Is Sales & Service Really a “Soft” Skill?
Are These Skills Really “Soft?”
One of the things that has always made me crazy is the labeling of sales and customer service as a so called “soft” skill. If sales and service are soft then why is it so hard to get your team to put them into practice? I often wonder, “Who was the dunderhead, that coined this term?”
My best guess is that it is probably someone who has a very strong technical skill-set that has failed to develop equally strong customer skills. This person (Probably a guy) then trying to justify this weakness, downplays the importance of customers by labeling this uber-important skill as “soft” which implies that it is not very important.
Selling Skills Are Essential
The essential skills of selling your services at a profitable price while providing service that exceeds that price is very rare indeed. In fact, many careers, companies and customers have been lost due to the inability to implement them. Far from soft, they are very powerful and can indeed change the lives of employees, customers and companies.
In fact, when you think about it, your “Hard” (technical) skills will whither away fast if you fail to sell or create value in your service. After all, if you can’t convince a customer they should purchase from you, then you will not do the work. This means that all of our tech and product knowledge never gets put into action. Eventually you will lose your skills due to atrophy.
Do You Diagnose People?
What we are talking about here is the ability of your team to diagnose a customer and their family so that your technical solutions can be “on-code” with these buyers. It really amounts to our willingness to listen to our customers words and feelings in a way that helps us find the perfect solution for them. This creates a higher value for the service they provide.
Conversely those who are great at the technical part of their jobs but can’t communicate the value of the service they are about to do, will find themselves struggling to find work. Think of all the families of those employees who are suffering because of this.
The Happy Loser
These “happy losers” are stuck in a rut, going about their lame but persistent business of trying not to go broke. No doubt they will blame, the economy, the president, employees, vendors or anybody else but themselves for their failure. I call them “happy losers” because they are fine with mediocrity or failure as long as other contractors they know are failing too. Basically, they understood the work but they do not know how to provide service or know how to sell that service. That is their legacy.
Essential Skills Used By Very Few
On the other hand there are a small but growing group of service contractors who are working to master these essential skills. Their employees are working year round. They are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, while the “company-next-door” continues to struggle not knowing these “soft” skills.
In summary, one must be crazy to not see the importance of these so called “soft” skills. It is the difference between a life wasted, families broken and financial struggle OR a legacy of value, quality family togetherness and living the life you have always imagined. This is “soft?” This is easy? Let’s stop with the “soft” label and let everyone know how essential this skill is to become a true success.
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8 Responses to “Is Sales & Service Really a “Soft” Skill?”
Drew Cameron said...
Joe, I couldn’t agree more. Nothing happens until someone buys something and it usually from a “salesperson”, even if that person comes in the form of a CSR or technician. Capitalism falls apart without sales, and we live in the Capitol of Capitalism (ok, maybe China has caught up, but who’s keeping score?).
I also find it ironic that salespeople, CSRs, techs, etc. always talk about sharpening up these so-called “soft skills”. How do you sharpen something that is “soft”???
You can’t!
These skills are forged with the blood (from paper cuts), sweat (due to hot offices, cars, classrooms in which we read, listen and study) and tears (from spouses and kids missing you while you learn or work).
Once forged with knowledge, they are hardened with role-playing and experience, then the edge is hone with laser-like precision ongoing coaching, training, troubleshooting and reinforcement, until the sharpness of these skills is part of the fabric of the person and who they are and how they act without flexing.
Sales, selling, effective interpersonal communication, and relationship building take effort to learn and master and anyone who thinks they have mastered them is to be marked a fool because, like golf, you can always get better and improve on your performance both personally and professionally.
The skills of which you write in your blog, are anything but soft. They are hard to learn, hard to implement, hard to own an master, hard to maintain, and hard to excel at, but they easy to succeed with since so few ever really put in any effort to strive for excellence in their utilization.
Make a connection, share some mutual insights, and see if it makes sense to work together.
Sounds easy enough, but then again if it were that easy there would be no need for me, Joe, or blog.
All the best!
Drew Cameron
HVAC Sellutions
Steve Coscia said...
Good article Joe. You’re correct about the “soft skill” nomenclature. Writing as a contrarian is always more interesting and edgy. Great job! I first heard the term “soft skills” from an old-time, HVAC guy who was much older than I am. I didn’t know any better at the time so I started saying “soft skills” too. You’re on the right track.
Bill Brown said...
Being able to define something quantitatively is so much easier than marketing, sales and customer service. I can’t imagine the term “soft” refering to them as less important, rather I would interpret the term “soft” to mean not controlled by specification, drawing or contract. Those jobs are certainly no less important than the “hard” (quantifiable) skills.
A Hudson said...
I thought the most annoying words were, “Let us think about it”, followed by “We’ll get back to you” and finally “Mr Hudson your credit card has been declined… in every currency in the world.”
Maybe we can rethink and realign “soft” with software vs hardware instead of “soft” like unimportant. We know software makes the hardware operate; same thing here…
The hard (tech) skills are required, but they ain’t gonna get used unless someone BEFORE them mastered soft skills. You make a fabulous point, and as much as it pains me to admit, I agree with Drew too.
Every day I am in contact with people from whom I WOULD buy. I’m reasonably solvent, have a need, am either IN the store, ON their website, or the phone, and yet so few people can “sell”. They just ‘take orders’ or respond robotically.
Contractors, just imagine for a moment – - what would happen if you bumped EVERY transaction size by 10% and boosted your closing ratio by 10 points. Suddenly the soft skills are very measurable indeed, allowing you to use more hard skills to get all that equipment installed.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach said...
Hi Joe,
There is nothing soft about sales, service, communication, negotiation, presentation, and the list goes on. To me “soft skills” are two four letter words I never use. I have been calling them “people-skills” for a very long time and your post is spot on.
Thanks for adding your voice (and your well designed blog) to this discussion.
Here is one of my recent posts underscoring how people-skills in sales/service impact the bottom line outcome. Emotional intelligence has hit mainstream business and the sky is the limit as a result.
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http://katenasser.com/5-best-customer-service-emotionally-intelligent-thoughts/
Highest regards,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach
Liam said...
Hi
Looking at the job market right now and the way recruiters’ thought processes appear to work, you’d be forgiven for believing that ‘communication skills’ (I don’t like ’soft’ skills either!) don’t even exist.
As far as I can see, selection processes today have been made to resemble procurement processes for components. The closest fit to the technical specification gets the job.
The results?
1. Increasing rudeness and incivility in the workplace.
2. Increasing lack of initiative in the workplace.
3. Increasing lack of flexibility in the workplace.
4. Increasing lack of real growth prospects in the workplace.
The largest companies are the worst offenders.
In the short term, these companies will continue to do what they do.
In the long term, these companies will fall victim to competition of smaller, nimbler competitors who will do what it takes to get the job done, not what it takes to please the corporate hierarchy.
Best wishes
Liam
Joe Crisara said...
Thanks to everybody for some really insightful comments. I never knew that this would be such a hot button. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your feedback on this critical subject.
Rusty Paganelli said...
You wouldn’t believe it but I’ve wasted all day digging for some articles about this. You’re a lifesaver, it was an excellent read and has helped me out to no end. Cheers.