The seven capital sins of sales that will close heaven's doors for you

1. Loving your product more than your customer.

Most sellers love, feel proud and believe in the product they sell.

That is fantastic, but the moment you start talking product and only product, instead of qualifying your customer’s needs, pains and challenges… you have made the wrong relationship choice.

Just like you are proud of your company and your product, so is your customer. Failing to show them you understand what they do, and how to help them protect their business and make it better, will take you off the board in a selection process.

Visualization moment: Try to remember the last time you got a phone call from a phone company and they spent 5 minutes nonstop talking about their service, without having even asked your name… did you ever buy from them?

2. Delegating the deal coordination in the customer.

This is your deal. Yours to run.

It is important you coordinate meetings, actions, parties, give directions…etc. both inside your team and at the customer’s end.

You need to be setting the right expectations with your customer, so they get the best buying experience off you.

If you let the customer set the tone… it is likely that the buying cycle will take longer, and it will increase risk on the sale.

Of course the customer has a timeline we as sellers need to adjust to, however, in order to keep that timeline fit, we must avoid assuming the customer knows everything needed to get to the ultimate goal.

Part of the reason we exist as sellers is to manage the sales cycle and to help the customer through a process that can be very foreign to them. Customer inexperience can be a reason for loss.

3. Clinging to a failing deal like dear life.

It happens often.

You have put so much work into it. The sale can take you high against your target… looks so good. Maybe too good?

It is important to understand when it is time to let go of a deal and not drag it quarter after quarter.

Some deals are simply not a fit for either customer or provider, or it is not yet the right timeline or compelling event. So, if a deal is not a match and you can see that early on, it is important to know when to stop putting hours and valuable resources into it

Clinging to a deal with no heartbeat often happens due to lack of pipeline, which triggers a sense of despair in a seller. Be cautious not to create false expectations to your business instead of going to hunt for something more realistic. It will reflect poorly on your ability to forecast and maturity as a seller.

Just like with anything else in life, sometime, taking a step back and letting go is the right thing to do. 

4. Offering a discount vs objection handling

As sellers we need to learn to overcome objection and welcome it. An objection is not a drastic NO. it is a challenge, and as sellers we need to thrive on those and turn them to our benefit.

Offering a discount the moment you are met with an objection, reduces your credibility as a seller and as an expert. It also impacts the credibility of the organization you represent.

I am not saying that you should never offer a discount, but be mindful of all the things you can do before taking a cut on your commission!

5. Having only one friend and / or the wrong friend in the evaluation team.

Just like you are expected to qualify the customers needs, timelines and budgets, you have to qualify the different authorities in an evaluation process.

Last studies show that the average evaluation team for software projects in organizations with revenue over 250M USD, is of 7 individuals. 7 potentially very different individuals. With different motivations for buying or not.

If you apply this logic and you only know and speak to one person in an organization, you are by default not only delegating a big piece of the coordination of the deal in one person, but you just took your chances of winning this deal to a best case of 14%.

It is fine to start with one person, but as the deal progresses and you are supposed to invest time and company resources in it, it is only logical you get the customer to be forthcoming on who else will be deciding your fate.

6. The customer is the most important thing.

This is a controversial one and some may not agree. However...

Being customer centric, does not mean that the customer doesn’t have a responsibility with you.

This sin takes you back to sin number 2 and number 5 in a way. Where customers can knowingly or unknowingly be abusing of their role to withhold information.

On top on having to run your deal and needing to know your buyers, it is important you set the tone on respect with your buyer.

You must create a tone that sets the facts of you and the organization you represent, spending time, resources and therefore money, to attempt a sale, therefore in meaning business and that you are not a free consultancy firm..

In business respecting each others time and efforts is key.

Remember to stay on equal grounds with your customer. It is in everyone's best interest, and no one ever got in trouble for being forthcoming.

7. Generating pipeline is not my responsibility (AKA I am not a BDR)

My absolute favorite one.

Well I have news for you. If that has ever crossed your mind. You are dead wrong and ready to burn big time in the flames of sales hell.

Good sellers know of self-reliance, and that absolutely means getting down to the mud to get some pipeline in queue when you do not have any.

Your Pipeline is your lifeline. Your responsibility and yours only.

If the company you work at is kind enough to get you a valuable BD resource to help, then lucky you! But you need to be prepared to live without it.

You need to have your own target list for the year or the Q. A list with those accounts that you ideally want to sell into. You need to map them, create connections in them and GO!

I have personally seen way too many sellers thinking they are meant to be served and fed opportunities. Sales is not a L’oreal commercial. Opportunities don’t just come because you are worth it.

Wish you all my dear sellers to stay in the light and away from the flames!

Happy reading!

Yasmina