David C
Creating profitable "selling" strategies to transform companies and ignite their revenue engines. dcooke@srgroup-llc.com
What is a bad sales behavior or trait you see too much of and would like eliminated or corrected?
Most every sales training program promotes, educates and encourages the best of good sales practices. Despite the abundance of sales training education there are consistently bad behaviors that never seem to go away. The purpose of this question is to uncover those behaviors that seem to be the most prevalent. (There will be a follow-up question. Stay tuned.)
Good Answers (3)
Ronn I
Consultative Sales Executive
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David,
Far too many sales people do not know how to communicate effectively. What do I mean? They are fine with giving the old elevator pitch, or talking endlessly about every bullet point on their Power Point slides. They exhort the great benefits of every feature in their glossy handouts.
What are they missing? They are not communicating. They are talking at their audience, not engaging them in a dialog. If they understood the real power of using different types of questions to solicit participation from their prospects, they would not waste valuable time, create better relationships with their customers and close more business.
I've seen a few trends in the sales world that make me quietly think, "Get out of here, quickly." The worst I've seen come from timeshare pitches, athletic clubs, network marketing, and I even got it last night on the phone from a zero-balance credit card I was canceling, from Amex and Citibank no less.
First bad sales behavior: talk until they buy. Someone, somewhere is telling salespeople to talk over customers until they give in and buy. Talking over me doesn't convince me that I'd want what you have, and it certainly doesn't endear me to you. Sales is about listening, not steamrolling someone with all the reasons you think they should buy.
Second bad sales behavior: drawing squares and arrows on a legal pad. This is the most terrifying. As soon as someone whips out a pad and starts explaining their system in impromptu flowcharts, I'm gone. Half the time, they draw a rectangle and an arrow pointing away from the rectangle to a circle, and then they keep dotting up the page next to one, and then the other, explaining why the circle is superior. If they have to use multiple pages to do this, the madness scales quickly.
Third bad sales behavior: handing off your mark to a "closer" or third party. This happened both at a gym and a timeshare pitch I was roped into, and it's a creepy experience. Having failed to entice you, the sales associate passes you to their manager, who puts the final strongarm on you.
I take great pleasure in declining to patronize any establishment that uses these tactics, and I typically tell them why. Like last night on the phone I told the guy, "I know it's your job to talk me into keeping this credit card, but I don't use it and I'd like to cancel it." Even after that, he continued to try to convince me.
The best sales professionals are problem solvers and have excellent listening skills. They realize that the value of a close is greatly reduced if there is not the possibility of repeat business. Therefore, the best sales professionals view customers as potential long term relationships rather than the immediate gratification of a sales. Above all, know your product, know the marketplace, know your competitors and know your customers.
Bad habits include the lack of follow-up or too much follow-up. As has been previously mentioned, post-sales operational support is critical to keeping customers happy. If there is a problem, the sales professional must be a timely problem-solver, not someone who passes on the responsibility to another part of the org chart. As a customer, being treated as a short-term commodity rather than a potential long-term customer will guarantee that I will move on.
More Answers (12)
Flyn P
LI Netwowking Expert ► SEO & Social Marketing Expert ► Inside Sales Guru ►Author ►Please connect on LI, Twitter
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David...
I think the actual answer to your question is in management. I have found that most sales management don't provide the necessary tools and training that would correct the problems.
Secondarily, they hire outside folks like yourself and basically abandon what you have taught when you leave allowing salespeople to slip back into bad habits.
The two worst problems I have observed in telesales are lack of call control and terrible communication and presentation skills.
Reps don't have clearly defined sales objectives and processes and thus wander through their calls. And no one in this industry teaches communication skills to inside sales folks, especially the points critical to telephone selling.
Bob S
Real Estate Development Managers
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Sales courses invariably teach you to rebut until you are blue in the face, and then, when all else fails, try to either scare, embarass, or insult your way to the sale, assuming that you've lost the sale anyway. I've seen again and again, but I've never seen it work, and aside from the salesman losing a sale, the company loses a potential future customer. That's a lose lose scenario.
Jennifer (
Director, Development and Communications at YWCA Clark County, WA
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HI David: Good question and well answered thus far.
The death knell of bad sales form:
Push vs pull techniques
Sales people who don't accept a polite "no"
Sales people who are rude and don't respect time constraints (as in the case of the time share folks who don't let you leave the room)
Sales managers who set unrealistic expectations based on the economy, the industry, the competition, the product
Sales people who have annoying personalities that grate on anyone, most of all a prospect, and as such should not be in sales to begin with
Companies who rely on one department to "close" and another to "manage" (bait and switch)
Sales people who talk more than listen, and then keep talking
Sales people who don't know a darn thing about their industry/product/trends/etc.
Sales people who "play dumb" eg "I don't know, been here 6 months, have to ask someone else... yada yada' Just be upfront and tell them you will find the answer and get back in 24 hours!
Sales people who have some sort of bad personal habit: BO, smoking, bad breath, etc that infringes on the conversation and forces you to focus on that rather than the pitch
Sales people who hang up when you say no- like I would EVER consider going back after that! Even if I was mildly interested!
These may seem mundane, but think of past sales conversations that were sour and I'll bet one or more was a part of it!
Peace,
Jennifer
Alvin H
Recruitment Consultant at Quest on the Frontier alvin@questonthefrontier.com
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Jennifer has a very complete answer that I agree with (that way I don't have to type it all out hehe)
I think it comes down to distinguishing yourself as a sales or service oriented business, the fact being most try and fail to be a well-balanced system.
As a salesperson in my previous life, I have seen many including my own employees "offer" rather than sell. However, it takes some experience and trying out on your own to find where the limit is, where the distinction from "aggressive" and "pushy" is.
The salespeople are so motivated on the most part because a big majority of their compensation package depends on it. True and simple, they see you as food on the table, and will do almost whatever it takes to get there.
Great question!
Personally one bad trait I see often is most often salesmen make the sale but then they do not service their customer after. They leave business on the table not to mention all the lost referals from their neglect. Eventually they lose the business.
I think organization is more often a struggle for alot of sales people.
Another hinderance that compounds this behavior is not having effective sales processes for call planning/data/issues/complaints/returns/etc. (Though this can be a company or salesmen issue)
I think sales is much like art. I was told once that if you want to call yourself an artist you must be consistantly practicing and perfecting your craft/medium. Sales is similar, by continuing to learn and refreshing yourself consistantly with knowledge. You set yourself up to be a valuable tool for your clients and yourself.
I was guilty of this once (well, among other mistakes) where a man came to the counter interested in a PC. His worn clothes, unkempt hair and dirty shoes made me wish for him, or better yet me, to be some place in Tahiti. I kept giving him short answers and finally asked him: Why do you want one? He answered that he had been developing scientific software for the Mac and wanted to switch over to PC's.
Salespeople: Don't go by appearances. A suit doesn't necessarily signify a customer.
Alexander K
Founder of ResumePros4Less.com, Entrepreneur
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Bad sales people lie or cheat to make a quick sale. Example: car sales. The first thing that comes to mind to describe a car salesperson - dishonest. Why? They're only focused on the money. They are in sales to make a quick buck. They lie so the prospect moves on quickly, so they make a quick sale, pocket the commission (voucher), and move on to the next prospect.
scott P
Designer and Fundraiser, Level 2 Canoe coach
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Hi David,
I would like to see sales reps looking the part, they should take pride in their product and the company they serve. Also reps should try shutting up and listening a bit more, we have one mouth an two ears for a reason! They should know this and remember it.
Thanks Scott
Kimberley J
Predictive Technology Executive, Sales and Marketing
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Hey Dave:
Laziness in sales people is often the issue.
Paul C
Account Executive/Corp Apparel, Promos, Print in So Calif
Best Answers in: Sales Techniques (1)
All the selling skills such as overcoming objections, presenting well, and asking for the order are overshadowed when the salesperson blows it at the very start. How often have you been in a car dealership, a retail store or wherever there were salespeople and were ignored? Didn't you form an opinion about the salesperson before they even approached you and turned on their salesperson role? Or worse yet, did you make a decision about the salesperson and just left so you didn't have to deal with them?
Buyers today know they have lots of choices, and they aren't going to reward apathy from salespeople if they can avoid it. Apathy on the front end of a potential business interaction in my opinion is the most unnecessary and avoidable thing that can have a big impact on business quickly.
1)The Show Up and Thow Up technique. Sales people that just fire product/service pitch after service/product pitch at their prospect in hopes that something sticks.
2) The "I have the perfect solution for you! by the way, what's your problem? "technique
Personally, I feel that their is no such thing as a "good sales pitch". If you have to talk me in to buying what you have, then I don't want it.
Tell me what your product does, tell me what it costs, then go away and let me make a decision.
I was once in a Sales Training Class where they instructed us to carry 10 pennies in our pocket. Every time that a Customer said "No thanks, I don't want it" we were to place a penny on the counter. Only when all ten pennies were on the counter were we allowed to end our sales pitch.
I think that I would throttle a Salesperson after about the third penny hit the counter and he/she was still talking.
