Soft Skills for Business Profitability

Soft Skills To Help Improve Your Business Profitability.

Certain soft skills will make you and your organisation more profitable, complementing the technical knowledge related to the delivery of your product or service.

These profit-boosting soft skills are:

1. Motivating others.
2. Goal setting.
3. Persuasive communication.
4. Sales and negotiation.
5. Questioning, listening and memory skills.

1. Motivating others

Organisations do NOT pay staff for their time, but rather for their productivity.

If the team is demotivated then they are paid the same money, but their productivity plummets. In order to get the full productivity of the team, you must motivate them!

It is a mistake to think that people are motivated only by money; since there are many well-paid, but demotivated people.

So, it is important for you to learn about social motivators, which are those motives - other than money - that inspire people to work harder. Social motivators include: a shared vision, opportunity for achievement, praise, thanks, appreciation, team spirit and inspirational leadership.

Therefore, learning the above mentioned soft leadership skills will help you to become more profitable.

2. Goal setting.

Goal setting is an important soft skill, since both leadership and motivation is based upon the ability to set and communicate the goals we want to achieve.

There is motivation only when there is a clear goal, which sets the terms for every subsequent plan, action and emotion.

Goal setting is a soft skill which should be studied by everyone who wishes to become a better leader and motivator.

Goal setting will make you more profitable.

3. Persuasive communication.

Since nobody can succeed on their own, we must gain the cooperation of others, so we need the soft skill of persuasion.

There are two types of persuasion, logical and emotional.

To persuade people logically; talk about the logical consequences associated with either doing or not doing something.

• Attach pleasurable consequences to the implementation of your idea, and
• Attach painful consequences to NOT implementing your idea.

Emotional persuasion is achieved by making the consequences directly affect the listener. Whenever you personalise the beneficial consequences of an idea and link it to the listener's own success or failure, then your message will have "personal significance", and will affect them more emotionally.

Failure to persuade others to act in accordance with your ideas will cause you to fail.

Successfully persuading others to act in accordance with your ideas will cause you to succeed, therefore undertaking communication skills training is beneficial.

4. Sales and negotiation.

Profits are obviously linked to the soft skills of sales and negotiation.

The sales process consists of five steps: introduction, investigation, product solution, negotiation of profitable terms, close.

1. Introduction means making contact with new people.
2. Investigation means finding out what the other person wants.
3. Product solution means showing how your product or service can help the other person achieve what they want.
4. Negotiation of profitable terms is agreeing a set of terms that allows for the profitable delivery of your product or service.
5. Close means gaining their commitment.

It is self-evident that all organisations would profit by improving their sales and negotiation soft skills.

5. Questioning, listening and memory skills.

Questioning, listening and memory skills are fundamental because we gain information about the world, either by personal experience, or by learning from others.

We gain the majority of our knowledge by asking questions, listening to, or reading about other people's information and remembering what we learn.

And in order to hear the most important information, you need to ask the right questions.

Questioning, listening and memory are fundamental soft skills that underpin every other.

Therefore, investing time and effort into improving these skills will make you more profitable.

Our memory training and creative problem solving course is designed to help you succeed in this area.

What does this mean to your organisation?

Every organisation is competing against its rivals, who offer similar products and services, at similar prices, so you must distinguish your organisation by developing your team in ways that your competitors may not have thought of.

Develop your team's soft skills and you will have the competitive edge.

Definition: soft skill

Within business management, a soft skill is a workplace competence built on non-technical behaviours that shape how people deal with each other and with themselves. The skill works in every role, helps clear talk, smooth teamwork and sound problem solving, and shows its worth by lifting staff drive, output and profit.

Article Summary

Profit rises when staff use soft skills as well as hard facts; motivate teams, set clear goals, speak with persuasion, sell and negotiate with skill, and ask, listen and recall with care. These human skills lift engagement, raise productivity and give your firm an edge that tools alone cannot. Train each skill, track the gains and you turn everyday work into lasting profit.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Did You Know: Key Statistics

About the Author: Chris Farmer

Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years' experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.

Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.

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• Develop better leadership skills
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