Someone once told me she was great at sales. Why? She said, “You know how I love to talk!” Was she ever wrong! Yes, she could talk a blue streak. No, that doesn’t make a great salesperson. Managers sometimes make hiring mistakes in sales. You may wonder if you’re up to the task in sales. Here are 3 reasons you won’t make it in sales.
1. You won’t make it in sales if you tend to interrupt others when they speak.
Do you often notice that when other people speak you don’t wait for them to finish speaking before you start to speak? You’re interrupting people. They might not say anything to you. Less assertive people won’t. They will think less of you instead. You make them feel that their input isn’t important when you interrupt. These less assertive people are also less likely to buy from you.
One of the characteristics of poor listeners is that they tend to interrupt others. Listening is one of the most important selling skills to master. You have a disadvantage without good listening skills. Poor listeners are less likely to make it in sales.
2. You won’t make it in sales if you make excuses to your manager, customers and peers.
Successful selling is about achieving sales results. Your manager doesn’t care why you didn’t make your numbers. Salespeople who recognize they need help will ask for it before they miss meeting sales goals. You’ve missed an opportunity to be successful if you don’t ask for help when it could make a difference. Your making excuses is simply a sign of failure. No one wants to hear the excuse. They want your sales numbers.
Your customers and peers don’t care either why you didn’t do what you said. You’re not going to make it in sales if your sales strategy is to make excuses instead of working on your sales, sales process or selling skills.
3. You won’t make it in sales if you don’t have an effective prospecting process.
Sales is a process. Successful salespeople follow their sales process to get results. As essential part of your sales process is prospecting and discovering true prospects. These are the ones most likely to buy from you and lead to your success. Waste your time on unlikely prospects and you’re not going to make your numbers or be successful.
I learned of a sales professional whose prospecting process includes attending sales conferences and determining if likely prospects are at the conference. I think this is a failed strategy. It’s too expensive to attend conferences to learn if the attendees are prospects. Attending random conferences is very time consuming. Instead, he should be talking to the conference organizer to learn which types of people will be attending the conference. He needs to learn the title, industry, stage of growth or other characteristics that match his ideal prospect before he attends a conference. Learn which conferences his prospects attend.
Very few salespeople can be successful when they don’t follow the sales process they’re given. What if you weren’t given a sales process? That’s management’s responsibility. Your job is to ask for the sales process management wants you to implement. Be sure to start building very quickly a sales process that works if unfortunately you don’t get your sales process from management. Managers, you are in trouble if any of these describe your salespeople. You’re not going to meet your goals. Salespeople, now you know some possible reasons if you’re not meeting your numbers. Either try something new or find a new job. Sales isn’t for you.