Sales Mistakes Experienced Sales People Still Make
You may expect rookie salespeople to be more likely to make mistakes when on calls or when trying to close a prospect, but in reality, experienced salespeople can make just as many sales mistakes.
The longer you’re in sales, the more likely it is that bad habits will sneak in. These habits may well be hindering your chances of scoring the sale. Here, we detail some of those sales mistakes and how you can fix them.
- Not Developing Enough Rapport With the Prospect
One of the most fundamental rules of selling – and the one that many, many salespeople seem to forget – is that prospects buy from people that they like. Unfortunately, if you’ve been in sales for a while, calls and meetings with prospects can be a blur of marketing terms and sales talk; and instead of concentrating on building rapport with the client, or having a decent conversation, all you think about is following your script.
Think about why you got into sales in the first place – because you like talking to people, right? Because you like chatting and because you’re a friendly person. In order to help improve your general sales, you need to go back to this mindset of wanting to speak to and meet people from all walks of life. Keep this in mind and you’ll soon see improvements in your method and sales.
Image Credit – MCAD Library (CC License)
- Not Asking Enough Questions
Another fundamental error in salespeople that have been around awhile is that they may be doing too much talking and not enough listening. Keep in mind that there’s a difference between talking too much and asking enough questions. Instead of simply jumping through the script and keeping the motto “always be closing” in your head, ask questions and get to know your prospect. Answer their queries with detailed and well thought-out responses whilst thinking about helping them as much as you can.
- Not Answering The Questions They’re Really Asking
If your prospect asks what the product or course you’re selling entails, make sure you understand exactly what they’re asking about – whether it’s pricing, how the product benefits them or why they should listen to you. If you simply answer their questions without finding out what they really want to know, you might be miss out some crucial information that in turn jeopardises your sale. Dig a little deeper when you’re not 100% sure on what they’re asking.
- Rushing Through the Pitch
By now, you should know your pitch back to front, inside out and side to side. Because you’re so familiar with your material, you can sometimes run through an entire pitch on autopilot when on a call or in a meeting, and instead of responding to questions from your client or turning that pitch into a give-and-take conversation, you simply run through it like no-one’s business. Sometimes, that’ll be enough to do the job. But sometimes, your prospect will be able to recognise that all you are doing is reeling off a script and because they didn’t feel that connection with you, you won’t make that sale. Regardless of whether or not you stick to the script or not, always try to connect with your prospect.
- Selling Based on Price
The most important thing to focus on during your call is the prospect’s pain point, or how the product could improve your prospect’s business. Unfortunately, many salespeople are driven on price, and will instead focus on selling the product based on price rather than pain, because that can be an easy way to get the sale. It’s also an easy way to get a refund, because you’re not qualifying your prospect for the sale.
Image Credit – DaMongMan (CC License)
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Andy Dickens
Andy Dickens is a veteran of IT Sales, used to leading by example. He is the CEO of Virtual Sales Limited (VSL) who offer telesales, telemarketing, lead generation and appointment setting services to B2b businesses. He previously was Sales Director EMEA for Red Hat and before that ran sales at Visio before it was acquired by Microsoft.