When joining a new team, is it better to have the right soft skills and have to learn the hard skills of the job? Or vice versa?

In my experience it's been less of a challenge enabling the sales/account team on 'hard skills'. Over time you can see to it that people become comfortable with demo'ing your platform, using your tech stack, understanding the financials. However, trying to coach someone in the art of 'customer storytelling', or doing deep 'discovery' is something every enablement team struggles with.

When joining a new team, it's better to be open minded about changing your sales cycles and your approaches. Each organization has a different selling motion associated with prospects. If you're too focused on the hard skills, you often miss the little things associated with your soft skills that actually build the deal that lead to negotiating and closing. I see this a lot when organizations promote from within. If you take your #1 SDR or #1 BDR, they are often less mature in the hard skills of selling, but understand how to set amazing appointments. Often, people early in their career try and replicate the #1 closer. You cannot be someone else. Sometimes the language another AE used would not come out of your mouth. Take what they're saying and make it your own.