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TOP 10 MISTAKES THAT SALESPEOPLE MAKE
While I
work with many great sales professionals, I meet a lot of sales people who
must find selling very frustrating. Making mistakes like these is why they
find themselves missing sales goals and gritting their
teeth.
1. They come to their sales
calls unprepared.
Why do some people think selling
is a random event? It's not. Selling is the result of preparation where
you learn enough about your prospect so you can have an intelligent
business conversation about why there is a need to buy what you have to
sell. Before the call know as much about your customer as you can. Winging
it is not a sales skill.
2. They
talk about their product too soon.
Talking about
your products before you understand the needs or problems your customer
has is like shooting at a target with your eyes closed and not knowing
where the target is. Good luck hitting the bulls eye. When you ask the
questions that help the customer understand there is a need, it's huge and
your products are the best ones to meet the need, you'll have customers
wanting to buy. Selling is much easier.
3. They have no Plan B.
So
what if you do plan for the best? What if things go very differently than
you plan? There are better times to plan your strategy than when you are
stumped and sitting face-to-face with your customer. Develop a contingency
plan for the sales conversation with other possible directions to take it
before the sales call.
4. They go
away with nothing.
This is a subset of Number 1,
the lack of preparation. For each sales call you should determine what
your call objective is. That's the maximum you want. Before the sales call
determine what the customer needs to do or say to make that happen. Then
think of the minimum you'll take. If selling is the process of moving
closer to a customer's buying decision, each sales call should take you
closer to that buying decision. We don't always get the maximum. At least
with a minimum we'll get something.
5. They have no clue how they're
doing.
Most salespeople will say every sales call
went well-- even the ones where the customer nodded faintly and said "I'll
think about it." Take someone with you on a sales call who can sell and
who you respect. They'll critique you honestly.
6. They miss using the full potential of their
resource.
Think about the technology you use. How
many of you are really using all the tools your database software
provides? I know many salespeople who think ACT! is a way to alphabetize
their Rolodex. It can be used to send mass mailings, determine sales cycle
activity, and much, much more.
7. They
think they know it all.
They never read anything
and that includes even the newspaper. How you going to know what is
impacting your business if you don't know what's going on in the world? If
you want to improve, you have to keep learning. Read books. Read
magazines. Just plain read.
8. They
lack a long term focus.
They think they have to
sell something now no matter what. Learn to walk away from the prospects
that just aren't a good fit. You'll thank yourself later. Bad customer fit
means customer dissatisfaction. Dissatisfied customer talk and you don't
want prospects hearing the negative things about your products, your
services, or you.
9. They prioritize
poorly.
This means they do work that has little
payout and most of the time they have no clue that they're wasting their
time. Spending time with customers who have little or no probability of
buying now or in the foreseeable future is one example of poor
prioritizing. With every task you do you should be able to answer, 'What
will this accomplish? How will it increase my business? Why does it need
to be done now?
10. They think selling
stops when the customer buys.
Selling is a service
business and it continues with more work after the sale. It's made more
difficult as we sometimes get to fix problems that others may have created
(even our customers!) Why is it that customers need help at the worst
possible times? Emergencies come up even when we've done everything we
could to avoid them for our customers. Thinking problems will go away is a
mistake. Thinking someone else should fix them is a bigger
mistake.
Bonus: They think it's easy. Selling is the
greatest job in the world. It's also one of the hardest. If you think it's
easy, you're not in
sales!
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Maura
Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling (http://www.bestatselling.com/).
She works with business and sales professionals at company and trade
association meetings to make selling easier and more productive. She is
the author of the book Real-World
Selling for Out-of-this-World Results. She can be reached at 972
380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com.
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