5 Key Sales Skills That Cannot be Taught

In all my years in business, I’ve noticed that when companies are hiring new Sales Reps, they primarily recruit for applicants with the right personality traits for the job, not relevant skills. Companies don't have time to teach classes on how to have a winning personality. Which makes sense.

The best companies will hire for personality, then train for skill.

What Is A Sales Personality? 

A sales personality encapsulates the positive characteristics that are correlated to selling success. A person with a sales personality tends to embody all of the traits that lead to superior sales performance: inspiring genuine trust, building strong relationships, finding the right solutions to the right problems, consistently following up, showing grace under pressure, and closing higher-value deals faster. 

I also refer to these personality traits as “The 5 Key Sales Skills That Can’t Be Taught”:

1.  COACHABILITY

Coachability is the ability to accept and act on feedback.   

Managers consider a candidate's ability to adapt to new environments, continue to learn, and increase their performance level over time. Call it “teachable fit.” Call it “emotional intelligence.” Call it “soft skills,” but don’t call it optional. 

These monikers all fit under the broader umbrella of coachability, the most sought-after skill in business today, from the BDR to the Enterprise Sales Rep to the Board Room. Coachability builds business, creates leaders, and drives decisions that lead to the actions that deliver your competitive advantage. 

New grads arrive in workplaces with current technical knowledge they are eager to apply, but have a lot to learn about other aspects of succeeding in their new organization…Companies looking to ‘future proof’ business, need to fill and maintain a pipeline of people steadily gaining experience and advancing their careers.” 

The key to doing that relies upon hiring coachable people. Don’t confuse a friendly people-person with someone who is coachable — most applicants warm in an interview. Instead, look for these traits to better predict coachability in your candidate. 

2.  CURIOSITY

Developing and embracing curiosity among employees leads to better workplaces, more innovative thinking, and creative problem solving. At Salesforce, we found that those who possess natural curiosity are more often associated with higher job performance.

Most Recruiters look for an incredibly high degree of curiosity — people who just relentlessly want to learn new things and put themselves in new situations — and a high degree of empathy. If people are curious and empathetic, they can learn just about anything. 

3.  INTEGRITY

Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy.  And if you don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it's true. If you hire somebody without integrity, you really want them to be dumb and lazy. 

Integrity, or having strong ethical and moral principles, is an essential trait that employers highly value. Integrity is the foundation for a successful employee-employer relationship. It promotes a professional culture in which individuals can depend on one another and treat each other with respect. As a result, people are typically more productive and motivated at work.”

4. HUMILITY

Be Humble.

Humility is an oft-overlooked quality in a new hire, but it’s such a deal breaker when candidates or employees don’t have it. Being humble doesn’t mean self-effacing or down on one’s skills, it simply means that when you have humility in your work, you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and help, even if it’s not your job. What else? 

·       Humility means remembering to share the credit with your team. 

·       Being honest about your successes and your failures. 

·       Taking both criticism and praise in stride. 

·       Being able and willing to learn new tasks and processes. 

·       Learning how to communicate kindly, even when you’re correct. 

5.  EMPATHY 

People who have more empathy for others tend to also have other positive emotional intelligence skills, such as: 

·       being good listeners 

·       knowing how to empathetically mirror other people’s feelings (rather than jump to give them advice) 

·       asking thought provoking questions (rather than simply stating their own opinion) 

·       sitting with a negative feeling (such as anger) before immediately acting on it 

·       and the ability to help employees around them feel understood, cared about, and valued.  

 These skills are not only important in social relationships, but can greatly affect a person’s career success, including their ability to handle difficult work situations effectively, and to help keep people engaged and motivated around them. 

About the Author

Dean Guest lives in North Vancouver and is incredibly passionate about Sales and loves to share his experiences and lessons learned.

He can be found most weekends enjoying the highlights of an active West Coast Lifestyle, especially when traveling about on his motorcycle.