You don’t have to be a fantastic salesperson to be good at closing sales. You just need to avoid these common sales blunders.
We’ve outlined 8 of the most common sales blunders and how to avoid doing them.
1. Not qualifying leads
Before you can sell, you need leads! They may be coming to you through your marketing efforts, or you may have to go out and source your leads. You still need to qualify them as a potential customer.
If you don’t qualify the leads, you are going to waste a lot of your time on people that don’t really need or want your offering, or have no budget to allocate to it. By spending time qualifying your leads, you’ll be able to identify what each lead wants, what budget is available, and whether they are part of the decision-making process.
2. Not using a CRM
I can’t stress enough how important keeping notes on calls and meetings is to your overall sales success. Notes can help refine your sales process, your value proposition or even guide your marketing team on the right messaging for that target market.
Keeping the CRM records up to date with critical profile data on each lead means that you can analyse your successes and your missed opportunities so you can continuously improve your sales process. Quality notes might identify which prospects you should come back to later.
3. Poor listening
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” – Epictetus
Have you ever come across a salesperson who was much better at talking than listening? During prospecting, it is vital that you ask the right questions and that you LISTEN to what your prospect is saying — very simple stuff.
As a salesperson, try listening more than you talk. You might catch buying signals earlier in the process, and it may open the door to a more substantial opportunity. Or, you might realise that it’s not going anywhere earlier in the process.
4. Spending time on time wasters
We’ve all been there. You end up wasting your time on a lead when you haven’t pre-qualified them properly or didn’t listen to them say that they don’t have a need, budget.
When qualifying your prospects, find out their real need for your solution, decision making power and available budgets. There is no point in wasting time on someone who cannot make a decision or has little to no influence.
5. Saying yes to everything
When you think you are close to a deal and the prospect makes a request, the general tendency is to say yes. However, if you say yes to every request that the customer makes then your deal becomes less profitable. You also don’t want to be known as the salesperson who over promises and underdelivers.
I am not saying that you should say no to every request, you need to weigh up each request and consider if it adds value to your relationship without eating into your profits. Set a precedent early, and you will have better relationships with your clients.
6. Overselling
No one likes a pushy person. You need to trust in your product or service.
If you can’t help yourself and find that you are a bit pushy then maybe use scarcity or urgency to close the deal instead. Urgency doesn’t reek of desperation. It could be that the prospect needs to sign by a specific date, limited time offer, or additional value built into their package.
7. Too much information
Some salespeople overload their prospects with information, and it can cause much confusion. Moreover, it’s significantly harder to close a sale with a confused prospect.
Be clear and concise in your sales messaging. Technical jargon can separate you from your prospect. Tell them only what they need to know with enough information to make a decision. By overdoing the information, you are dragging out the sale, or you are dragging out a loss.
8. Losing focus
You are in sales, to make sales. People are not going to give you their undivided attention time and time again. When you are given the gift of time with a prospect, use it to get your message across as quickly and clearly as possible without rushing the conversation.
Building rapport with your potential customers is essential. Finding a common interest may help build a stronger connection with that prospect and can help build trust. People are more inclined to buy from people like them.
However, I don’t think 10 minutes of idle small talk is going to add value to your prospect’s day, the overall conversion of the sale or speed up the closing of a sale.
You don’t have to be a sales superstar to close a deal. Avoiding these mistakes will undoubtedly get you on the right track and will hopefully help you prospect better, close more deals and make more money.
We understand the demand for quality leads and the need for your team to meet those demands. We are here to help and add value by finding tangible, highly qualified leads where we have secured a date and a time for an appointment. These individuals are in your target audience, at the right decision-making level and have an interest in your solution. Taking away this pressure from your Sales team allows them to focus their time on closing deals and generating revenue.
If you are considering outsourcing your appointment setting, contact us by email info@integrileads.com or phone (+353) 00353 87 3932630. Follow us on LinkedIn for all of our latest updates.
