Les 11 compétences essentielles dont tout vendeur a besoin
There are plenty of crucial sales skills you need to have to be a successful and effective salesperson. 👩💼👨💼
But beyond knowing how to use a CRM or how to create a sales forecast (here’s a template btw), being a great salesperson means you’re in tune with your soft sales skills just as much as your technical sales skills.
It’s great that you’re able to use the latest software or have mastered Excel spreadsheets, but if you aren’t someone who is able to really develop relationships with customers, you won’t get very far. 🙅♀️
That’s why we’ve put together a list of 11 essential sales skills you’ll need to be highly effective.
This post is by no means exhaustive – as there are countless soft sales skills that can make you a better salesperson – but these are the most crucial when it comes to effective sales relationships.
After all, that’s a big part of why you went into sales, right? 😉
11 compétences non techniques dont tout vendeur a besoin
1. L'empathie
It’s always important to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes – especially as a salesperson.
When you’re able to understand what people might be thinking or how they might be feeling, you’re able to guide conversations in a productive way. 👍
You can uncover motivations, pain points and more, meaning you have a better idea of when you can push ahead or when you need to hold back a bit – which can really turn you into a sales rockstar!
Plus important encore : l'empathie vous permet d'établir des relations significatives avec les clients potentiels.
They may not remember what you said, but they’ll certainly remember how you made them feel. The last thing you want in a sales situation is to have a customer feel taken advantage of, or as if you aren’t keeping their best interests in mind.
There are plenty of exercises you can do to mindfully practice empathy, including literally imagining yourself in someone else’s shoes and reframing your thoughts toward curiosity rather than judgment.
Always make sure a customer knows you’re in their corner! 👊
2. L'intelligence émotionnelle
L'intelligence émotionnelle vous permet de comprendre ce que ressentent les autres et de gérer à la fois vos émotions et celles des autres à votre égard.
When you’re an emotionally intelligent person, people naturally relate to you and want to follow your guidance. 🚶♂️
L'intelligence émotionnelle se compose de quatre capacités :
- Perceiving emotions – the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, etc., including your own emotions. This is the most basic aspect of emotional intelligence and it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
- Using emotions – the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem-solving. An emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.
- Understanding emotions – the ability to comprehend emotion language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions (and be able to describe how emotions evolve over time).
- Managing emotions – the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.
Comme vous pouvez le constater, l'intelligence émotionnelle est une compétence non technique incroyablement précieuse à posséder tant dans votre carrière que dans votre vie personnelle.
If you’re able to pick up on a prospect’s mood, you’ll be able to gauge how to proceed with conversations.
Are they in a great mood? Maybe it’s time to close the deal. 🤝
Are they in a not-so-great mood? Sincerely ask them if everything is ok, and listen to what they have to say. Which brings me to the next point…
3. L'écoute active
When you’re trying to sell a product or service online and are focused on hitting your sales targets, it can be tempting to fall into a pattern of badgering someone to buy from you and talking their ears off until they agree.
Unfortunately, many salespeople still do this, even at companies who brag about how great they are at sales. 🙄
Don’t do this. No. One. Likes. This.
Instead, work on listening to your prospects. In many cases, they will tell you what their pain points are and what they’re looking for – you just have to listen.
Il est bien sûr productif de poser des questions pour orienter la conversation de manière à obtenir les informations dont vous avez besoin, mais évitez de prendre le contrôle de la conversation.
Personne ne veut entendre dire que vous ou votre entreprise êtes formidables sans y être invité. Écoutez ce qu'ils ont à dire, puis déterminez la prochaine étape qui leur conviendra le mieux.
Remember: you need to be on the customer’s side, and you need to make them feel good about the exchange! 😍
4. Une communication efficace
Salespeople spend the majority of their day communicating – so it’s important to be an effective communicator!
De l'envoi d'e-mails à l'organisation de réunions, en passant par les appels téléphoniques et l'utilisation du chat en direct pour la vente, un vendeur doit communiquer de nombreuses façons au cours d'une journée donnée, ce qui rend cette communication d'autant plus cruciale. Disposer d'un outil fiable ou d'une application de communication d'équipe qui vous permet de collaborer avec votre équipe ou de contacter vos prospects est donc indispensable.
As an effective communicator, you should be able to keep your audience in mind at all times and adjust accordingly. 🗣
For example, you shouldn’t be speaking to your fellow sales colleagues the same way you would speak to a customer, because they have different needs from you and different goals in mind.
Simply put: being effective in how you communicate helps you get your points across and reach your goals. 🙌
5. La confiance
This one probably isn’t too surprising. To be a great salesperson, you have to exude confidence!
And if you don’t feel confident at the moment? Fake it ‘til you make it. 💪
Confident people inspire confidence in others – so if you’re confident about what you’re selling, prospects will feel that confidence and “buy into” what you have to say.
Si vous pensez que vous pourriez travailler un peu sur ces compétences, il existe de nombreuses ressources et exercices disponibles en ligne pour vous aider à renforcer votre confiance et à passer du statut de bon vendeur à celui d'excellent vendeur.
6. La flexibilité
Working in sales can be a bit of a whirlwind at times. Meetings get moved around, prospects ask questions that aren’t included in a demo, the list goes on…
That’s why flexibility is crucial! You have to be able to change plans at the drop of the hat – in a positive and constructive manner. 🤗
Plutôt que d'aborder les changements avec panique ou frustration, prenez un peu de recul, respirez quelques instants et essayez de proposer des solutions ou des alternatives.
With that said, it’s great to be flexible, but it’s also important to know when to say “no” to avoid being overloaded.
7. L'optimisme
Working in sales can mean a lot of unanswered emails from leads, hung-up phone calls, rejections in many forms…so great salespeople understand the importance of staying positive!
Not everyone you speak to will necessarily be interested (or even qualify) for your product or service – and that’s ok. It’s all about being optimistic in the face of any adversity or rejection.
Optimism is closely tied to confidence. It means that you’re hopeful and confident that things will turn out ok (and spoiler alert: things will turn out ok in one way or another). 😄
Ce savoir-être peut également réduire le stress et augmenter la longévité.
That’s right: the power of positivity can literally make you live longer! 🖖
8. Gestion du temps
Similar to flexibility, time management means that you’re able to work smarter, not harder.
Travailler 60 heures par semaine et atteindre à peine ses objectifs de vente n'est ni durable, ni amusant.
Working 40 hours per week and blowing your sales targets out of the water is sustainable and fun. 🎉
Time management also means managing your energy. Be sure you’re se reposer suffisamment. This way, when you’re at work, you can always be at your 100%.
Of course, every week is different, but if you’re able to prioritize and delegate your work in an effective way, it can be a gamechanger.
There are plenty of tools out there that can help you with this, but in the end, it’s not always easy to keep up the discipline to make them work for you.
Par exemple, l'outil de base de vos outils de vente est un CRM, mais seuls quelques-uns d'entre nous parviennent à le remplir parfaitement et à conserver toutes les données nécessaires pour qu'il soit vraiment utile.
That’s why at Salesflare nous nous concentrons sur l'automatisation de la tâche robotique de saisie des données dans votre CRM, afin que vous puissiez vous concentrer sur l'amélioration continue de vos compétences de vente et sur l'établissement de relations avec les clients.
Since it pulls in all your contacts’ data for you and fills up the timeline with your emails, meetings & phone calls just by connecting your email and calendar, it saves you a lot of time. Time you can now spend improving your sales skills and building relationships with customers.
(Si vous voulez essayer notre produit et améliorer vos ventes, vous pouvez commencer un essai ici. Beaucoup de nos clients l'utilisent également pour suivre les investisseurs, les partenariats, les accélérateurs et bien plus encore).
9. Prise de parole en public
Certaines personnes adorent parler devant un groupe. D'autres, moins.
Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, it’s a great soft skill as a salesperson.
You’re going to be speaking to people on a regular basis, as well as offering demos and presentations, so the last thing you need is to freeze up in the middle of a crucial meeting. 😰
La meilleure chose à faire pour surmonter la peur de parler en public est de pratiquer, pratiquer, pratiquer. Plus vous le ferez, plus cela vous semblera naturel.
Si cela vous intimide, essayez d'autres options, comme prendre des cours d'improvisation ou regarder TED Talks sur YouTube pour vous aider à apprendre des experts de la prise de parole en public.
10. Intégrité
La chose la plus fondamentale qui peut faire ou défaire un excellent vendeur est son intégrité.
L'honnêteté et la transparence avec les prospects sont essentielles pour être un vendeur intègre.
This should be a no-brainer, but bears repeating: salespeople should never push a sale on someone who isn’t a good fit for a product or service. Whether that is in regards to pain points, budget or any other reason.
Un vendeur ne doit jamais se tromper sur ce qu'un produit ou un service peut apporter à quelqu'un. Si vous promettez trop et que vous ne tenez pas assez, cela vous reviendra en pleine figure.
It can ruin your entire career. 😵
Carry yourself with integrity – and let’s be real, that’s just good life advice in general.
11. L'état d'esprit de croissance
It’s incredible what people can accomplish when they have a growth mindset.
What does that mean exactly? Well, it’s the belief that you are capable of strengthening your talents and acquiring new sales skills/abilities over time.
It means that you understand the importance of hard work and constantly trying to improve, rather that just staying stuck in your ways. 🚀
En tant que vendeur, il s'agit d'une compétence non technique précieuse.
If you’re barely hitting your sales targets each quarter and you’re perfectly satisfied with that, then maybe sales isn’t for you.
It’s important to try to push yourself to constantly improve over time. To learn. To grow. To SMASH those goals!
This is also tied to the idea of high achievement and its connection to “grit.” I’ll let expert Angela Lee Duckworth explain that one. 😎
There you have it, 11 soft sales skills that will help you reach your goals faster… and in style! 🎊
Prêt à conclure des affaires grâce à ces compétences ?
Complétez vos excellentes compétences de vente avec un CRM de premier ordre. En laissant Salesflare automatiser toutes les tâches robotisées pour vous, vous avez plus de temps pour vous concentrer sur la flexibilité, l'optimisme, la confiance et la croissance.
When your emails, meetings, phone calls, files, website visits and more are already pulled in for you, your motivation stays on track. With all that time and motivation, it gives you more energy to improve your soft sales skills and close more deals. 💪
So, when you’re ready to take the next step in sales, améliorer votre gestion du temps et gardez la trace de vos prospects en donnant Salesflare un essai.
Quelles sont les autres compétences non techniques que vous jugez essentielles pour être un bon vendeur ? Faites-le nous savoir dans les commentaires !
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