The Most Important Sales & Marketing Skills for the Future

Don’t sleep on these upskilling opportunities for business development professionals.

The role of skill-building in sales and marketing

The skills required to succeed in the fields of sales and marketing have seen a dramatic shift over the past seven years. The top 10 in-demand skills for marketing changed by 50%, while sales saw a 60% change.

This demand for new skills was met with a move toward better skill-building opportunities during the Great Reshuffle. In 2021, LinkedIn saw a 31% growth in year-over-year career change among members in marketing. More than half of those leaving their jobs changed careers entirely.

The key to creating and retaining strong sales and marketing teams is to ensure you are investing in their skill development.

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Why skill development is good for business

When skill development is done strategically and in alignment with corporate and personal goals, it can produce incredible outcomes.

The 2022 LinkedIn Workplace Learning report found that skill building, internal mobility, and worker retention are directly linked to one another. 

In fact, companies that invest in skill building as a way to support internal mobility retain employees for an average of 5.4 years. That’s nearly twice as long as the average retention span for organizations that don’t have successful internal mobility programs.

 

In terms of what motivates employees to engage in skill building, workers cited three top priorities. The skill-building opportunity should:

 

  • Help them stay up to date in their area of expertise.

  • Be personalized for their interests and career goals.

  • Help them achieve a new role internally through lateral or upward mobility.

     

Read on to explore what types of skills are important to focus on developing, and zero in on the most important sales and marketing skills to future-proof your team.

David Perring

“If you want to be leading the world, you have to be learning.”

David Perring
Director of Research, Fosway Group

What are hard and soft skills?

The skill sets that make sales and marketing teams successful are a combination of both hard skills (what a person knows) and soft skills (how a person thinks and behaves).

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Hard skills

Hard skills refer to specific, technical abilities or knowledge, such as the ability to code in a particular programming language or the ability to use a specific software program.

 

In sales and marketing, some of the most in-demand hard skills include:

 

  • Digital marketing

  • Sales management

  • Social media marketing

  • Business development

  • Search engine optimization (SEO)

Soft skills

Soft skills are non-technical abilities, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. These are often referred to as "people skills" or "interpersonal skills." These skills are vital to the human side of sales and marketing.

 

Soft skills typically transcend job categories, though in sales and marketing, some key skills to have include:

 

  • Communication

  • Problem solving

  • Listening

  • Emotional intelligence

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Why it’s important to continually develop both hard and soft skills

While there is some urgency around the upskilling and reskilling of hard skills to meet the demands of an ever-evolving technology landscape, ignoring the development of soft skills can leave your team with a serious deficit. 

Soft skills are the kinds of skills that follow you throughout your career. Data platforms come and go, but the ability to communicate clearly will serve you no matter what role you’re in. It’s important to invest in the development of both sets of skills as your sales and marketing team grows.

Dorie Clark

“If you're okay on the hard skills but you know soft skills aren't your strength, this is a great time to reach out to the folks in HR. It's a sign of self-awareness and leadership, not weakness, to ask for help.”

Dorie Clark
Developing Accountability as a Leader

Top sales and marketing skills for the future

 

While sales and marketing have seen a lot of change in recent years, there are some fundamental skills that endure through these shifts in culture and technology.

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Hard skills that thread the needle of innovation

Some hard skills are more transferable than others, making them optimal for future-proofing your sales and marketing teams’ success. 

The following LinkedIn Learning courses offer foundational sales and marketing skills. Whether these are new concepts or a review of the basics, having your team aligned on the fundamentals will help them work more collaboratively.

Soft skills that make your team more effective

It doesn’t matter if your team knows how to operate each and every system in your sales and marketing tech stack – if they can’t collaborate, communicate, and strategize, they won’t be effective at their jobs.
Investing in developing these vital, durable soft skills will open the door to greater efficiencies and innovations.

These LinkedIn Learning courses will help your team achieve a higher level of personal and professional growth.

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Make skill development a priority

Continuous, personalized, and strategic skill building will keep your team engaged, on-target, and ready to meet both forecasted and unforeseen challenges.

Explore more courses to boost and future-proof the skills on your sales and marketing teams in the Sales and Marketing categories on LinkedIn Learning.

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