AMA: UserTesting VP of Sales, Katie Harkins on Sales Soft and Hard Skills

As a hiring manager, the best sales candidates have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. They come prepared with questions about the organization, sales team structure and prospects you sell into. They aren't afraid to ask for next steps in the interview process while standing out from the crowd of interviews that might be in your calendar. This might sound old school, but in a candidate heavy market, it's important to write a cover letter as to why you would be a great fit for the company long ...Read More

The hard skills that a sales leader must have are being a product expert, having industry knowledge, presentation + sales skills, and closing. You have to remember that you're not managing yourself. Every person likes to be managed different and might have different goals than you did when you were selling. Understand those and manage to those goals. They're never going to work as hard as you did when you first got into sales. As a sales leader, you also have to be a really good motivator. Every ...Read More

Without sales, you don't have a business. Talented sales people are hard to find and even harder to retain. Here are a few questions I ask: Are your sales people bought in on the company mission and the future of what your company is building? Do you recognize them for their hard work and contributions to the company? Are you providing competitive compensation for your sales people? Do they believe they're working under the best sales leadership team that will continue to foster a positive and s ...Read More

Everyone is in sales, whether you have an Account Executive title or a Product Manager title. Even engineers have to sell what they're working on and why they're working on it. Document your wins. The definition of sales is the exchange of a commodity for money. As humans, we do this everyday whether we like to admit it or not. Think back to your best sales moment as a human. There was value in your life and you pulled out your wallet. If you're looking to transition into sales, remember to docu ...Read More

There are multiple tools you can use to build a management framework for your soft skills. Tools like Chorus or Gong will tell you if you talk too much or if you don't ask engaging questions. If you don't over achieve your quota on a regular basis, there are some soft skills that need improving. You can't boil the ocean all at once. It's kinda like tetris. Work on one soft skill at a time. Pick rapport building for example and see how long you can go. The best part about your soft skills are the ...Read More

When joining a new team, it's better to be open minded about changing your sales cycles and your approaches. Each organization has a different selling motion associated with prospects. If you're too focused on the hard skills, you often miss the little things associated with your soft skills that actually build the deal that lead to negotiating and closing. I see this a lot when organizations promote from within. If you take your #1 SDR or #1 BDR, they are often less mature in the hard skills of ...Read More

Listen to the feedback that your boss might give you - even if you don't agree. Take a deep breath or go for a run. Don't push back on the feedback, move forward to improve it and document where you're getting better for visibility into an issue that might have happened in the past. It's also important to have a mini "board of directors" that aren't at your organization that you can call up and vent to. Without knowing the inner workings of your company, direct reports, or boss - they can provid ...Read More

For recent graduates that want to go straight into sales, I will immediately high five them and say, "Hell yes!" Everyone is in sales whether you have a quota or not. You're selling your significant other that you want Mexican for dinner vs. sushi. You're selling your kiddos on why attending school is an advantage in the long run. Ultimately, it matters what you W2. Why work harder than your co-workers only to get paid the same as them? A career in sales pays you more for your hard work and grow ...Read More

I decided early on that I wanted to choose sales as a career. My dad was in private label contract negotiations in the grocery industry and my mom was a successful real estate agent. I always saw them hustling at home. I came out of the womb selling. My neighborhood friend and I would sell tomatoes and lemonade on the corner of a busy street. We would document how much cups costs us at our local grocery store and worked to decrease our fixed costs by "borrowing" lemons from our backyard trees. E ...Read More

The most important soft skills a sales professional can build upon everyday are the following: Excellent verbal and written communication skills are crucial. Whether this be via slack, teams, over zoom, or with accounting and finance. You have to be able to drive next steps in the sales cycle with prospects as well as internally within your organization. Active Listening. My dad use to say, "God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason." A deep understanding of where the prospect is coming f ...Read More

The most important sales skills that others inside your organization could benefit from that would improve their day to day work are a deep understanding of the customer. Why does someone inquire? Why do they purchase? When you're not in the room, how do they explain your product or sell your product to their boss? How do they use your tool, service or software to solve a problem? By understanding your customers, it helps identify opportunities for upselling, cross selling or even suggesting rel ...Read More