10 Mistakes Sales People Make

and how to avoid them!

In these more challenging times expert sales skills are even more vital. Here are ten common mistakes that sales people make and how to avoid them.

1. Not feeling the customer’s pain

Many sales people get caught up in their own needs ‘I must make this sale!’ ‘I have to keep talking.’ They don’t listen to what the customer is saying or worse still, they don’t give the customer a chance to speak. The customer’s discomfort is their motivation for buying. You need to know how your product or service will add value from the customer’s perspective.

2. Making money the goal

Money should not be the main focus. Money is only a way of keeping score and measuring your success. You want to be known as a great sales person, the best in your field. Make being the best your goal and the money will follow. Ask yourself ‘who do I consider to be the best in my industry?’ then follow it up by asking ‘how can I be more like them?’

3. Seeing sales as just a job

Successful sales people live, sleep and breathe sales. It is something they are, not something they do. Selling should be more than just a job; it should be in your DNA. Never stop selling; you never know where the opportunities will come from.

4. Getting upset or frustrated

The best sales people are always upbeat. They know that rejection is part of the game. Don’t take it personally, just move on to the next prospect. Getting upset only tarnishes your image as a winner and it reduces your chances of closing a sale later. Even in a slow sales cycle customers want to deal with someone they feel is successful as this instils confidence. So make sure your attitude is right.

5. Failing to prepare

You should know not only what the customer is likely to say, but how you will respond when they do say it. Customers will always look for evidence to support statements and promises and your job is to give it to them. Knowing how to respond often comes with experience, but putting yourself in the customer’s shoes will give you greater insight.

6. Preparing too much

Preparing doesn’t mean writing out a script and learning it off by heart. This will make you sound robotic. Visualise the sales scenario and rehearse different responses in your mind. Over preparing can make you inflexible.

7. Treating customers like Mr. Spock

Mr. Spock from Star Trek was a totally logical creature, devoid of emotion. Many sales people forget that they are dealing with human beings, and humans beings make decisions based on their emotions. They need to feel good about you and your service. They need to feel confident in the product. They need to get excited about doing business with you. These are all emotional states that you need to create when meeting with the customer.

8. Acting phony

The best sales people are actors, but that doesn’t mean they are faking it. It means they are connecting with something inside themselves that is honest and true. You need to believe in the product or service you are selling. If you don’t, this will be obvious when you meet with customers. If you don’t believe in what you are selling, the customer is not going to.

9. Neglecting the relationship

As a sales person your job is to build relationships first, make sales second. Here’s a useful tip I came across recently. Rather than going up to a customer and asking ‘can I help you?’ the response to which will often be ‘no’, try to strike up the conversation in a different way. Sometimes this can be as simple as starting a conversation with small talk. You have put the emphasis on them not on the sale.

10. Forgetting that we are all selfish

The intellectual side of your brain will know when a sales person gives you an unsolicited gift that they are trying to influence you, but the emotional side of your brain will be influenced. The law of cause and effect comes into play and you will feel good about the sales person. Making sincere small talk with the customer about the things that are important to them, their family, their interests will appeal to this part of their brain in a similar way.

We will all be guilty of at least some of the above, but progress is often not made by doing more of something, but by doing less of what is not working for you.

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