LinkedIn Skills on the Rise 2026: The fastest-growing skills in Sales
Our annual list of Skills on the Rise in sales highlights the five fastest-growing skills that sales professionals should be investing in to get ahead in today’s world of work.
The skills needed for success in this field focus on driving long-term revenue through client relationship management and lead generation, supported by data-driven decision making, effective cross-functional collaboration and foundational AI literacy. The ranking uses the same methodology as our UK Skills on the Rise list, but reflects members within the specific job function versus the entire country.
And these insights are just the beginning. You can read more about each skill and start honing your expertise through a related LinkedIn Learning course (free for all members until 23 March).
Check out the fastest-growing skills in sales – and join the conversation using #SkillsOnTheRise.
You can read our full methodology at the bottom of this article. This list is based on LinkedIn data and was produced by LinkedIn data scientist Yao Huang in partnership with editors on the LinkedIn News team Jennifer Ryan and Siobhan Morrin . You can also see the Skills on the Rise in Business Development, Engineering, Education, Healthcare Services, Information Technology, Program & Project Management, Human Resources, Finance and Marketing.
What it means: Developing trusted client partnerships through needs discovery, service delivery, issue resolution and proactive retention strategies. It ensures long-term revenue growth and high customer satisfaction within the sales lifecycle.
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What it means: This is the process of identifying and qualifying potential customers through tactics like targeted outreach, marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships. It ensures a healthy sales pipeline and efficient use of resources.
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What it means: This is the ability to work effectively with different departments like marketing, product and finance. It is essential to achieve shared organisational goals and ensure the effective execution of sales strategies and complex deals.
💡Learn how to improve your cross-team communication (free LinkedIn Learning course until 23 March)
What it means: Using data and metrics to guide choices, validate assumptions and measure impact. It helps to inform territory planning, deal strategy and forecasting accuracy.
💡Learn decision-making skills for a data-driven world (free LinkedIn Learning course until 23 March)
What it means: Understanding the fundamental concepts of artificial intelligence, its applications and its ethical implications. In a sales context, this may involve leveraging AI for tasks like prospect prioritisation, sales forecasting and enhancing customer interactions.
💡Learn how to leverage AI for sales (free LinkedIn Learning course until 23 March)
List Methodology
LinkedIn measures the year-over-year growth of skills based on two pillars: skill acquisition and hiring success. Skill acquisition measures the growth of a given skill being added to member profiles. Hiring success measures the growth of a given skill possessed by members who have been hired in the past year. Growth rates for all metrics are measured by comparing LinkedIn data from 1 December, 2024 to 30 November, 2025 to the same period in the previous year (1 December, 2023 to 30 November, 2024). To be ranked, skills must have had sufficient representation and activity volume over the analysis period.
Data is normalised across all skills. Language skills, basic digital literacy skills and overly broad skills are excluded.
✨✨✨I think that AI literacy may redefine sales next. For instance, using AI to spot hidden opportunities or anticipate client future and bespoke needs. From my experience, blending this with genuine relationship-building turns data into real long-lasting impact, like crafting personalised proposals that truly resonate. ✨✨✨
AI is the only true ‘skill’ as we’ve been using the others in one form or another for many many years.
None of this is new but emphasises the right points. After 30+ years in complex sales, the pattern is remarkably consistent: Revenue follows trust. Trust follows understanding. Understanding follows asking high-gain questions. That is what I teach students and graduates. Not tricks. Not growth hacks. Definitely not spray and pray. The AI literacy point is interesting. Yes, tools help us prioritise accounts, sharpen messaging and analyse patterns. They absolutely improve efficiency. But they do not replace judgment, curiosity or courage. Data-driven decision-making only works if you know what question you are trying to answer. And this is where I often reference one of my favourite sales scenes: the Peaky Blinders pitch. Tommy Shelby does not walk into that room just hoping. He walks in having researched his ideal client, understood his advantage, and prepared in advance. Tools evolve. Human fundamentals do not. That is as true in 2026 as it was 30 years ago.
Client Relationship Management will always be #1 on the sales skill list no matter what the technology is at the moment. If a sales professional doesn't listen to the customer's needs & business challenges, there won't be any deal.
Are we talking about sales professionals or sales analysts? Most of these skills are data driven and sales activities can never rely upon figures only. Proof of that? The old wise saying of “people buy from people”! Apart from customer relationship manage, the above mentioned skills should all be used as background support, and not being considered like the new way forward for any sales force, and a customer intimacy approach should be your go to if wanting to close deals and keep customer loyalty. If not, might as well just depend on fishing for PO’s using price as bait.