5 Sales Blunders - and How to Avoid Them

FIVE SALES BLUNDERS - And How to Avoid Them

If any of the following sound familiar, at least you can take comfort in the fact that you're not the only one doing this. On the other hand, you should also be aware, that those who miss the mark, do so because of a lack of education.

The question here is, are your results below par because of ignorance? And if you believe they are below par because of ignorance, that leads me to these two questions:

A. What are you doing about this personally?

B. What remedial plan or action are you prepared to put into place and adhere to?

The sales profession is just that, a profession. May I suggest, the more effort you put into understanding it, the more you will achieve.

I have isolated what I believe to be the five most common sales blunders. However, each should take the time to study other areas relative to the peculiarities of each sector of the business you are in. You’ll be surprised how quickly many other needless blunders come to mind.

1. CONCENTRATING TOO MUCH ABOUT THE SELLING PROCESS – BUT NOT CONCENTRATING ENOUGH ON THE BUYING PROCESS

Make this mistake, and you’ll more than likely become too focused on your own agenda - not the prospect’s needs and wants.

This generally happens to those who concentrate too much on technique and not enough on the customer. In fact, many sales trainers agree that today's prospects are becoming tired of self-focused product (and/or service) pushers, or those that work their own agenda for their own self centred benefits. And even if this isn’t your agenda, it could be perceived that way. And it won’t take much for the prospect to come to that conclusion – right or wrong.

Whenever we become self-absorbed, we also overlook that many of our prospects are better trained to understand the selling process - more than ever before. These days, many can actually predict your next move.

To avoid this type of situation, here’s a hint. If you work at selling at a slower pace, and your customers may just “buy faster" than you expect.

2. NOT EDUCATING PROSPECTS ABOUT THE COST OF DOING NOTHING

For many salespeople, the number-one marketplace competitor is the prospect's decision to delay the decision.

Waiting might seem a safe alternative to making a choice right now. Yet, that decision to wait is usually only from the prospects perspective, and what’s more, usually because of three things:

1. The sales presentation may not have been prepared as carefully as needed, subsequently the salesperson may not have focused enough on the benefits of the product or service after the prospect has taken delivery.

2. The salesperson may not have in-built the need for urgency, either through the cost saving aspects of the presentation, or the individual productivity savings and benfits after installation.

3. The salesperson may have neglected to carefully strategise the “sell” aspect of the presentation, relying on “tell”. The “tell” aspect simply leaves the prospect better informed, whereas a carefully strategised “sell” aspect will usually move the prospect into making a decision.

Professional sellers know how to show a customer the real costs associated with delaying a decision to purchase. In fact, successful salespeople make a habit of popping the balloon.

3. FAILING TO IDENTIFY THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES DECISION MAKERS

Experts suggest that up to 90 percent of the buying decisions occur when the salesperson isn't around. In the majority of today’s medium (to larger sized business houses, a number of other parties often participate, or are consulted whenever a buying decision needs to be made. The professional these days works at ways of knowing as much of the behind the scenes needs of the company he or she is dealing with.

Successful selling does not just mean identifying as many of those behind-the-scenes decision makers—and making sure the product features and benefits are passed onto them too. Successful selling means, the seller works at identifying as many of the hot-button buyer wants he or she is able to isolate in the first few meetings, then work at isolating the real hot-buttons within the hot buttons already isolated. That way the chances of addressing the concerns of the other behind-the-scenes decision makers increases, and subsequently improves the salespersons chances.

4. CALLING ON PROSPECTS WHO CANNOT MAKE DECISIONS AT THE RIGHT LEVEL

Here’s a hint that will save many of those in the selling profession a lot of time and energy. What’s more, it will also save an even more precious commodity – time. Not to mention, improve the ability of the salesperson to be where they should be – in front of the decision maker more often.

One-off decisions that affect the entire business should be dealt with by those who are capable of making those decisions – executive or senior management. They may take a little longer to get to, but if that’s your market, don’t waste either your time, or the time of other people in the organization, working on those who can neither make the decision, nor influence the decision.

Notice I said influence the decision – not make recommendations about a decision. Anyone can recommend, but few can influence.

As an example, if you’re selling high quality, you're more than likely wasting time going after purchasing officers who are price-focused.

A key to successful selling is identifying the right potential customers who already want, need and value the product or service you have to sell.

5. FAILING TO RESOLVE YOUR POTENTIAL CUSTOMER’S FEARS

What kills the deal in the eleventh hour, when you're sure you've landed a big one?

What makes customers quake in their boots before they sign on the dotted line?

What's the big reason why customers pull out of a deal in those last minutes?

They're afraid that, somehow, their buying decision might be wrong and that they'll suffer in the eyes of their co-workers, boss, family and friends.

We're all fearful that we just might be buying the next lemon - the product that couldn't.

In every one of your potential sales, be prepared to fall back on a plan for resolving your potential customer’s biggest fears. The smart sales-person identifies the sources of a potential customer’s fears and finds ways to alleviate them.

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This Article is by Peter Collins - In a sales career spanning more than 50 years, Peter Collins has focused on helping and bringing out the best in others - whether it involves training or mentoring salespeople, managers, business consulting to SME’s. Since the 1970’s Peter has built a reputation as a Nationally and Internationally Published author, and has 65 books to his credit, but he is mainly known for one book based on the Audio Tape series of the same name, Over 50 Ways of Closing the Sale. In his personal life, Peter has been sought after as an encourager and motivator that has given of his time and talents freely despite his busy schedule. Subsequently, he has assisted churches, pastors, community and charity groups, as well as individuals through his teaching, training, development and on-going mentoring. ? Copyright Peter Collins, Profit Maker Sales, Sydney, Australia, 1994, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2015, all rights reserved. Peter can be contacted through his website – profitmakersales.com