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Sales To-Don't List
©2005 by David Newman The list itself comes from a Purchasing magazine (http://www.purchasing.com) survey. I've added my comments and suggestions below each item. 10. Failure to keep promises. Two suggestions here: 9. Lack of creativity. Sales trainer and nationally syndicated columnist Jeffrey Gitomer says this about the role of creativity in sales: Where does creativity come from? You learn it. Case closed. Want some ideas to get you started? Download my Resource List: Great Books for Marketing and Sales Professionals from http://www.motivational-speaker-resource.com/great-marketing-and-sales-books.htm. 8. Failure to make and keep appointments. Failure to make 'em -- do you seriously think your prospect has time to chat when you decide to "just drop by" because "you're in the neighborhood"? Failure to keep 'em -- that's right, you've got a precious hard-earned appointment. 7. Lack of awareness of the customer's operation ("What do you guys do This one amazes me. A series of salespeople once called on a mid-sized pharmaceutical firm. The last salesperson they saw asked intelligent questions about the company's latest products, research efforts, and management changes. He won the sale right then and there. He was pleased, but curious about the rapid nature of his newest client’s decision-making process. They told him "We’ve seen half a dozen people. You were the only one that came in knowing about what we do, what's important to us, and how we operate." The salesperson was flattered, but a bit surprised to hear this information. He then asked the key question about his competitors: "How could they NOT know?" How could YOU not know? Research is the key - do research on the web, talk to people at the company or in the industry, make some calls, get the lay of the land. You'll stand head and shoulders above the crowd. 6. Taking the customer for granted. The Forum Corporation did a study of commercial customers lost by 14 major manufacturing and service companies. Here's what they found: 15% found a better product. Those last two numbers should be a real wake-up call. What do they say? They say “my salesperson or account manager sucks.” Plain and simple. Turns out clients don’t leave suppliers – they leave salespeople! The era of “I just close ‘em; someone else babysits ‘em” is over. In fact, it’s so old, it’s starting to stink. Let me put it another way. What would it mean to your business if you could prevent 69% of your current customer attrition? Well, YOU CAN!!! 5. Lack of follow-through. This one is simple - do what you say, and say what you do. Need more detail? OK - the first part of this involves keeping your promises. See #10 above. But the second part is equally, if not more important. Many salespeople do a great job for their clients, and the client never knows it. Why? Because the salesperson doesn't have time to close the loop and TELL the client what they're doing to help them or resolve their problem. Salespeople think "I'm taking care of it" or "I'll let the client know once everything is finished." Meanwhile, hours or days or weeks go by and if all the client hears is "a whole lotta nuthin'" then that's also what they think you're doing about their situation! All it takes is a simple phone call or email to keep the client current on exactly what's being done on their behalf, the expected timetable, and how the process works ["I'll email you the forms Monday and then as soon as you fax them back to me I'll submit them. Then I'll call To be good at following through, you also need to be good at COMMUNICATING about following through! 4. Lack of product knowledge. This one is simple. Shame on you. If you don't know your products inside and out, why should customers buy from you? Order-takers don't need product knowledge [actually, that's not quite true, either!] but sales professionals definitely do. How do you get it?
3. Overaggressiveness and failure to listen. Are you talking to me? Are YOU talking to ME? The age of what I call "jerk selling" is over. People don't buy from jerks. They used to – back when there wasn't much choice – but not anymore. Overaggressiveness comes from desperation. Big turnoff. Failure to listen comes from being a self-centered ego-centric jerk. Bigger turnoff. Guess what, Jerky? It's NOT all about you. It's all about the customer and the best skill [not TOOL or TECHNIQUE, but real genuine SKILL] you can develop is genuine curiosity and authentic listening. This isn't something you can pick up in a one-day sales seminar. It takes time, attention, practice, and reinforcement. You know why some salespeople – even some that have had a lot of sales training – still have trouble closing? Because they don't keep the sale "open" long enough to listen deeply and establish the value of their solution in their prospect's eyes. Closing problems are relationship problems and listening problems. 2. Lack of interest or purpose ("Anything coming down this week?" or "Just checking in.") Purpose is critically important to every step of the sales process. It starts real small – like asking "What's the purpose of this next call I'm about to make?" but I take it much further in our Innovative Selling(tm) program – all the way up to the largest and most meaningful purpose you have professionally ("What is my Work?" "Why does our company exist?") and personally ("Who is my Self?" "Why am I here?") Do you think this is "woo-woo" nonsense? LensCrafters doesn't. And they’re one of the world’s most successful and profitable sales organizations. Here is LensCrafters' statement of purpose: "We will be the best at helping the world see." They then outline the concrete meaning of their purpose statement: Being the best by...
Helping the world see by...
So each LensCrafters manager [who works in a store at a mall, remember] wakes up each morning with the goal of "helping the world see," whereas the competition goes to work to "sell more glasses." Which one would get you more jazzed? And their charitable activities in the third world ("The Gift of Sight" program started in 1988) is also a fabulous motivator and point of pride within the company's ranks. They must be doing something right, since LensCrafters is both hugely profitable and has consistently maintained a spot on Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for the last several years. 1. Lack of preparation. It's amazing how many salespeople pick up the phone, or walk into a meeting, or sit down for lunch with a prospect, and simply "wing it." Every other professional is expected [or required to] prepare, practice, and think of every possible outcome and their corresponding response – it's true for surgeons, lawyers, football players, combat soldiers, electricians, paramedics, and engineers. Also, see point #7 above and think of it this way: How can you NOT prepare? By the way, this is not about "defending" your sale in the traditional sense. In fact, I'm totally against a lot of the adversarial language and thinking that is popular in some sales training about "us vs. them" and "salespeople vs. prospects" and "playing by their rules vs. your rules." To me, that's a lot of nonsense. If your prospects are your enemies, get out of sales. PLEASE! This preparation exercise is more about the process of thinking about and writing out where your prospect's needs intersect with your products and services – and finding common ground, where it makes overwhelming sense for the prospect to do business with you. Only you can do that work. And that work is called preparation!
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Top 10 Things Salespeople Do that Buyers Dislike- And How ToStop Doing Them Right Now!
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