All salespeople are not equally competent. Not all salespeople have the right attitude. And therefore, not all salespeople are equally successful. I have seen many salespeople grumbling about not getting the expected results. But not all of them take the responsibility for their results.
Selling is a science. Not all salespeople follow the rules of the science of selling. And that is why only few salespeople are successful and rest others are average and many of them are simply failures.
Salespeople fail because they make lots of fatal mistakes in the sales process. Are you familiar with these common mistakes that salespeople make? Do you know which one of these mistakes you may be making. Do you know what mistakes are holding you back from getting your desired results?
My name is Rakesh Sharma and I support the business owners and salespeople to scale up their business and maximize their profits. Today I am going to share with you five fatal mistakes that salespeople make in their selling process.
Therefore, read this article till the end and make notes. This will help you apply these tips and tricks to your personal advantage.
1. Acting like a puppet with prospect: Most of the salespeople position the prospect at a high pedestal. They give too much of significance to the prospect. Giving significance to the prospect is not that big a problem, but the mistake is undermining themselves. They start obliging the prospect without getting any commitment from them. My advice is that at the human level the prospect and salesperson both are at equal level and therefore the salesperson must assert himself and express openly. There is no need to accept and entertain the undue expectations and requirements of your prospect.
2. Telling before asking: I have seen that when a salesperson visits the prospect’s office, the prospect generally asks them to tell about themself. This triggers most sales persons to immediately start sharing his presentation, success story of the product and company. This is not the right approach. A salesperson is the solution provider. Unless you as a salesperson have asked relevant questions and obtained enough information about the prospect situation and his needs there is absolutely no point in telling the prospect about your product and services. It is a fatal flaw which must be avoided. Even if the prospect is asking you to tell about yourself you give him one or two liner introduction and immediately take his permission to ask questions. Therefore, make sure that you are never telling about yourself before asking the relevant questions and seeking the required information.
3. Not asking where the prospect is on decision making scale: As a salesperson you cannot afford to make a mistake about your prospect. You may commit mistakes in finding out where is he on the decision making. There is a possibility that the prospect might have already decided to buy from your competitor. Also, he might have decided to delay the buying decision. The mistake most of the salespeople make is, that they do not ask or take confirmation from prospect for making buying decision.
4. Following up like a pest: No doubt follow-up is the most important aspect of a selling process. But most of the sales people only ask direct questions like, I just wanted to know your decision about the presentation given, or Mr prospect have you been able to decide on the order? Or did you decide yet? But these are some of the questions which prospect does not like to answer. But still following up with prospects is important. Therefore, the champion salespeople do not make a mistake of acting like a pest. They always add some value to the prospect and then ask some question related to the status of making the buying decision.
5. Not using the proper sales tools: Objection handling is the key to successful sales. But handling prospects objection needs preparation. Average salespeople make a mistake of answering the prospects objection with their words. But the social proof is the most important tool for handling the prospects objection. Therefore, it is advised that in addition to answering his question and objection always use the right testimonial to explain your point. Besides this there are so many other sales weapons which must be used to convince the customer and creating the right level of trust with him so that she can give the order to you.
Above are the most common fatal mistakes the salespeople make in the selling process and keep losing orders. But if you follow our advice as mentioned above then you can do better and not fall prey to these common mistakes. So next time you are meeting your prospect beware of these mistakes and get well prepared to make your selling process flawless.
My mission is to support more than 1 lakh business owners and salespeople in coming three years by providing them the quality business growth and sales tools. You can also become part of this campaign by circulating this article to all your business friends.
Hope you find this article useful. Happy selling!
