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Are
You Sabotaging Yourself?
Article 7
Your enthusiasm can be the determining factor in winning the sale. But if you are the most important part of the sales process, what do you think is your biggest obstacle? You are! You are the one who can either make or break the sale. Are you self-sabotaging your selling efforts? You could be if you’re making any of these common mistakes: Getting away from the basics. Mistakes often occur when salespeople become complacent. Even though you might have been well trained, it’s easy to get away from what you’ve learned. I learned this lesson the first time I went to my company’s Sales School to be a guest call-taker. By the end of the first day, I realized that I had gotten away from the basics of asking for the business. I changed my attitude and selling approach when I returned to my territory. The results were overwhelming. I knew how to do it—I had just gotten away from doing it. Failing to read the prospect’s signals. Pay attention to body language and other physical expressions that can tip you off to what a prospect might be thinking. For example, you generally have the interest of someone who moves forward in his or her chair, while movement back in the chair combined with folded arms usually denotes lack of interest, even defensiveness. Staying alert to body language will help you determine whether what your prospect says is what he or she really means. Burying the prospect in irrelevant information. Too much data can kill a sale—especially irrelevant data. Information has little value in helping you close a sale unless you can use it to present your product or service at a level the prospect understands and can relate to. For example: Do you own a watch? Do you know how it works? Do you even care? What do you care about? You want a watch that keeps accurate time. Think about how you present your product or service to your prospect. It’s good that you know how it works, but most prospects really don’t care. Don’t confuse the issue. Provide only the information the prospect needs to make a buying decision. Failing to ask for the order. This is the single greatest mistake salespeople make. The main reason you might hesitate to ask for the order is that no one likes to be told “No!” You might fear that the prospect will reject the cost of your product. However, if you have done your job and properly cost-justified your product and its benefits, why should he or she care how much it costs? If you have justified your product or service to meet your prospect’s criteria, you have earned the right to ask for the business. You are going to get a lot of No’s before you get a Yes. The more prospects you approach and ask to buy, the better your chances of getting someone to say, “I’ll take it!” Review these common mistakes. Think about them. Then avoid them to ensure that you’re not your own worst enemy on your next sales call.
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By
Terry Booton, President