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The 7 Sales Skills That Can’t Be Taught [Roundup]

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

7-sales-skills4.jpgWelcome to your sales weekly roundup for May 19-26. This week we’re diving into 7 sales skills that are more nature than nurture, HubSpot’s new State of Inbound report as it relates to sales, and a bunch of stats that will make you happy to be a social seller. Enjoy.

The 7 Sales Skills That Can’t Be Taught

Dan Ross, SVP, Commercial Sales, Salesforce, writes on the inert qualities he sees in some of the best closers. Ross is quick to point out, “What these individuals may have lacked in traditional sales experience, they more than compensated for with core qualities.”

Curiosity—The market changes so fast it’s impossible to have up-to-date training on everything. Naturally curious salespeople take the time to find the solution to their customers problems without any prodding. 

Integrity—Ross says he’d rather someone miss their quota and do the right thing by the customer than the other way around. However, ideally, it’s great to have someone who gets this done and does it right.

Drive—Those who challenge themselves to improve their companies faster will be the ones who get superior opportunities.

Problem Solving—There are more hurdles in a profession and industry that any company can ever anticipate. Problem-solvers attack issues head on and find, or create, their own answers.

Resilience—”The salespeople who are the most resilient bounce back the fastest, learn from their mistakes, and grow from challenges,” Ross says. Sales is an emotional career—those who can’t take rejection well will have a tough time rising to the top.

Self-Awareness—The most self-aware reps know what’s working for them and what’s not. They are deliberate with success and know how to repeat it.

Emotional Awareness—Those on the road need to be highly skilled at reading people’s reactions in a room and pushing harder or backing down. Those on social and the phone also need to read digital or audio cues and act accordingly. 

State of Inbound 2017

This week, HubSpot released its research report on the state of sales and marketing, called Inbound. Here’s what salespeople and leaders need to know:

-It’s getting harder to elicit a response from a buyer, close deals and prospect for leads.

7-sales-skills-can't-be-taught.png-According to respondents, prospecting is the hardest part of the sales process—lead scoring needs to get better or marketing needs better lead-qualifying actions to hand off more qualified demand.

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-Only 22% of Sales and Marketing respondents rank themselves “tightly aligned,” which means they have an SLA in place7-sales-skills2.png

-Salespeople are still least trusted source of information (by C-levels and individual contributors), while word-of-mouth and customer referrals remain the highest (by both groups as well).

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*This is a summary of several sections of HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2017 Report by Mimi An.

72 Social Selling Stats You Should Know

CEO and founder of sales automation platform Reply.io Oleg Campbell has gathered 72 social selling stats in an infographic that illustrates the benefits of social selling. Though Campbell frames the stats as part of modern marketing, most are relevant to B2B social sales people (who, by the way, are the actual owners of social selling initiatives).

Highlights you should know:

-In their 2016 ‘State of Sales report’ Salesforce found 90% of top salespeople use social selling tools, compared with 71% of overall sales professionals.

-84% of C-Level and VP-Level buyers use social media for purchasing (IDC).

-Overall, 75% of B2B buyers consult social media when making purchasing decisions (IDC).

*Disclaimer: Many of the stats cited as Sales for Life’s in this survey are actually third-party data and not our own.

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*This is a summary of 72 Social Selling Stats You Should Know by Oleg Campbell.

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