Often times, knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do when meeting with prospects. Here’s a quick refresher for your sales folks on the top five sales killers to avoid when speaking to potential buyers.
- Taking an approach that’s confrontational rather than consultative. Salespeople who are too anxious to close the sale or get their prospects to see their point of view only decrease their chances of closing. Remember: Selling is not about getting people to see your point of view. It is about allowing yourself to see the customer’s point of view.
- Making the customer feel pressured rather than helped. Customers don’t want to feel as though demands are being placed on them. They want to know that salespeople respect their ideas and opinions. When you act like you truly want to serve your customers, they know it — and you’ll close more often.
- Being more aggressive rather than supportive. When salespeople become aggressive, their only goal tends to be what’s important to them — closing the sale. There is a big difference between aggressive and assertive behavior. When salespeople are assertive, they believe in the value of their products or services. Successful salespeople are self-assured and self-confident, but never allow their sales talk to overwhelm or push away prospects.
- Having self-focused goals, rather than customer-focused ones. Customers today have a multitude of choices when it comes to how and what to buy, and they also have the opportunity to find and buy anything they want 24/7 on the Internet. That means they don’t have to have a salespeople sell them on what to buy. However, most buyers want to work directly with a salesperson who can assist them, service them and educate them. Top salespeople share knowledge with their customers and then ask them to buy once it’s been demonstrated that the products or services being sold can help achieve the customer’s goals.
- Taking customer problems personally and retreating instead of listening carefully and responding immediately. When a customer calls to discuss a concern it’s often detrimental to wait to return the call. Ignoring objections, problems or concerns won’t make them go away. Salespeople, who ignore problems or concerns instead of putting them on the table and dealing with them, lose customers’ trust. It’s much better to take action quickly.
Adapted from “Sky Rocketing Sales,” by Debbie Allen.