A professional trader will find easily where to buy and where to sell whereas a novice trader will be struggling to find out those buying and selling points. Precisely the technical part may differentiate professional traders from others.
You are right. To trade like a professional trader we must need strong technical analysis skills. Without those skills I believe even professional traders could not make profits in consistent manner from trading.
Anyone may become professional trader by experience but to sustain in trading we must need strong technical analysis skills.