opportunity for you.

In any case, from here onwards, you need…

The Right Confidence & Attitude

Arguably, this is the most important thing before you even start talking to a prospect and should be the first on this list.

But maintaining that confidence and attitude is a big challenge for most people after they experience even a slight disinterest from the ideal customer, which is why it has been kept as the 6th point.

What is the right confidence and attitude for sales, you ask?

It is very subjective, but here are a couple of pointers:

• Know your product and what you are trying to sell. There shouldn’t be any doubt in your mind that what you are trying to sell is as valuable as gold at a 50% off sale.
• If you are meeting physically, maintain healthy eye contact.
• Diplomacy is key; you don’t want to hold extreme stances.
• Consider a prospect even replying back to you as a win.
• Remember that if a prospect doesn’t reply to you, there is a learning opportunity to improve yourself.
• If someone is rude without even talking to you, have the confidence and attitude to move on from it. Don’t let it ruin your day.
• You chose the path of a warrior the moment you got into sales. Don’t complain; it’s unproductive. Stand up, brush yourself off, and start fighting again.

I will detail these pointers in a different blog, but if you have followed so far, you have the resolve to improve, and you were able to focus. You may even have the warrior mindset. I will start respecting you too if you can make…

Peace with Failure

I want you to pause for a second and let that sink in because it’s much more than words.

The moment you make peace with failure, you become an unstoppable warrior to whom even the universe pays attention.

A warrior who has made peace with failure knows that they just need to retreat for a second, lick their wounds, and get back for round two.

Failure is just the universe saying that you need to learn from this experience. And the universe is persistent enough to keep putting the same test again and again until you succeed.

A warrior who keeps trying eventually wins. No one can take your grit away.

Sorry, there is no hack to this that I can share with you. This is a mindset, and this mindset itself is a hack because most people lose hope and drop their weapons.

I have even met successful people who will keep complaining but won’t surrender the fight. They have made peace with failure but just have a toxic trait of complaining about failures that they can’t shake off. Guess what? People might not like them much, but they are still winning because they kept trying.

The worst thing that you can do, though, is let the fear of failure control you. This happens with 99% of people, which is why the next skill you need to master is…

Getting Beyond Anxiety

It’s easier said than done, said every person suffering from anxiety.

But trust me, it is possible.

For the 1% of people who have made peace with failure, feel free to skip this skill because you will never need it.

For the 99% of people who are like me, trying to make peace with failure is going to be the hardest skill on this list. You will find yourself again and again in a pit of anxiety after each failure.

To you guys—yes, you, who are still reading—I want to tell you that there are only two ways out of this pit:

1. Giving Up: You take your own life, be it personally or professionally. Anxiety brings a whole lot of mental challenges, and you will always find yourself ready to quit. Remember, no one forced you to do it; you are choosing to walk away. If you do this, you were never a warrior to begin with.
2. Acceptance: Shed off the ego that is afraid of another failure and remember that you are not alone; you’re just one of many. Failure doesn’t define who you are because you are already defined as a part of the greater whole. Accept a failed attempt, and you will find yourself out of the pit.

If you got yourself out of the anxiety pit, congratulations—you have my respect. You are officially a warrior. But this was still the bare minimum to call yourself a warrior; you now need to know how it feels to be in…

The Warrior Energy

If you have followed through to this 9th skill, I believe you already know the answer to this one.

You have a picture inside your head of what kind of energy a warrior has.

Because it is subjective for every one of you depending on how imaginative you are, I do not see any point in discussing what warrior energy is.

All I want you to do is hold on to that image—that energy. Embrace it, internalize it, idealize it.

If you do this, then only you will be able to channel that energy. Just focus on the energy.

So far, everything I said is applicable to every individual regardless of which field or profession they are following because you experience sales daily. From interviews to pitching your ideology or getting people to follow what you are saying, we engage with a form of sales every day.

But to one-up for the sales professionals, one of the most important skills is…

Rapport Building & Negotiation

Rapport building and negotiation are not completely limited to sales professionals, but without rapport or negotiation skills, you can lose the sale when the client was ready to pay for it.

Why did I write it together? Well, because if you were successful in building a strong enough rapport, the client will not negotiate.

If you follow all the steps and skills I shared above, you already know what needs to be done to build a good rapport. But even if it falls to negotiation, you cannot let the client go, right?

Here is a step-by-step process on how to negotiate:

1. Try to Evade It: Do not engage directly and try to shift their focus from price to value.
2. Prove They Are Already Getting a Deal: Highlight the benefits and value additions.
3. Reference Back to the Emotion: Recall the emotion that triggered this conversation (risky—don’t overdo it).
4. Ask for Their Budget: So you can modify the offer to bring down the pricing by adjusting deliverables.
5. Respect and Limitations: If they are still adamant, remember that they might want to feel respected. Offer the best deal you can while mentioning your limitations, and encourage mutual respect.

If they still want you to lower the price, it might be best to reconsider. Leave your final offer with them and move on. Remember, your efforts didn’t go to waste. Either the client will respect you and come back later, or you just gained more experience in effectively applying your sales skills.

Conclusion

Did you just scroll to the bottom to see how big the article is and are just reading the conclusion to figure out the crux?

Yeah, get lost. You don’t deserve this knowledge.

For the people who came here after reading this article, congratulations—you are a true warrior in the modern world.

You know all the essential sales skills every professional should master. Bring them into practice, and the day you successfully implement all of the above will be the day you evolve.

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