At some point in your professional life, even if you don’t work directly in sales, you will likely have to sell something. This could be an idea to a colleague, a project to your boss, or a solution to a client. Whether you are an experienced salesperson or just starting out, the right soft skills will help you become better at selling.

The first of these is empathy, a skill that allows you to tune in to your counterpart’s verbal and non-verbal cues and understand their emotions and concerns. This will allow you to respond appropriately and tailor your messaging and content to their needs.

Another key soft skill is the ability to build relationships with your customers. This helps you to establish trust and rapport, which in turn will make it easier to close a sale. A great way to do this is by listening to what your customers are saying and then showing them how you can meet those needs.

Demonstrating your return on investment is also an important aspect of selling. This is especially true if you are selling a product or service that has a long lead time and requires an investment to yield results. One way to show this is by providing examples and details about how previous customers have benefitted from the product or service you are offering.

These seven verified seller skills are a good place to start for salespeople and business marketing managers looking to optimize their sales performance. However, further research is needed to explore other areas of seller skills that have been reported to influence sales performance. online marketplace