Numerous skills are demanded to be successful in strategic sales, but I am attending advise three that are essentially essential. Allow me introduce my suggestions by saying I will not be including anything being forced to do with prospecting, which is a whole area unto itself, and which isn’t peculiar to strategic sales. Instead I am attending address situations where you’re already committed with a prospect.

My top three skills for strategic selling, then, are:

1. Asking great questions

2. Listening critically

3. Making agreement at various phases of the sales cycle

So why did I pick these three to be the most decisive? Because without them, none of the others would be relevant. You will not be invited in to make a presentation if you can’t unveil sufficient valuable information to qualify your prospect. And that qualification process consists, as we all acknowledge, of asking great questions and listening to the answers (both what’s said, and what’s not said). And if you aren’t making agreement along the way, well, I suppose you could have a forecast, but it would not be a terribly strong one – for sure not one in which your manager would, or should, have much confidence.

Let’s look more closely at these three skills.

Great questions consist of a series of qualifying (and disqualifying) questions, probing questions (to understand business needs as well as personal motivations), and trial closes (which gets us into skill #3). Apply great questions, and you will unlock the mysteries to winning your prospect’s confidence, and with it the keys to his kingdom.

Listening is an ability most of us have; critical listening is the development of this inherent ability into the skill of listening with intent, with purpose. Listening to understand the goals and challenges, frights and restraints of your prospect (and by “prospect”, I mean all the players involved in appraising your offering), as well as what will motivate them to select you, or to advocate on your behalf. It’s listening to determine your prospect’s evaluation process, and applying that information to develop your own selling approach for this opportunity. Listen critically, and you will absorb those mysteries you have unlocked, and be able to apply them to your advantage.

Contrary to transactional sales, strategic sales take a long time to come to fruition – commonly 3-12 months. There are too many opportunities along the way for a deal to derail – for reasons which often are not under your control. It is for this reason that I consider gaining small agreements along the way the third of my top three important skills for strategic selling.