When joining a new team, is it better to have the right soft skills and have to learn the hard skills of the job? Or vice versa?

In my experience it's been less of a challenge enabling the sales/account team on 'hard skills'. Over time you can see to it that people become comfortable with demo'ing your platform, using your tech stack, understanding the financials. However, trying to coach someone in the art of 'customer storytelling', or doing deep 'discovery' is something every enablement team struggles with.

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 selling, but understand how to set amazing appointments. Often, people early in their career try and replicate the #1 closer. You cannot be someone else. Sometimes the language another AE used would not come out of your mouth. Take what they're saying and make it your own.

For me personally, its having a strong foundation of soft skills. You can learn new products, new industries and about new personas you'll sell into. However, having emotional intelligence, curiosity, empathy and drive needs to be a part of your DNA almost. I have seen this often when trying to transition a sales organization from a 'vendor like' selling motion, where they sell 'licenses', to a more 'consultative like' selling motion that is there to partner with customers to solve their challenges and add value to their business. Often times you'll need to turn over the majority of the field to be able to bring in those sellers who inherently have the right skills to be a trusted advisor.

It is generally better to have the right soft skills and then learn the hard skills of the job. Here’s why:

1. Soft Skills Are Harder to Teach – Attributes like communication, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and teamwork are more difficult to develop. These traits are often intrinsic and take time to cultivate.

2. Hard Skills Can Be Learned – With the right mindset, technical or job-specific skills (hard skills) can be taught relatively quickly through training, mentoring, or self-study.

3. Culture Fit & Collaboration – Teams often thrive when individuals possess strong soft skills, enabling smooth collaboration, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.

4. Adaptability to Change – Industries and technology change, so having soft skills like learning agility and resilience ensures the person can grow with the role.

While both are important, having the right soft skills often leads to better long-term success, as technical expertise can be built over time.