In the background of the City of Light with its typical boulevards and triangular blocks, Lily Collins plays the character of Emily in Paris. A series of Parisian luxury that shows how a young American girl achieves her dream of working for a successful marketing agency soft skills play a defining role in many situations that unfold in the story. Intelligent dialogues, teamwork, and empathy among peers and clients are just a few examples of the success of a good command of soft skills within your sales team.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are nothing more than the inner toolbox in every person when interacting with the outside world. It's how the individual manages to weigh difficulties in making satisfying relationships by knowing how to use verbal and non-verbal communication.
The ability to innovate and learn, active listening, communication, critical thinking, and interpersonal communication skills are characteristics that make a person able to interact effectively in any social ecosystem.
Currently, diplomacy within work environments would be something like gold dust, not only because of the lack of training in general but also because knowing how to link from the mediated word and active listening implies a bonus to nurture trust between brands and their prospects. In other words, the management of soft skills in the corporate environment is a way of being one step ahead of what people are looking for and need.
Why train my sales team in soft skills? The seven reasons
A survey conducted in the United States of more than 650 companies reveals that soft skills are the most in-demand by employers. Unfortunately, emotional intelligence has been relegated to the background for many years. This issue has been biased in university curricula since its inception. This explains why 73% of the employers who participated in the sample affirm that it is difficult to find candidates with qualities and competencies related to soft skills.
We know that speaking in commercial terms implies a whole question of supply and demand, conquered prospects, and closed accounts. But for these things to happen successfully, building lasting relationships with customers goes beyond the technical skills of the person trying to sell a product or service.
Knowing how to detect the client's non-verbal messages from their body language - gaze, posture, tone of voice, silences, and more - implies exceptional handling of communication skills, clearly added to the intelligence to know how to speak at the right time and in the right way. All this little combo leads to your company's business strategies making a significant difference in the company-customer relationship. At the end of the day, commercial impact based on soft skills is guaranteed success.
Here are seven reasons why you should think about enhancing the soft skills of your human resources in the commercial area:
1. They improve decision making
CEOs are responsible for making crucial decisions that impact any organization. In this, the decisions they make are aligned with listening skills. However, these competencies are not only required at the senior level but should act as a cascade effect down to the middle levels, where feedback between manager and team strengthens relationships and encourages innovative ideas.
2. They drive positive change
Lack of communication can generate confusion and inefficiency, which translates into losses for the organization. Avoiding this requires the existence of an excellent communication channel, which should not only exist within the commercial team but also in the rest of the organizational chart in pursuit of the alignment of objectives.
Thanks to this, employees are aware of the challenges faced by the business and can provide brilliant solutions, bringing about positive changes without a doubt.
3. Creates a healthy work environment
Empathy fosters a positive and supportive work environment, eliminating any unnecessary competition. Here employees are more prepared to take risks and move up the ladder. There, employees feel more confident expressing their thoughts and providing honest feedback to the organization. This thing is the kind of valuable input for optimizing processes and discovering new talent.
As a colorful fact, within Lab9's internal team we work based on agile methodologies, which is why video calls and messages via Slack have a high level of frequency. This tool allows communication between the different areas of the company to be fluid and transparent so that employees can respectfully express their contributions to the organization itself and commercial projects.
4. They help to solve problems more efficiently
Developing soft skills such as communication and active listening will make employees more proactive in recognizing problems and finding intelligent solutions in a more timely manner.
5. Soft skills improve customer service
With employees trained in soft skills, they will learn to identify problems effectively and establish solutions tailored to their customers' needs. Empathy will translate into compassion and patience in dealing with customers, especially in pre-sales and after-sales service.
6. Increases the number of sales
During the negotiation, soft skills match the company's interests with the prospect's needs. In this kind of commercial conversation, the sales team can persuade customers by increasing sales.
7. Improve employee retention
A company's retention rate increases when it begins to focus on boosting the interpersonal skills of its employees. Soft skills training involves personal and professional growth at the same time.
