Businesses rely exclusively on their people. While the robot revolution may change this in the future, it’s still not the case, and likely won’t be for a very long time.

But what skills, exactly, do the people in your organization need? You’re about to find out. In this post, we run through some of the essential skills that add value to your products, build your margins, and help to create a great company culture.

Time Management

To many managers and executives, time management seems like a simple thing. You wake up in the morning and then just follow your usual schedule, packing in as much work as possible. 

Employees, though, don’t always have the same view of life. For them, time isn’t a scarce resource. Instead, it’s something they can indulge. As a consequence, they may not be as punctual as you hope. 

The trick here is to get your employees to learn how to prioritize. You want them to address the most important tasks first by keeping a to-do list. They should work through this in order, setting various goals and targets, while managing distractions and stress. 

Negotiation

You can’t always negotiate every deal that comes your business’s way. Instead, you have to delegate the task to other people. 

The problem is that the majority of your staff aren’t natural negotiators. As a result, you notice your margins shrinking and your business becoming less profitable. 

It’s essential, therefore, to invest in negotiation training. This teaches your colleagues basic negotiation skills, including recognizing when buyers are trying to force your hand and accept a lower price. With the right skills in place, staff can increase margins and pay back the initial cost of the course.

Sales

If your business is good at selling, you can avoid the consequences of practically any other problem. Selling is what good entrepreneurship is all about. There’s no substitute. 

Unfortunately, the majority of staff aren’t actually particularly good at selling at all. While you might have some naturals on your team, they are few and far between, not the norm.

Teaching the art of selling, though, isn’t as hard as you might think. While it might not come naturally to some employees, there are all sorts of techniques they can learn to increase their odds of landing a sale. What’s more, technology now plays a greater role than ever before. Hence, even if certain employees are not good at selling in-person, they may excel when using online platforms.

Networking

Lastly, networking is another important skill you’ll want to teach your colleagues. If you can get them to build contacts far and wide, they have more resources to draw upon for project completion. 

Of course, networking isn’t always something that you can teach. Some colleagues are more naturally inclined towards it than others. However, you can throw people into networking situations that will force them to brush up on their social skills. You can also get employees to think strategically about who they need to talk to and why to further the goals of the business.