Sales Blog with Sales Tips

There are a million myths about the selling profession. What’s most frustrating is that many “sales trainers” dole these out as quality sales tips.

Here are 10 of my not-so-favorites presented in no particular order.

Myth #1
Salespeople lie more than buyers. The math on this one is simple. A sales professional has a lot more to lose by lying than a buyer. As an example, I’ve asked dozens of professional buyers if they’ve ever lied about pricing. I haven’t found any who said they hadn’t engaged in this practice. A salesperson would be committing sales suicide to lie about a price.

Myth #2
The internet will replace all sales professionals. Ever see a website find a decision maker or uncover a prospect’s budget? How about discovering a buying time frame or learning about the competitive landscape?

Myth #3
Ninety-two percent of our communication with customers is through body language. If this were true, then phones, emails, text messages, marketing collateral, etc. would be virtually useless.

Myth #4
If you can just get your foot in the door, you’re halfway there. If this is how you get an audience with prospects, you’ve already alienated them. They aren’t listening to a word you’re saying either.

Myth #5
ABC (Always Be Closing). People are hardwired to resist being pushed. Push enough and they’ll run – and not toward you. The close is merely the final and natural step in a well-orchestrated sales process.

Myth #6
People buy on price. Price is always a consideration, but it actually ranks number five for buyers in study after study. Availability, risk, service and quality are more important to a buyer than price. Buyers ask about availability and price because we can immediately give them hard numbers on these items. Risk, service and quality are learned through relationship and time.

Myth #7
There is a stereotypical sales personality. If that were true, a pre-hire sales test would exist that could effectively weed out the non-sales types. There isn’t such a test (i.e. one that works) because all successful sales professionals are different.

Myth #8
Sales professionals only care about making money. Studies show that income ranks below a number of other factors such as job satisfaction and professional growth for sales professionals just as it does for people in other occupations.

Myth #9
Sales is just a game of numbers. This might have been true 15+ years ago – but not today. Sales is an information and relationship game. Quality, not quantity.

Myth #10
Working for the best vendor or supplier means you’ll win the sale. Creating a relationship with a prospect that is based on your good character and work ethic gets the business. Besides, the prospect decides who is the best vendor.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

When couples are dating, they treat each other with respect. We can go even further and say there’s a positive correlation between the desirability of one person for another and the amount of regard that is demonstrated.

This is something we don’t have to be taught. However, when it comes to prospects we surprisingly lose this perspective.

“Dating” Prospects
Our blunder is that we don’t treat strategic opportunities (i.e. uber-prospects) in the same way that we treat our very best accounts, but we need to.

Just like in dating and marriage, prospects know we’ll never treat them better than during the courtship period.

How Should We Treat Uber-Prospects?

• Most importantly, treat them as if they are already one of your best accounts.
• Give them respect that is not tied to what they are currently buying (which is zero dollars). Tie your respect to their potential.
• When people find a special person they want to marry, they instinctively know to take it one step at a time. They allow the chemistry to develop without pushing. Bulldozing scares off dates and strategic opportunities. Sales managers cause a lot of damage in this area. Their incessant and unthinking shoving to close, close, close when the prospect is obviously not ready is sales infanticide. I’ve written about out-of-touch sales managers before in this sales blog.
• Give uber-prospects a preview of what they can expect in the areas of punctuality, communication, demeanor, etc.
• Do not use these sales tips disingenuously or your efforts will be for naught.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
When we treat uber-prospects as second-rate opportunities, they ultimately turn into – and remain – second-rate customers. Part of the reason for this is how the prospect (now customer) perceived us in the beginning. The other part is how we perceived the prospect (now customer) initially.

The impressions were mishandled and the tree is bent.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

I’m not responsible for my writing today. I’m getting some kind of cold and my wife has me on 23 different decongestants, antihistamines, cough suppressants, etc. My whole day has been an out-of-body experience.

However, drugged up or not, I feel passionate about today’s topic.

Sales Stupid 101
If you want to completely alienate a customer (or prospect) and guarantee they won’t do business with you, do the following: put them on the defensive.

My wife (you know, the one with all the drugs) is an excellent salesperson. She taught me years ago that when people are backed into a corner they come out fighting. This is not exactly how we want to position our customers.

Ways We Put Customers On The Defensive
There are many ways to put customers on the defensive. I’ll list a few of the most popular below. Please understand that customers have a visceral reaction to being put on the defensive (i.e. they get very angry).

1. Threatening To Escalate. I’ve had Tony Robbins’ salespersons do this to me at two different employers. (Should I have mentioned Tony Robbins by name? Those decongestants!) These guys actually called my boss on both occasions to tell him I was making poor decisions regarding sales training (or whatever it is Tony sells) because I wasn’t purchasing their services.

In both cases, my bosses were unimpressed with Tony’s sales strategy. Do you think I’m inclined to ever recommend or use any of Tony Robbins’ services? Doubtful.

On a side note, would someone contact me and explain his teeth? Too much of a good thing really can be too much of a good thing, Tony.

2. Making The Buyer Feel Stupid. This usually occurs in the form of a question. Here are some examples. “Why wouldn’t you want to update to a better system? Are you telling me you don’t think you can get the budget for this before the end of the year? You actually think our competitor’s product is superior to ours? Who is the real decision maker here?”

3. Questions With An Agenda. I had a sales trainer call me recently trying to get me to buy one of his products. I guess he wanted me to write about it in this sales tips blog. Most of his questions were carefully calculated to back me into a corner. By doing so, he thought I would be forced to buy. What an idiot!

My favorite question of his was, “So what is it about your current system that is working well and meeting all of your requirements?” I guess I was supposed to be confused by his brilliance (he isn’t) and say something like, “Nothing really! I need your system and I need it now!”

During our 30-minute conversation I was even calling him out on this technique and – I’m not making this up – he kept on with his agenda laden questions. He was so scripted he couldn’t help himself.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
Finesse is the art of delicacy, subtlety and skill. As sales professionals, we undoubtedly need to ask customers tough questions and sometimes make them a little uncomfortable to move the sales cycle forward.

If we’re smart and want results, we’ll do it with finesse. Never put a customer in a situation where they feel they’ve been backed into a corner. You’ll always lose.

I need some more decongestants.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer