Avoid repeating these sales mistakes

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing - Henry Ford

In order to reach mastery in sales you need to practice, take risks, make mistakes and learn from them. This blog will help you avoid repeating the most common mistakes most salespeople make.

Not focusing on the solution

This tip may be old, but it’s probably the most important one.

As a salesperson, you would be drawn to boast about all the cool features your product or service has. But, the problem is … it’s not going to make a sale.

Instead of describing the bells and whistles, you’d better focus on how your product can solve the most critical problems your prospect is trying to tackle. In other words, features tell, benefits sell!

Not listening

When you’re trying to sell something, instinctively you want to talk a lot: passionately describe the benefits and the great features of your offering, flaunt your knowledge and … push, push, push.

But, pushy salespeople don’t go far; considerate ones do. So listen and ask more open-ended questions. Put simply, talk less, listen more

By asking questions and listening you enable the potential customer to do all the job for you – reveal their main pains and identify ways how you can solve them.

Offering too much

This is a direct negative spin-off of talking too much. In trying to win the customer, some salespeople tend to offer too much help for nothing and in this way become an unpaid consultant.

Being helpful is, of course, a plus. But there should be limits. Prospects love to milk sales reps for information and advice, even when they don’t intend to actually buy anything.

In your attempt to win the prospect’s heart, you may give out too many insights without getting anything in return. Don’t give out free consultations – instead offer solutions to problems in the form of your sales offering.

Not being ready to overcome objections

Allowing the customers to say “No” has its benefits. This way you increase the value of “Yes” when the time is right. Repeated rejections only increase the buying decision when the customer finally sees what they like.

Dealing with objections in sales is truly a form of art. You have to stay cool, show that you understand their concerns and see their point of view, always answer honestly, respectfully and succinctly. And never-ever use the phrase: “As I said before” when dealing with “annoying” objections. That’s just a sale-killer. Instead, acknowledge the hostile question or objection as a valid point, rephrase it, and … use some humor.

Making promises you can’t keep

Overpromising and underdelivering equals to mere lying in business.

No matter how much you want to sell, lying is a bad way to start any relationship. Exaggerating your product or service capabilities, or even worse – hiding limitations or special conditions, will not take you far.

Instead of over-promising, let the prospects sell to themselves. You can do it by asking the right questions that’ll gently push the prospect to the right direction. In the end, they’ll convince themselves that they need your product.

All in all – it's better to sell nothing, than to make a dishonest sale. Because if your customers later find out about a problem you “forgot to mention”, you will not only lose the customer, but also your reputation and further sales.

Not getting access to decision-makers

You can’t just sell to anyone.

To close a deal, you need to deal with the people who are qualified to make a purchasing decision. Otherwise, you will simply waste your time. The sooner you get to talk to the decision-maker, the better your chances of making the sale. 

Not doing your homework

I’m sure you’ve heard this before: “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

Just like going to a job interview, you need to prepare for the sale and find out everything you can about the prospect. If you meet with a potential customer unprepared, it will show. Especially since your prospects are busy researching you! What if they know you better than you know them?

Not only will preparation help you communicate better and ask the right questions, but also tailor your offering, customise your sales pitch and voice the right benefits that would strike the right cords with that particular prospect.

You need to look into your prospect’s professional and even personal background to be able to establish good rapport. Because rapport builds trust. And hardly anyone wants to buy anything from a person they don’t trust.

After all, in the age of the Internet, you have absolutely no excuse for not doing your homework.

The bottom line: It's perfectly okay to make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them and not repeat the same mistakes.