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You are here: Home / Blog / A Quick Way to Lose a Sale

A Quick Way to Lose a Sale

April 23, 2015 By maurasf

stop the sale
Don’t make this mistake when you sell.

Not too many things surprise me. This one did. Here is one of the fastest ways to lose a sale and I’ll bet this salesperson didn’t even notice.

I was at a business lunch this week where the presenter was talking about her business. She developed business presentations for companies. She showed her work and it looked very impressive. Her work product was professional, intelligent and persuasive. The business professional sitting next to me leaned over and said, “Wow. I could use that. “ He then followed with, “And what is her name again?”

That’s when the sale stopped.

She put down her work and glared at my neighbor. She announced to the group, while looking at him, “I’m presenting now. If you would please be so kind to listen to me I will show you the same respect when you present.”

Yikes. I’ll bet he hadn’t been talked to that way since he was in kindergarten.

Since he was a gentleman, he said, “I’m so sorry. Please continue.” Later he confided in me, “Even though I need what she sells, I’ll never buy from her.”

She made a major mistake on several levels. It is never appropriate to embarrass anyone. It’s especially wrong to do it in front of a group.

Second, a presenter has to take responsibility for his own communication. It is the presenter’s responsibility to engage the audience.

It’s also reality today that there will be people in your audience who can’t hear because the acoustics are bad(as in this case) and need to ask for help. Other times, audience members are bored and check their mobile phones. Some might even fall asleep. I’ve seen it all and I would never call anyone out for doing anything while they are in the audience.

Next time you present you can go by the 80% rule. You are doing fine if 80% of the audience is paying attention. Just leave the 20% alone unless of course, you want to lose the sale.

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Filed Under: Blog, Sales Strategy Tagged With: lose a sale, lost sale

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*What was your last “mistake?” Did you make it before? There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes in sales provided you are making different mistakes. (You are learning from them!)

About the principal

Would you take auto mechanics classes when you buy a car? Maura did because she wanted to be able to work on her car. She takes that same approach to selling. She can show you how to get below the surface of selling to learn why and how different strategies work. She will show you which skills to implement that will shorten your sales cycle and increase your sales. She was Mobil Oil's first female Lubrication Engineer in the United States and one of Chevron's top 5 salespeople in the country. She knows what works for sales.

"I would recommend your work to other sales organizations who want to get better results from improved selling strategies."
Jamey Rootes
President
Houston Texans

Sales Expert at Allbusiness.com

Selling is the easiest job in the world. Just ask anyone who is not in sales. Read Maura’s ideas on “more brain…less mouth” selling to make your selling easier and more successful.

Maura’s Allbusiness blog posts

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