Sales leaders increasingly understand and appreciate the value of salespeople who are skilled at reading customers. But short of listing “ESP” – extrasensory perception or a “sixth sense” – as a job requirement, it can be difficult to know what qualities to target in recruitment in order to attract these keen sensors.

If you’re looking to build a sales team skilled in reading customers, here are the four core skills every one of your sales job descriptions should have – and every serious sales candidate should bring to the table:

1. Intrinsic People Skills

Sales is a people-based business, so all serious salespeople should be well-equipped with interpersonal skills. Strong communication, emotional intelligence, and the ability accurately to gauge and respond to customers’ personalities are all signs of a strong candidate who will be able to read and avoid repetition appropriately in all forms of client engagement. Make sure your hiring team is covering those bases.

2. Industry Insight

Experienced salespeople will certainly have an edge here, but even completely green candidates should be able to demonstrate some knowledge of the target industry trends, your company’s work, and of your client base. This insight is essential to understanding what your customers need and communicating how you’ll provide it. If they haven’t done their background research, they need to be shown the door.

3. Ability to Handle Difficult People

Many of us could probably use some work in this area. The best salespeople actively work toward improving their abilities to work co-operatively with difficult people. They’ve developed strategies such as mirroring and matching – subtly replicating the other person’s behaviours implicitly to convey attentiveness and respect. This is how skilled salespeople overcome resistance and win over even the most challenging customers. (Note: proper guidance and practice are key here – these tactics can be off-putting if ill-performed).

4. Varied Background

Sales is not one-size-fits-all environment. It’s a line of work that rewards relevant life experience – not just educational background.

I’ve seen excellent salespeople without degrees, or equally with degrees in arts, languages, business and more technical fields. What is more important is that they can demonstrate the skills listed above and some area or field of knowledge or expertise related to the work they’ll be doing. Then they will be well-equipped to understand their customers’ perspective and respond meaningfully.

Looking at this list, do you see any gaps in your own team’s skill set? Identifying and addressing these areas for improvement can help you and your team further existing customer relationships, and is well worth the time and energy it takes to do so.

Share this article with your organisation’s hiring and training team, as well as with any salespeople looking to stay ahead of the recruitment game. Remind them that sales demands a particular breed of businessperson. It’s not just about having the right education or background, it’s about reading a situation (and the customer), and using that information to plot the most effective course of action. If you feel like there’s work to be done in that area, honing these skills can help.