12 Essential Sales and Service Skills

Success at work and in life is easier when the goals for each complement one another. So essential sales and service behaviours are effective life skills too.

We’ve analysed over 250,000 incoming sales and service call conversations and from that we’ve defined the following twelve essential sales and service behaviours for the best sales and service outcomes.

A behaviour is defined as:

“How one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others.”

Those actions flow from the thoughts we have, which in turn flow from our feelings and emotions. So feeling motivated, unsurprisingly, is essential for maximising your sales and service productivity.

12 essential sales and service skills to drive sales, revenue and life itself

Welcoming

Behaving in a polite or friendly way to a guest or new arrival. Whether it’s the first contact, second or third, how we greet somebody will define how well the rest of the engagement goes.

Engaging

Charming, attractive or pleasing. After the initial contact, the opening conversation is important for the customer to feel that they are speaking with someone who cares about them.

Competent

Having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully. Whilst you might be engaging is it backed up with the technical and organisational knowledge needed to help the other side.

Listening

To give one’s attention to a sound. Are you practising active listening skills? Acting on what the caller is saying to you, not just listening for what is important to you.

Helpful

Giving or ready to give help. Being helpful involves understanding the other person’s emotional needs and providing support and actions to meet those needs.

Responsive

Reacting quickly and positively. How responsive you are is perhaps the biggest driver of service quality, business culture and customer loyalty.

Empathetic

Showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Customers contact you because they have a problem they hope your product or services will help them solve. How well can you recognise and show this?

Curious

Eager to know or learn something. Asking questions, and using questioning techniques such as open and closed questions will help you understand what is really important to your customers.

Polite

Having or showing behaviour that is respectful and considerate of other people. It’s basic, but sometimes when we get busy or stressed, this can be forgotten.

Positive

Constructive, optimistic, or confident. Being positive helps to frame the problem and solution in a way that invites creative thinking to find the best way forward and outcome.

Thankful

Pleased and relieved. An attitude of gratitude. Showing your appreciation in being asked to help your customer goes a long way in building trust and respect.

Productive

Producing or able to produce large amounts of goods, crops, or other commodities. Being able to effectively manage your time and task prioritisation allows you to do more in a given period of time and so generate more sales.