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Skills employers ask for in sales jobs in software

In 4,820 sales jobs in software in the SkillDrift job index, the most requested skill is Negotiation, named in 31.4% of postings. Lead generation follows at 26.5%, then Business development at 19.4%.

Based on 4,820 job postings in the SkillDrift job index, read on 1 October 2026.

Most requested

The 8 skills named most often

Each share is the part of all sales jobs in software that name the skill. One posting usually names several skills, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

  1. 1Negotiation31.4%1,515 of 4,820 postings
  2. 2Lead generation26.5%1,279 of 4,820 postings
  3. 3Business development19.4%933 of 4,820 postings
  4. 4Sales pipeline management15.5%747 of 4,820 postings
  5. 5Sales15.3%737 of 4,820 postings
  6. 6CRM14.8%713 of 4,820 postings
  7. 7B2B sales14.7%707 of 4,820 postings
  8. 8Cold calling13.2%636 of 4,820 postings

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How to read this

Where these numbers come from

The SkillDrift job index collects live job postings and reads the skills each one asks for. This page counts the postings in the sales role group within the software industry, and shows the share that name each skill. Skills appear as employers write them, so close variants such as Excel and MS Excel can both appear, because a posting may use either. The page is refreshed from the index, and the date above shows the last read.

FAQ

Questions people ask

What is the most requested skill in sales jobs in software?

Negotiation. It is named in 31.4% of the 4,820 sales jobs in software in the SkillDrift job index on 1 October 2026.

How many job postings is this based on?

4,820 postings, read from the SkillDrift job index on 1 October 2026. Each share is the number of postings that name the skill, divided by all postings in this group.

Further reading

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