So why do a post on what not to do? Because learning from mistakes, your own or others, always provides valuable advice. When I sold SharePoint training my instructors did a lot of SharePoint consulting. That carried a lot of weight with potential students. What carried even more weight was the fact my guys fixed a lot of SharePoint mistakes others made. They had a wealth of knowledge of what not to do and that was extremely valuable to people. Remember what I’ve said about peace of mind, that comes from not making a mistake. It’s one of the most valuable tips you’ll ever get about sales!
If you or someone else did something right, maybe they were just lucky but when you make a mistake, you learn what NOT to do! That’s why I devoted a whole chapter in the book on this subject as well as a lesson in my new course.
First thing you need to remember is that buying is an emotional process. Obviously the product or service you are selling solves a need or creates an opportunity for the buyer, but what they really are spending money on is peace of mind. If you sell an item or service that costs a lot of money, this is doubly true. You can’t get peace of mind from a product spec sheet. This is where great salespeople separate themselves from all the others.
Prospects want to know that you will take care of them. At some point something will happen. A product will break; a service will go down. People want to know that you will be there when times aren’t great. So what’s the take away here? Remember buyers are judging you just as much, if not more that the actual product or service you are selling. Do what you say you will; reply quickly to every single request and this won’t be a problem.
Another big mistake new salespeople make is not listening. They are so hyped up to spill their rehearsed speech about the features of their new widget, they completely miss what the client is telling them what’s important. Sure the selling process is a dialogue, but there should be more listening then yapping.
If you are not actively listening to your prospects, they are going to feel ignored or unimportant, that in turn will lead to a breakdown in trust and loss of the peace of mind I just talked about.
Another potential landmine is taking rejection personally. OK, this one is valid, if they don’t buy from you, the prospect is a moron! It’s not your fault they are so stupid and couldn’t see the benefits you laid out. Just wanted to see if you are still reading.
Here’s the thing, you are going to hear “No” a lot in this business, that’s just part of the job that’s not great. But remember what I said earlier, “No”…just means no today. I had clients come back two weeks after turning me down, sometimes it was 13 months. Situations change; project timelines get moved up; current providers go out of business, there are a thousand reasons why someone who initially turned you down would come back.
The best way to deal with rejection is to make it a learning experience. Ask the prospect, I appreciate the time you did give me and if you wouldn’t mind, I would love to know what made you go in another direction. I am sure if you were me, you’d love to learn from this setback.
That appeals to their sense of being decent and wanting to not feel bad for having to disappoint you. A lot of times the “no” will come in an email and that’s when you quickly reply with the request of asking why they said no. Not everyone will reply, but a lot will.
The last thing I want to share in this lesson that could absolutely derail your sales career is the biggest one. You fail to commit. Sales isn’t something you “try out” until something better comes along. This is new and scary and you don’t know how you are going to feel, but remember the reason you signed up for this course. What did you write down in lesson 1? Your current career isn’t going great, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.
You need to focus on this…If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. That’s why salespeople make the big bucks. You will only fail if you give up.
One of the jokes I always made about myself when talking about my sales career is that I was never going to make money off my looks or personality but I was tenacious as hell. Not giving up doesn’t mean you continue to bang your head against the wall, doing the same thing over and over with no results. Being tenacious means you look for ways to get that meeting with a bucket list prospect; it means emailing that prospect one more time, emails are free for crying out loud!
Typically, the great stories about famous people involve some type of perseverance. Steven King was turned down 80 times before he got his first book “Carrie” accepted by a publisher. Steven Spielberg was rejected 3 times from USC film school, but somehow became the greatest director ever.
You hear about the ones that never gave up, you never hear about those who didn’t. Ever hear of Isaac Newberg? You haven’t! You know why? He gave up!! OK…I made up that name but you get my point.
Look, I love evangelizing about sales careers because it’s the most fair way to make a great living. It’s the easiest path to a better life! If your current job sucks and you are barely scraping by, why not dive into the one career that has the capacity to change your life.
You think being a doctor is awesome? Yeah, they still make a good living, but between insurance companies paying less and their malpractice premiums going up, they continue to see their earnings go down.
Attorneys? There are some out there that make obscene amounts of money, but I promise you, a lot of them hate their job…especially the ones making 6 or 7 figures. The work hours and stress are silent killers. Plus, both doctors and attorneys also are dealing with an ungodly amount of student loan debt.
So I will leave you with this. First, you are going to make mistakes. Everyone does, especially doing something new. The key is learning from your mistakes and those of others. Sales careers are not built in a day or ruined overnight. They are destroyed because of long-term, consistent activities that fly in the face of common sense.
Happy Selling!