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

I recently spoke with a longtime reader from West Virginia who told me his sales manager has a problem with one of my sales concepts.

I enjoy controversy; this was music to my ears.

Tell Me More
I asked him to tell me the specifics of his disagreement. He said it was really only one thing. His sales manager didn’t like my “less is more” school of thought. He felt I am teaching his sales team to be lazy.

Interestingly, the reader pointed out that his sales peers are 180-degrees apart from his sales manager on this issue. They think “less is more” actually works in the real world.

Exactly What Is “Less Is More?”
First of all, I do teach that less is more in my sales tips, although I’ve never used that phrase to package my sales philosophy.

The reader explained to me that when his boss says, “less is more,” he’s talking about my concepts of:

• Don’t waste time pounding the phone in a frenzy of prospecting activity. Instead, focus on how much revenue is being generated from carefully identified and researched prospects that have turned into customers.

• Some sales professionals need a lot of time in the office and some don’t. Being out of the office means nothing. Being in the office means nothing. Look at results, not calendars.

• Paperwork and data input are niceties, but sales professionals are fired or promoted based on their sales volume. Don’t get mired down inputting endless amounts of data into a CRM system (or its ilk) whose reports get a perfunctory overview at best from sales management.

• I’m a huge proponent of new business development.  However, investing significant amounts of time with high potential existing accounts provides a 250% better return on our time (Marketing Metrics study). We must see our current accounts as prospects.

• Please  immediately stop this ABC (Always Be Closing) stupidity. If a sales professional has done his or her job, closing is simply the last step of a process. Pushing for a “close” every step of the way guarantees that the salesperson looks “salesy,” desperate and selfish. It kills relationship development and builds walls too.

I Could Go On
But I won’t.

Am I teaching “less is more?” Yes!

Will I change? No!

Why? Because I’m not going to perpetuate the sales methodology myths that are still rampant in sales training and sales management today. The goal is to sell, not to look busy.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

My dad, for whatever reason, used to walk around the house perpetually singing “The Old Grey Mare.” You’ll remember this song from its lyrics, “Oh, the old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be…”

Many of the buyers we’ve been dealing with over the last two years are just like that gray mare. They ain’t what they used to be.

What’s Changed?
Bluntly stated, their buying authority has been cut because of challenging economic times.

While most buyers (from the purchasing department up to and including the CEO) understand why this is necessary, they don’t like it. Egos, especially at the executive level, can be profoundly fragile, you know.

Even in a good economic climate, buyers don’t like to reveal the purchasing limitations their organization places on them.

Sales Tips For Managing This Issue
No doubt we will soon return to the kind of robust economy we all have come to love and enjoy (i.e. the ones between recessions). But until then, here are a few sales tips to keep in mind when dealing with newly neutered buyers, decision makers and purchasers.

• Decision making committees or buying committees have sprung up like weeds in April. It seems like anything over $100 is bought by a group. Don’t rely on someone inside one of these groups to do the selling for you. Make the effort to personally contact and influence every individual in the buying group, especially the single real decision maker.

• Because of buying groups and limited budgets, many of your proposals or quotes will not be approved. Notice I didn’t say “never be approved.” Stay calm and be patient. They’ll need what you’re selling later. Don’t burn any bridges.

• As I’ve noted before in this sales blog, every company has its own tangled way of buying. Even though you may have been selling a particular customer for 17 years, it’s very likely their buying procedures have recently changed rather substantially. Time to dust off one of my favorites, “Besides yourself, who else is involved in the decision making process?”

This Too Shall Pass
Recessions are like colds. You feel like they’ll never end, but they always do. While we wait for things to get back to “normal,” don’t assume any of the legacy decision makers at your accounts brandish the buying authority they once had – but want you to think they retain.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer