- Let me ask you a question. Do you know exactly what you're doing correctly
in a selling situation? And at the same time, do you know some of the mistakes that you're making right now? One of the challenges
that sales people face is that prospects don't tell
us when we're screwing up so we don't know what we're doing well and what we're sometimes doing that's actually repelling
prospects away from us. It's causing them to end
the sale in their head, but we don't ever know
that it's happening. In this video, I'm going to show you the nine biggest sales
mistakes to avoid at all cost. Check it out. (clicking)
(whooshes) Number one, doing what they expect. Take a second to put yourself
in the shoes of your prospect. How many sales people do you think they're meeting with on a regular basis? It's quite a few. And what's amazing is
that most sales people are doing the same thing
that everyone else is doing, showing up all over them, pitching, throwing up all of their information, being really charming and funny and silly. The problem is is that
because everyone's doing this, it actually makes that
behavior appear low value. What we want to start to do is avoid doing anything that they expect. If they are expecting us to do something, that's a mistake that we're making. We cannot be doing what they expect. Number two, pitching. Most sales people have been taught that when they get in
front of what they believe is a qualified prospect, and that's of course a pretty low bar, but they believe that they need to be pitching that prospect. I mean, just think about it. We hear this all the time,
give me your best pitch. What's your pitch? And most sales people go
into this tap dance mode where they throw up all
of their information all over the prospect and prospects are so used to
this and at the same time, we shouldn't be pitching to everyone. What we should be doing is engaging prospects in a conversation, to understand what's really going on and determine whether there's a fit. And then ultimately down the road we would give a presentation
that's customized to the challenges that they have. But we need to stop that pitch right away. Number three, being excited. Hey, let me show you all the reasons that you absolutely
need to business with me because we have the best service, we've got the best product, everything that we do is amazing. Many of us were taught to show
high levels of enthusiasm, high levels of excitement about
our product or our service. It's supposed to somehow show the prospect that we really believe
in what we're selling. But again, the problem
is that most sales people are doing some version
of the ridiculous thing that I just showed you. We need to lower the tempo. We don't need to be
excited about our product or our service at least openly. I mean, obviously in the inside hopefully you like what you're selling. What we need to do is we need
to be focused on the prospect and what they care about. Imagine what they care about with what it is that we have to offer. Drop that excitement,
drop that enthusiasm. Instead, be a real person. That's going to connect
with prospects so much more than that high energy salesperson. Alright, just lower that tempo. Number four, persuading. Now if you go onto Amazon right now and you type in the word persuasion, there are millions of books all focused on persuasion
techniques, persuasion tactics. The problem is that sales is
not about persuading people. And I know that goes counter to what most of us have been taught, but what we really want to do is rather than trying to persuade anyone that's in front of us, we want to take a step back and really understand what
is most important to them? Understand what are
those biggest challenges and determine whether their
challenges and their needs align with what it is we have to offer? So there's no need to be doing persuading. Instead what we want to be
doing actually, up front, is mostly disqualifying
prospects that are not a good fit so that way by the time we'd get to that presentation
we're only presenting, we're only giving that proposal to prospects that really
are truly qualified. Number five, talking for more
than 60 seconds straight. This is one of the most common mistakes that I see sales people
making all the time. We get excited about what
it is we're talking about, we feel like we're on a roll
and we just keep on going, and going and going and going. The problem is is that the data shows that prospects start to tune us out after close to 60 seconds, it's
actually a little bit less. And in fact, the data is
really strong about the fact that top performing sales
people never are going for more than 72 seconds, ever! And so, my biggest takeaway from that is never be talking
and talking and talking for more than 60 seconds straight without at least engaging them
back into the conversation. Just suck them back in, even if you have an important
point that you need to make and it takes a little
bit more time to say, break it up with something
that sounds a little bit like hey, so, does that make sense? Or, do you see exactly
what I'm saying here? Bringing them back into the conversation. Number six, closing. Now I know this goes counter to what so many of us have been taught. So many of us have been taught that we need to be
closing, closing, closing. Never take no for an answer,
always close that sale! But that's such an old school mentality. Modern selling is not about closing, but it's about taking
prospects through a process that is going to both
determine whether they're a fit and create value in that
process so that way at the end, the only question we ever have to ask is, well, what would you like to do next? And if you've done a
good job up until then, they're going to lay out for you exactly what needs to be done in
order to close the sale. There is no hardcore, arm
wrestling closing technique. It's simply taking them through a process that is showing value, and ultimately it's naturally
going to close the sale, the prospect of the closing, you don't have to be doing the closing. Number seven, needing the sale. Now this is such a common mistake that so many sales people make, particularly when they're in a
slump, or when they're newer. And, we've all been there
at some point, right? Have you ever been in that position where you had to close a sale
just in order to pay your rent or to pay your mortgage? I've been there, and
I'm sure you have, too. The thing is, though, is
that when you need a sale, immediately the prospect can feel it. It's like it just oozes out of you and they feel it immediately. The second you need to close a sale, they are going to feel guarded. Never show that you need a sale. In fact mentally, even if you're saying, if I don't close this
sale, I'm not paying rent, you've got to mentally take
that pressure off of you. Never need to close the sale because it is going to
immediately make you lower value. It's going to make you weaker. You need to be strong and
the only way you're strong is if in your head
you're saying to yourself I am financially independent
and I do not need this sale. Number eight, following up. Now, I'm sure some
people are saying, what? Following up is a mistake? Yes, it is a huge mistake and here's why. So often sales people will
be in a selling situation and then they will let
the prospect get away, however that happens, ends
the call, ends the meeting. And then it's following up in a week at some nondescript time. This is such a problem. Instead what we want to do is always have clear
and scheduled next steps so that way at the end of
every selling interaction you are always scheduling
a next step, always. I don't care if you're scheduling a next step for six months down the road, you never, assuming someone's qualified, you never just let them go away and say okay, well I'll check
in with you in a week or two. We always have a scheduled next step. You should never be
following up with a prospect, always schedule a next step. And by the way, if they're unwilling to
schedule that next step, it probably means that you're in trouble. So never be following up, always just have that clear
and scheduled next step. Number nine, letting them get back to you. I feel like number eight,
the one right before this, pretty much laid the groundwork here. But if you are ever in a situation where you're waiting for the prospect to actually get back to
you, you're in trouble. Never, ever, ever let
them get back to you. Always keep control of
the selling interaction. Even if they say, "Oh,
yeah, this sounds great. "How about if get back to you in a week "and I'll tell you exactly
what we're going to do?" Never accept that. The response always is something like, Oh, you know what? I really appreciate
that, but you know what? Just to avoid the back and forth, would it make sense to just
schedule a call right now for a week down the road
where we can just avoid that back and forth and you know, you get busy, I get busy and then we never get
back on the same page? Nine out of 10 times they're gonna say, "Oh, yeah, of course." Never let them get back to you. Always be in control of the situation and always have that clear
and scheduled next step. So there are the nine
biggest sales mistakes to avoid at all costs. And if you enjoyed this video that had an awesome free online training on the data driven approach
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