The 7 Deadly Sins of Successful Sales Teams

The 7 Deadly Sins of Successful Sales Teams
By Geoffrey James | December 22, 2010

Selling is hard work, but it’s even harder when sales teams fall into bad habits. When these deadly sins take hold, the team can end up alienating customers, peers, and co-workers alike.

If your team remains unrepentant and refuses to change, the end result can easily be the failure of your current sales campaign and even the collapse of your entire company’s sales.

Be forewarned. You must, must, must take these 7 deadly sins seriously, and make sure that they don’t take hold, either on you, or on your team-members.

DEADLY SIN #1: STUFFING
Definition: Pushing more products on the customer or the channel than they want or need.
Why It Happens: This is often done with the best of intentions, under the “customer is always right” maxim. Customers and channels are not always on top of their needs and requirements, and thus order (or agree to buy) too much product.
What Results: When the customer or channel figures out that they’ve been “stuffed” with product, they assume (probably rightly) that you were more interested in making your numbers than in making them successful.
How to Prevent It: Before closing, always make certain that the customer really needs your offering and that it will assist them in building their own business. If not, volunteer an adjustment that will put the order in line with their real needs.

DEADLY SIN #2: GRANDIOSITY
Definition: You’ve got a product that’s so wonderful that you’re convinced that it’s the solution to every customer’s problem.
Why It Happens: Most of the time, this happens because you’ve let the marketing group convince you that you’ve got a product that can “change the world.” However, no matter how fabulous you offering might be, it’s not a panacea and there are going to be customers for whom a competitor’s product is a better fit.
What Results: Grandiosity results in customers who aren’t well served. They end up with features and functions that they don’t use, can’t use, and don’t want. Worst case, they begin to see you, the sales rep, as something of a religious fanatic rather than a trusted adviser.
How to Prevent it: Remember that the point of selling is to help the customer become more successful. Rather than trying to converting them to your “product” religion, dedicate yourself to making sure that your offering gets into the hands of the people who need it most.

DEADLY SIN #3: NOSTALGIA
Definition: Sales teams often look back to the glory days, when their product was selling like hotcakes.
Why It Happens: Sales professionals always know what worked in the past, but the memory of past success blind the team to changing customer requirements and major shifts in the marketplace.
What Results: Gradually, your firm becomes unable to develop new accounts, or take advantage of existing ones. Revenue from your cash-cows take over and you find yourself consistently being outbid and outsold by the competition.
How to Prevent It: Whenever you lose a deal (or don’t get included in an opportunity), take the time to find out exactly why. As the market changes, adjust your sales approach so that it better fits the way that the customer wants to buy.

DEADLY SIN #4: OVERWHELM
Definition: Sales teams keep taking on more work, insisting that they can close more business than the last quarter, quarter after quarter.
Why It Happens: Sales teams enjoy being successful and so they’re sure that they’ve got the ability to be even more successful in the future. As such, they commit to more growth without having a strategy to accomplish it.
What Results: It works for a brief period of time, but then productivity begins to quickly decline. Top performers become frustrated and leave the team. The company begins to lose business, creating even more pressure to perform.
How to Prevent It: Come up with plans that are achievable given your current resources. Then figure out how make the team gradually more productive.

DEADLY SIN #5: FECKLESSNESS
Definition: When results are good, many sales teams start to relax and celebrate their wins, rather than develop new business.
Why It Happens: Let’s face it: selling is hard work. It’s natural to want to take a bit of a rest on your laurels, especially after a big sales campaign has paid off big.
What Results: This is the great disaster of many successful sales teams. Their pipeline dries up and the numbers start to decline. This is then followed by frantic effort to build to another peak and lo! the cycle repeats.
How to Prevent it: During the good times, make the effort to continue doing all the things that caused the good times: relentless prospecting, cold calls, building out your network. Make the pipeline a constant priority.

DEADLY SIN #6: OVERCONFIDENCE
Definition: Sales teams assume that the buying process is moving forward because they’ve presented the deal to all the key decision makers.
Why It Happens: When you’ve put a lot of work into building up an opportunity, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor (without getting the sale) by simply assuming that it will take place.
What Results: While you’ll sometimes get the sale, it’s also more than possible that something will go awry and the buying process will stall. You lose momentum and, eventually, the sale.
How to Prevent It: Assume nothing. Stay on top of each major deal. Continue to ask questions, listen carefully, and make sure all the bases are covered.

DEADLY SIN #7: SANDBAGGING
Definition: The sales team becomes (or pretends to become) overoptimistic about sales that will take place in a quarter.
Why It Happens: Sometimes it’s because they’re upbeat and optimistic people and sometimes it’s because they’re telling management what they want to hear.
What Results: When the sales don’t take place, everyone ends up looking stupid. Or worse, you end up antagonizing customers trying to get them to buy, simply because you need to make the numbers that you foolishly promised.
How to Prevent It: Stay focussed on reality and make sure that you are putting effort into maintaining a realistic pipeline. Tell management what they need to know, not what you think they want to hear.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/the-7-deadly-sins-of-successful-sales-teams/13569?pg=8

Ten Commandments for Con Men

Ten Commandments for Con Men

By Geoffrey James | March 7, 2011

While I was doing research for the gallery “The Top 14 Financial Frauds of All Time“, I came across a set of instructions, attributed to Victor Lustig, known as the “Ten Commandments for Con Men”. What’s interesting about them is that they’re actually good advice for anybody who’s in sales. Here they are:
Be a patient listener (it is this, not fast talking, that gets a con man his coups).
Never look bored.
Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them.
Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones.
Hint at sex talk, but don’t follow it up unless the other person shows a strong interest.
Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown.
Never pry into a person’s personal circumstances (they’ll tell you all eventually).
Never boast - just let your importance be quietly obvious.
Never be untidy.
Never get drunk.

Good advice, eh? What’s particularly interesting about this is that Lustig died in 1947, long before the advent of “consultative selling.” Apparently, in addition to being one of the world’s most successful con men, he was a visionary of sales technique as well.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/ten-commandments-for-con-men/14732?promo=808&tag=nl.e808

20 Things NOT to do on a Sales Call

20 Things NOT to do on a Sales Call
By Geoffrey James | March 9, 2011

12 Comments



I recently stumbled across an article “10 Things Not To Do on the First Date.” It included mostly common sense stuff like “don’t get drunk.” It was a pretty good article, even though it missed this important tip: Do not pull your T-shirt up around the top of your head so you look like a demented monk, and say: “Can we please now have the oral sex?”

Anyway, here’s a list of 20 common-sense things NOT to do on a sales call:
#1. Flirt with the admin. It may seem tempting, but unless you’ve got soap-opera-quality looks, chances are you’re only going to annoy (or even alarm) the admin, who will tell the boss. Instead: Stay polite, friendly and respectful.
#2. Talk more than you listen. Initial sales calls are all about relationship building and gathering information, which you can’t do if your mouth is moving. Instead: Get curious about the customer and ask questions.
#3. Comment on the memento. The last 372 people who came into that office remarked about the signed baseball on the desk. Ho-hum… Instead: Research the prospect and ask about the prospect’s job.
#4. Pretend to drop by. Who are you kidding? Do you think that it’s going to cushion the rejection if you pretend that it’s not a sales call? Instead: Have something important to say or sell that justifies your presence.
#5. Answer your cell phone. Ouch! Ouch! What were you thinking? How could any telephone call be more important than a real live prospect? Instead: Turn it off and leave it in your briefcase.
#6. Overstay your welcome. Your prospect has hundreds of other things that he or she could be doing, rather than spending time with you. Instead: Set a time limit for the call.
#7. Let the meeting meander. This isn’t the time for a wandering conversation that slowly gets to the point or a long series of complicated questions. Instead: Provide brief agenda of how you expect the call to proceed.
#8. Argue with the customer. If the customer doesn’t agree with an important point, arguing is only going to set that opinion in stone. Instead: ask the customer why he holds that opinion; then listen.
#9: Discuss politics or religion. Such subjects are almost always a trap into opinionated quicksand that’s hard or impossible to get out of. Instead: keep the discussion on business or neutral ground.
#10: Dive into your product pitch. Sure you’ve got something to sell, but if you pitch too soon, you’ll get pitched out the door. Instead: Ask questions to understand needs, before you pitch.
#11: Arrive late to the call. If you don’t arrive on time it tell the customer clearly that you don’t give a damn about them or their time. Instead: Always arrive 15 minutes ahead of time. If you drive to calls, get a GPS.
#12: Appear flippant or sarcastic. A good-natured laugh at a joke might be taken personally by someone watching out the window, without hearing the context. Instead: Watch your demeanor at all times.
#13: Lack requisite product knowledge. The prospect doesn’t want to hear “I need to get back to you about that”…over and over. Instead: make sure you’re trained on your current products and policies…before the call.
#14: Fail to plan the call. Sounds simple, but trying to close when should be qualifying (for example) is a lost sale. Instead: Never enter a door without first thinking about what you plan to accomplish.
#15: Be too business-like at first. Remember you’re building bridges with another human being, not just a notch in your sales gun. Instead: Smile and be friendly… but don’t get too gushy.
#16: Show up with a crowd. If you bring too many people, it will draw customer’s comments about why your costs so high Instead: Use webconferencing when you need to include additional resources.
#17: Fail to check your appearance. Don’t show up with something amiss that a quick stop in the client’s bathroom could head off. Instead: Make a quick pit stop - with a look-over - before the call.
#18: Forget the customers’ names. What could be more embarrassing than actually forgetting whom you’re talking with? Instead: Write down the names down of everyone in the room with a small table diagram.
#19: Be rude to the admin. No flirting, of course, but if you act all arrogant and superior, you’ll just antagonize the help. Instead: Be friendly and respectful of the staff - admin and otherwise.
#20: Ask personal questions. You may think that the customer is your friend, but you can easily screw up if it gets too personal. Instead: Keep the conversation focused on business issues, especially the customer’s needs.

READERS: Any that I missed?

http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/20-things-not-to-do-on-a-sales-call/14671?promo=808&tag=nl.e808