Go ahead and read the list and think to yourself about how none of the 6 apply to you.
If you read the list and think none of them apply to you, then guess what? Most likely they do!
Failing to follow-up
Talking too much
Thinking it’s all about you
Ignoring the customer
Trying to prove the customer is wrong
Failing to ask for the sale
We in sales are a finicky group. We tend to breathe each other’s exhaust and believe too strongly in the mythical belief that if salespeople were truly in charge, the world would be a better place.
The six items listed above have a couple of things in common, most notably they all take into consideration the self-centered salesperson. We may not think of ourselves as being self-centered, but in reality, there are too many situations where we become exactly that when we are with a customer.
We need to be continually assessing our sales process and challenging ourselves on these six items and ask ourselves how close we are coming to doing them.
I’m being soft here and giving us the benefit of the doubt by saying “how close are we coming to doing them.” Hopefully, by not saying “we do them,” we might be in a better frame of mind to assess if we actually are.
There are two simple questions we all need to ask ourselves:
How is my follow-up?
How much time does the customer do the talking compared to me?
Be honest with yourself. When we take a step back and honestly assess our process, there is not one of us who could say we have not done at least one of the six on a recent sales call.
The real question we need to ask is, “How many more sales could I close if I didn’t do any of the six?”
Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
