So, today’s sales professional needs a range of cognitive skills in addition to the standard set of sales skills 

Below are the 9 Sales-relevant professional skills shortlisted from the 10 skills published in HDCE’s blog post. Added under each is their likely impact on the salesperson’s role: 

1. Analytical thinking and innovation – Even with automation and AI appearing likely to take over many jobs, the uniquely human ability to think critically and innovate solutions will never cease to be in demand 

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – Customers do not feel the need for sales support to carry out ‘transactional’ purchases. Much of these are managed digitally by Customers. It is for complex purchases decisions where support is required for choosing the right solution that they look to the salesperson. Developing analytical thinking and an innovative mindset will enable the salesperson to fulfil this expectation 

• Active learning and learning strategies– Ability to seek out and digest new information is a valuable skill that will be in demand all through 

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – The new age salesperson must be willing to learn, unlearn and relearn. Knowledge is the only sustainable differentiator in the long term and ability to learn is what will drive it 

• Creativity, originality, and initiative - Creative thinking and originality will be prized skills as they open up lucrative opportunities, such as finding untapped markets, creating efficiencies, or launching new initiatives. Initiative translates imagination into action that gets results 

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – One of the timeless axioms of selling is that no product is bought only for its quality but because it satisfies some specific need of the buyer. So, selling activity by its very nature requires that you sell the idea above all, then utility and then quality as a support. To be able to do this, the salesperson has to cultivate creativity, originality and initiative, something that will continue to be true regardless of the changes that may sweep the world of sales  

• Technology design and programming – Tech is the engine of the future and understanding and speaking the tech language is important for communicating with other teams, peers and leadership 

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – Salestech draws on platforms and apps to support and enhance the performance of various sales functions and today’s salesperson should be comfortable handling the salestech stack 

• Critical thinking and analysis– In every sphere of activity there is now an ocean of data but very little actionable insight drawn from it. So, the ability to think thoroughly and deliberately and to analyse information and data for goal-oriented action is a skill now essential to succeed in any domain  

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – Data orientation, analytical skills and critical thinking for solutioning are skills that will raise the salesperson’s role to that of a trusted advisor 

• Complex problem-solving – Robots, chatbots and increasingly intelligent software are poised to take over a majority of routine tasks and simple day to day problem resolution, leaving complex problems to be solved by humans. Experts predict that in solving complex problems technology will augment human skills. In evidence-based medicine, for example, doctors now tend to rely on software that studies and analyses medical images and offers conclusions which are then clinically corroborated 

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – People don’t buy products or services; they buy solutions which solve their stated and unstated problems. That aside, a salesperson’s role will continue to involve finding answers to complex issues like sales are not increasing at the pace needed, distributor is not buying, market share is dropping, sales promotion is not working or stake holder is tough to handle 

• Leadership and social influence– HDCE’s blog explains this skill in terms of relying less heavily on metrics and economic growth, and leaning more on human capital 

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – Future sales professionals will be called upon to exercise leadership and influence not just with their own teams and internal stakeholders, but with people within Customer entities and with buyer groups to steer and facilitate purchase journeys the right way

• Emotional intelligence – Rising influence of technology will make uniquely human skill of emotional intelligence a prerequisite for success 

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – When Customers look to salespeople to solve problems that technology is unable to address, an emotionally intelligent approach is required to understand what matters most to Customers and to generate trust and loyalty.

• Systems analysis and evaluation– Organizations have systems in place to enable them to run smoothly. Understanding these systems, analysing, evaluating and using them for better business decisions is a must have skill for future professionals  

Likely impact on salesperson’s role – Salespeople have to be comfortable working with systems inside and outside their organisations. Common examples are CRM systems (Inside) and Purchase ordering systems (Outside). Such systems are all set to grow exponentially in numbers 

Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s blog can be accessed here