Sales mistakes you MUST avoid to reach the top
Performance is a key for survival in sales. If you fail in performing, then your sales career is doomed forever. The poor performance just indicates that your sales approach isn’t right. You might be trying your best to deliver the expected performance, but still, you are unable to achieve the desired results. It can happen due to few mistakes that many sales reps often commit.
I had a colleague, who used to put in maximum hours in calling, still she was not able to achieve her sales target. Once during a tea time chit chat, she discussed this issue with me and another colleague who is also a sales professional with 12 plus experience in this field. He asked her to narrate her sales story that how she used to approach the companies.
She said that she used to call and introduce herself and her company to the client and then go with the flow. However, she said in most of the cases by the time she used to complete the introduction the client used to end the call. He asked her if she used to research about the company before calling. She said no, due to lack of time she just concentrated on calling. After hearing her, he pointed out few of her mistakes that he felt is hampering her performance.
First mistake- Call without research is a strict no-no for a sales rep
You cannot call without any base of knowledge about the company. You need to know all the details about the company to offer a solution to them. Sales is not about how many numbers you dialed but how many customer relationships you built. Moreover, you cannot create them without acquainting yourself with the company. No one has time to hear about your product till something beneficial or interesting hits their ear.
Second mistake- You cannot be self-centric
You cannot just go on with your tale, speaking about your company. Just presenting the brighter picture, by speaking about your product’s strength isn’t enough. You need to learn about the one who is going to invest in your product. Be a good listener; your speaking to hearing ratio shouldn’t be uneven. Your product is intended to solve their business issue, but for that, you need to know their problem to see if your product is serving their business need.
Third mistake- Not questioning
Till you don’t be curious about a client’s business, you won’t be able to impress them. Inquisitiveness leads to questions and questions are the path to information that can help you in dealing with the client. It helps in building their trust in your company and product; they need to know that you are genuinely interested in helping them with a solution. Questions impart knowledge, but irrelevant questions can be offensive. Being a sales rep, you need to know what questions need to be asked.
He added, that it is not only her, but in general, many sales rep commit these mistakes and create distance between them and their sales goals. He said there are many more mistakes that he saw reps committing like-
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Not updating skills and knowledge
The industry is evolving with advancement in different fields, and the competition is escalating with great pace. In this new landscape, if you don’t brush your skills and knowledge, you won’t be able to survive in this ultra-modern sales era. You need to stay abreast of the latest trends and innovations to stay ahead in the race of sales. Try new techniques to sell and develop your selling skills to deal better with prospects.
Lack of communication with the marketing team
Sometimes sales team don’t care to bother what kind of leads are generated by the marketing team. They blindly accept whatever comes to them. Having data isn’t enough; the data needs to be relevant to increase the conversion rate. Create a good rapport with your marketing team because they are the bridge between you and new leads. An error from their end will affect your sales closer ratio, so you must frequently coordinate with them and keep yourself cognizant with their lead generation activity.
Not following up on time
Following up is critical in sales. Sales reps are more focused on new prospects; they tend to forget the deals already lying in the sales pipeline. Till you don’t push the deals, they won’t progress in your sales pipeline. Just because the prospect is taking time to respond that doesn’t mean he isn’t interested in your solution. You need to follow up on regular intervals to warm the leads and transform them into real customers.
He continued, saying that this list of mistakes will not end, every sales rep commits one or the other blunder while dealing with the clients. However, realizing these mistakes and finding a solution to deal with it is important. Which even I agree, we are humans, and we all commit errors, but we shouldn’t neglect these errors. We need to identify and work on them at the right time to enhance our performance. Once we find a solution, we need to implement it by creating a plan of action. Sometimes executing this plan of action seems difficult for many sales team. The solution to this difficulty is high-tech tools like Salesmate CRM that helps in successfully planning and executing the sales strategy. It automates your various sales processes and enhances your workflow to accomplish your goals quickly.
