A job seeker recently asked me "How do I handle it if I am asked about my experience in an area that I have not worked or am not experienced with?" This question can often come up in an interview. The interviewer might ask you: "How strong are your Excel (Excel could be anything) skills?" If you did not have prior experience working with Excel, but were familiar with it, you might want to reply something like this: "I have always wanted to learn Excel. It is a software that I am very familiar with, but have not used extensively in my past positions. It is something I am sure I could pick up quickly, especially given my knowledge of other Microsoft Office tools such as Word and Outlook."

In this case you do not want to specifically talk about the lack of your skills in that area. Rather you want to emphasize where you do have skills and how those skills can be parlayed into whatever they want you to learn. Always de-emphasize what you don't know and emphasize what you do know.