Nothing tanks a sale faster than losing credibility. Most salespeople don’t even notice it happening, but it’s the little things that sink deals and reputations.
Credibility isn’t about perfection. It’s about consistency, respect, and integrity. Take a close look at these ten landmines Mark shared recently on The Sales Hunter Podcast. Avoid them, and you’re not just saving your deals, you’re saving your professional reputation.
1. Overpromising Early (or Anytime)
Deals collapse fast when promises get ahead of reality. Salespeople rush to impress, make commitments they can’t deliver, and dig themselves holes they can’t climb out of.
“You’re not selling with integrity if you’re selling what you can’t deliver.”
Don’t make promises early in the process to keep buyers engaged. Actually, don’t do it at any stage. Every promise needs a foundation.
2. The Trap of Agreeing Too Quickly
Agreeing to every client request signals weakness, not partnership. Clients start testing boundaries:
Aggressive clients spot the pattern. If the salesperson agrees to anything instantly, what do they really stand for? Once you set this expectation, it’s tough to recover.
3. Not Challenging Bad Assumptions
It’s every salesperson’s job to challenge assumptions, especially the wrong ones. Don’t leave potential disasters unaddressed just to stay comfortable.
Tactfully address bad logic with stories and insights. Do it respectfully, and you’ll position yourself as an advisor, not just an order-taker.
4. Chasing Approval Over Respect
Chasing approval with flattery or unearned praise backfires. Approval fades, but respect sticks.
Demonstrate knowledge, confidence and competence because buyers want advisors they respect, not cheerleaders desperate for likeability.
5. Say Goodbye to Credibility: “Any Price Can Be Beat”
The fastest path to zero credibility? Suggest that any competitor’s price can always be undercut. This invites a race to the bottom that nobody wins.
“When you condition buyers to shop only on price, you destroy value and reputation.”
Align your price with your value proposition. Don’t devalue the offer by making price the only variable on the table.
6. When Social Proof Doesn’t Match Your Pitch
Nothing erodes trust faster than a web search that tells a different story from the one in your pitch. Buyers read reviews, check social proof, and browse third-party commentary.
If what you share doesn’t sync up with public information, credibility tanks. Keep your message honest and consistent with what buyers find online.
7. Putting Your Thoughts Ahead of the Customer
When a salesperson stops listening and pushes their own agenda, customers notice immediately.
“It’s not the salesperson’s opinion that matters—it’s the customer’s.”
Listen. Ask questions based on what the customer says. Show respect by meeting them where they are before steering them to where they need to go.
8. Failing to Back Up Commitments
Failing to follow through, even on the little things, makes a lasting negative impression.
Buyers notice every slip: missed reports, tardy arrivals, delayed updates. Honor every commitment, every time.
9. Disregarding the Customer’s Time
Time respect is respect, period. If you say a meeting will take 20 minutes, end on time. If there’s a delay, ask for permission to run over.
This signals not just respect for calendars, but for the person themselves. Start and stop on time, and watch your credibility climb.
10. Not Revealing the Full Offer
Fail to give the whole picture of what’s included and what’s not, and you’re playing with fire. Buyers hate discovering missing details after the deal is signed.
Lay every card on the table upfront, especially what is not included. Buyers appreciate transparency, and it often leads to a bigger, better deal.
Relationships Trump Transactions
A single sale is never just a transaction, but the start of a relationship. Thinking of the sale as a one-off closes future opportunity.
Open doors, add value, and make it easy for the next deal to happen. Credibility compounds and integrity sells.
Success isn’t built on a few big decisions. It’s built on hundreds of tiny, integrity-rich choices that earn respect, deal after deal. Stay sharp, avoid these credibility killers, and doors will keep opening for you.
Mark Hunter :
10 Ways Salespeople Lose credibility. Hey, you do any one of these and you’re going to lose the sale missing on them. Not only do you lose the sale, but you’re not selling with integrity. You see, success is found in the little things. Often overlooked, easily dismissed, and yet anyone can make the mistake. And the show begins right now. You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here’s your host.
Mark Hunter :
Oh, success in sales is found in doing the little things right. And let me tell you something, sales is about people. Now, regardless of the process that you use, you can fall victim to any one of these 10. You see, it’s our job to demonstrate integrity. And when we do that, we don’t fall victim and we’re not going to miss that sale that could easily have been avoided. Here are 10 things that you need to make sure that you are not falling victim to. Number one, over promising early in the process. Oh, salespeople do this all the time.
Mark Hunter :
They will make over commitments to try to keep the customer engaged. And what does it do? It creates problems right out of the chute. In fact, not only is it over promising early in the process, but I’ll say it’s over promising at any point in the process. Don’t sell what you can’t deliver on. Number two, agreeing too quickly. You see, when you agree too quickly to whatever the customer is requesting, you are setting yourself up for really major problems. Why are you setting yourself up? Because the customers now is saying, well, I can just keep asking, asking, asking, and the salesperson is going to keep agreeing and what is it that they stand for? Which then takes me to number three, not challenging bad assumptions. Now hold on here, because again, you’re sitting there saying, wait a minute, is it my job to challenge the customer? Yes, it is.
Mark Hunter :
It is your job to challenge because if they have a bad assumption, you’ve got to call them out on it. Now, it doesn’t mean you’re throwing them under the bus, but it means that you are walking into and most likely here when they make a bad assumption, you share a story. You share a story. And what does that do? It, it allows you to convey what is it that they’re looking for. The right answer, not the wrong answer. The assumption they have in a manner that does not feel offensive to them. Number four, trying to win approval instead of respect. You see, here’s the thing.
Mark Hunter :
If you come in and glad hand the customer and all you do is suck up to them. And all you do is, is, is, is really just throw incredible. I don’t know what you want to call it, but on the customer, hold it. What you’re doing is, is all you’re trying to do is win approval, but you’re not trying to earn respect. You see, respect is earned when you demonstrate knowledge, when you demonstrate competency, when you demonstrate confidence. So be careful that you don’t over sit there. And I can remember this when I was on the buying side, salespeople would come in and they would just lavish all kinds of praise and it’s like, get out of here. Come on, I don’t need this.
Mark Hunter :
I want to do business with you potentially, but only if you earn my respect and you’re not doing it by doing that. Number five, Communicating any price can be beat. Oh, this is a major issue. Let me tell you something. When you sit there and throw, this is why salespeople have a bad reputation. Reputation. When you sit there and throw it out, that, that, oh yeah, hey, whatever competitors got for price, I, I’m sure we, I know we can match it. I know we can beat that.
Mark Hunter :
What does that do? That tells the customer all they need to do is go out and come up with some cheaper price and you’re going to cut your price. It is absolutely the fastest way to create zero, zero credibility. And yet I find salespeople doing this time and time again. And there are certain industries where we see this a lot. We see this in the cell phone industry, we see this in the automotive industry. We see this in various industries. And it’s no wonder why salespeople and the sales industry has a bad reputation. You see, what we have to do is we have to make sure that our price matches the value proposition.
Mark Hunter :
This is how you earn respect. This is how you earn integrity. This is how you agree. Not too quickly, because what you’re doing is you’re holding back. You see what happens here when you, when you communicate any price, what you’re encouraging the customer to do, and you’re actually conditioning your brain to say that whenever a price is thrown out, no matter where it is early in the process or late, you suddenly roll over and play dead. And what does this do? This conditions your brain. Price is never to be communicated until you understand fully what are the outcomes that the customer is looking for and they understand fully the value proposition that you have on the table. And when you do that, that does not mean at all that you are matching a price.
Mark Hunter :
Communicating any price can be beat. Is fail. Now, does this mean that you can adjust, you can adjust your price by taking things off the table? You have to take things off the table. You can’t leave things on the table because again, if all you do is reduce the price but don’t take things off the table, something is seriously wrong and the customer is going to see that. And, and by the way, you are no longer selling with integrity. Number six, when the Internet and what social media and what the world is saying is not lining up to what you’re sharing as a salesperson, this is very damaging. If you are coming in and saying one thing and this is what we can do, this is how we can help you, and these are all the things we can make happen. And yet the customer goes out on the Internet and believe me, the customer is going out on the Internet and they’re finding different things.
Mark Hunter :
They’re finding reviews that totally refute this, that they are finding information that doesn’t line up to what it is that you said. You have a credibility problem. You have an absolute credibility problem and you’re going to lose any chance of making that sale. This is why I say that you’ve got to make sure that you’re paying attention to, to what is the Internet saying about you? And this means also social media channels. This means, you know, Yelp. This means open door. This means. So let’s talk about open door for a second.
Mark Hunter :
You know, what’s fascinating is the numbers of customers that I run into who are looking to do a long term engagement with a customer, you know, with a, with a company. Okay. And they go look at glassdoor reviews because they want to find out how do employees think about the company. Company. Because if they’re going to go into a long term relationship with this company, they want to make sure that employees are reputable. Oh, damaging, damaging. Number seven, ignoring the customer and putting your thinking ahead of the customers. This happens all the time.
Mark Hunter :
Because what happens is the salesperson is no longer listening to the customer. The, the salesperson is taking what the customer is saying and totally disregarding it and putting all of their thinking, all their verbiage, everything that they are saying ahead of. When the customer speaks, you have to listen. When the customer speaks, you have to listen and ask them questions on that. You have to respect them. Because at the end of the day, it’s not your opinion that matters, it’s the customer’s opinion that matters. Number seven here, this ignoring the customer and putting your thinking ahead, I think is probably the most damaging one. But there’s more.
Mark Hunter :
Number eight, failing to back up your commitments. This is a no brainer. This is so simple, this is so easy. And yet I find this all the time in surveys that I do with buyers. They say the number of, of salespeople that fail to follow through on their commitments, it might be to get a report back, get something back, get something back by a certain day, it doesn’t happen. Or showing up for a meeting on time. I hear more buyers share with me that they shoot down salespeople because the salesperson was late getting on that teams call that zoom call coming in for that meeting, whatever it might be, honor your commitments. In the words of Vince Lombardi, if you show up on time, you are late.
Mark Hunter :
Number nine, building this. It’s not respecting time. You see, here’s the whole thing. If you say this meeting is going to take 20 minutes, you take 20 minutes. If you say the meeting is going to take 30 minutes, you take 30 minutes. You don’t sit there and allow the meeting to run on and on and on. You respect the customer’s time. Because here’s the whole thing.
Mark Hunter :
When you respect the customer’s time, then they begin to get this subliminal feeling that you respect their opinion and you respect everything about them. This is, this is really, this is much bigger than we realize. I have a number of clients that I meet with on a regular basis and we set up 30 minute meetings and regardless what’s in the agenda, we go to 30, we go 30 minutes and we stop at 30 minutes. And if I have to go on, we have to go on. I ask for permission, ask for permission if you need to go on and what do you do? You are going to increase your level of credibility. Number 10, failing to reveal everything in the offer, including what is not offered. See, I see this so often. What happens is customers will receive an offer.
Mark Hunter :
Here the customer is, the salesperson is making their proposal and here’s everything laid out, but there’s a few things left out that are very clear, very obvious to the salesperson, but not obvious to the customer until after the sale is made. You see, I’ve got to make sure that I reveal everything to the customer right up front. I got to make sure that I reveal what’s not offered. Take the time, go ahead. You are going, you are going to earn more respect when you demonstrate the customer, Kate, what is not in the sale. This way they can make a more value added decision. And you know what times, many times they’re going to sit there and say, well, let’s add that on. What’s that going to cost? I’ve seen that happen many times.
Mark Hunter :
You see, here’s the thing. We have to remember that the only good sale is the one that leads to the next one. Never think for a moment that the sale you’re making is a one off situation. Because it’s not. It’s not a one off situation. You see, here’s the whole thing. My whole objective, my whole objective is to create a relationship. I never want to close a sale.
Mark Hunter :
I want to open a relationship that’s going to create additional revenue opportunities down the the road. This is so key, so important and yet too many salespeople look at the sale as being a one off. There is no such thing in today’s marketplace of a one off sale. Hey, my name is Mark Hunter, the sales center. I want you to pick up the book Integrity first Selling because I dive into so many things in this topic because selling with integrity is more important than ever. Pick up a copy of it. If you haven’t pick up a copy of it, let me know what you think of it. Hey, do me another favor, would you? Make sure you subscribe to the podcast this podcast on your favorite podcast app and leave me a review.
Mark Hunter :
Two episodes a week. One like this where we do a short deep dive single topic. Second where we go with a subject matter expert. My name is Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Great selling.
