4 Main Soft Skills You Should Improve for Better Business Performance

One idea is not enough to create an effective business. Its founder must have a complete set of qualities that will help manage business processes and inspire the team to achieve goals. Successful people always develop and invest a lot of time, effort and money in their knowledge. But what exactly are they developing? What skills do you need to build a successful business?

Do you want to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the city, country, and maybe the world?

Then you need to develop these skills:

The Most Important Soft Skills to Improve

1. Communication Skills

Successful entrepreneurs send thousands of emails. They make dozens of calls every day. Personal meetings are held regularly. I think you already understand what I’m getting at.

If you want to be successful in your business, you need to be able to communicate with people. The more effectively you can express your thoughts to the interlocutor, the higher the possibility they will want to cooperate with you.

The level of your communication determines the level of your profit. Sociable people enjoy communication and do not care with whom to talk to. Experts have already noticed that the formula for success consists of two things:

20% are professional skills,
And the remaining 80% are business communication.

Maintain Communication with the rest of the team — Illustration by Felic Art

Below I have collected 9 rules for better communication. You will see how pleasant and easy it can be to communicate with people.

First, you need to determine the merits of the interlocutor. Despite the fact that they may be unpleasant to you. You must make people feel their significance and uniqueness. Try not to immediately condemn their actions, but rather understand the motives. This is necessary for the person to open up to you.
You should enjoy communication. It can be difficult but when you enjoy communicating, all your conversations will go much better.
You should not be too formal when communicating. Often dry answers are the first sign that you are not interested in the interlocutor. Thus, you are showing disrespect to them.
In order for people to enjoy communicating with you, you must respect the opinion of your interlocutor. Even though it may be radically opposite to your opinion. You must express your thoughts delicately and carefully not to offend the interlocutor.
Never interrupt the person. You must know how to listen. This is a common problem in communication. You should put yourself in their place, and think, would you be pleased if you were constantly interrupted? I think not, so do not forget this point.
To gain trust, you must learn to respect the other person’s opinion. But at the same time, do not forget about yourself. There are situations when you need to defend your opinion but do this as correctly as possible.
You should not condemn the views on the life of your interlocutor, because they are all different. Try to take the place of the person you are communicating with and see the world from their point of view. That way you can understand them better.
If you want to point out to a person about a wrong job or wrong behavior, then first you need to praise them a little for what they did well, and then point out the shortcomings.
Smile. Always try to smile, but you also need to be respectful and polite. This has a wonderful positive effect when dealing with people.

2. Sales Technique

This is a skill that every entrepreneur should definitely have. You could ask “Why? I have a sales department”.

But if you don’t know how to sell, you will not be successful in business.

I recommend learning how to sell today. Of course, for success in sales, a desire to communicate and love for people are desirable. The direct selling technique is based on attention to the needs of the client, the ability to catch the mood and ask the right questions.

How to increase your sales level? Here are 5 tips:

Watch expectations. Before meeting a customer you should ask yourself the question: how do I see my customer? Try to create a positive image first of all, and then there are more chances that you will attract such people.
Watch your speech. Don’t retell other people’s gossip or quote past customers. Give compliments and emphasize the client’s correctness in the smallest detail in every possible way. If the customer is not talkative, ask questions that can be answered in the affirmative. The technique of several “yes” is the key to effective sales. It will more likely lead to a positive purchase decision than obtrusive wordy advertising.
Keep a record of your sales rankings. At first, there may be one completed transaction out of ten. Then with experience, the number of transactions will increase. Daily notes will help you analyze your strengths and mistakes. You get skills in any business with experience, especially in areas related to human communication.
You will learn how to sell a product to someone when you can get paid for a product that you personally dislike. Choose from the assortment what you don’t like and sell for maximum profit. So you will learn to find at least five attractive features in any product and convince the clients why they need this particular item or service.
Learning to sell is an ongoing process if you want to remain the most successful salesperson. In a month, you need to read two books on sales techniques, take trainings and courses, consult with a mentor, and observe the work of high-class professionals.

3. Personal Branding

Do you know what is the best advertisement? Your name and your reputation!

So, if you want to earn your first $1,000,000, your task is to convey to the world (and your potential clients) what exactly you are doing. And knowledge of marketing and branding will help you with this.

Personal brand is your image that develops in the minds of your customers. In a sense, a brand is equal to a reputation: it can evoke negativity, respect, hatred, love, or other emotions. You need a personal brand for the following reasons:

Increase the loyalty of the target audience to your products, services, offers;
Increase awareness among a wide or narrow target audience;
Position yourself as an expert in any field and thereby increase the cost of services or goods. An expert product always costs more.

Branding helps to tell about yourself, form a positive image, associate yourself with quality goods and services. If the main goal is to increase awareness, you can do only with SMM promotion without being tied to goods, services, products. If you want to increase the level of sales or the price, it is better to associate your name with a specific service or product. So consumers will remember that and in the future they will choose your offer.

Think over what meanings the personal brand will be filled with. What associations it will evoke and how exactly it will affect the cost of services. Remember that the brand is your extension, not just a pretty picture. A personal brand must match your lifestyle – then it will work. Do not come up with something that does not exist.

You can declare yourself in different ways: speak at a profile event, give an interview to a major media outlet, start your own personal blog. The easiest way at the very beginning is to create your own blog and create accounts on social networks. A blog can be promoted in a search engine according to certain queries in order to get customers. Pages in social networks can be used to communicate with target audiences and expand coverage.

4. Ability to Recognize Emotions (Emotional Intelligence)

Everyone knows that a high IQ is a set of abilities and useful knowledge that allow you to succeed in your business. No one questions the importance of logical intelligence. But logic alone is not enough for success. All the achievements are sometimes crossed out by a storm of human emotions. You can learn how to manage emotions. You need to develop EQ in yourself – emotional intelligence.

Why is emotional intelligence important in business? Higher emotional intelligence helps people communicate better. It stimulates team effort and problem-solving. Emotional intelligence plays the biggest role in productivity compared to other skills in the workplace. Research has shown that emotional intelligence contributes to 58% of success in every job.

These days, EQ – emotional intelligence – is very important to personal success. Having a high IQ is an advantage, but having an EQ can make a difference in your future career or business. EQ is a person’s ability to understand people, guess and manage their true mood (emotions), desires, motivation. However, many entrepreneurs and executives are not even aware of the existence of emotional intelligence. While others have successfully applied the Yale professor’s discovery for over 25 years. It is obvious that a company led by a professional with a high EQ is more stable. It means it has a big competitive advantage.

Business is a relationship between people. Success depends on the kind of emotional atmosphere you create. Investors, managers, employees, partners – all are involved in the game of emotions. You can direct this energy towards creation, or you can work in conditions of constant entropy (chaos). The knowledge of how to manage your emotions can bring tremendous benefits.

About the Author!

Hannah Butler works as a content writer in WriteMyPapers4me.net, company that provide expert paper help for students. She likes sharing her experience in the form of articles in such spheres as Business, Self-Development, and Marketing. In her free, time Hannah enjoys rock climbing and bike riding.