National Sales Center

You’ll Never Succeed In Sales If You Commit These Errors

Sales reps around the world work hard every day in the hope they’ll succeed in sales. My job is to help them succeed in sales so I offer free tips and advice about successful selling. I also produced a series of sales training lessons designed to help reps greatly succeed in sales. Now I want to flip it around!

Instead of telling you how to succeed in sales, I’d like to explain how not to succeed in sales. Alarms should sound if you find yourself doing any of the following…

• You are so desperate for a sales appointment you’ll attend any appointment… qualified or not, just to show your manager that you are busy.
• You sell features instead of benefits.
• You overcome objections by debating with your prospect.
• You don’t follow a successful sales process. In fact, you don’t follow any sales process.
• You believe working harder at things that don’t work will help you succeed in sales.
• Your sales strategies are based on assumptions instead of facts. Worse yet, your assumptions always come with a positive spin based on pure fantasy.
• You feel your price is high but never mention the added value of your offering.
• You hardly ever ask for the order.
• Instead of presenting them in person, you E Mail proposals.
• You expect your prospect to cost justify the purchase.
• You attend sales calls without first developing a firm objective for the appointment.
• You don’t know your close rate.
• You know about open-ended questions but never ask them.
• You talk more than you listen.
• You don’t have activity goals.
• You develop sales plans when you drive to appointments.
• You never ask for a referral.
• You’ve never asked a customer how they are benefiting from doing business with you.
• Instead of investing in your career, you search the Internet for free sales tips.
• You don’t do the things you know you should be doing.
• Your forecasting is based on guesswork and what your manager wants to hear.
• You believe luck is a large part of sales success.

This list could go on forever! I just wanted to list a few blunders that will help you not to succeed in sales… if that’s your goal. If that’s not your goal, get serious about your career and success.

I urge you to consider the “Progressive Sales Process” if you have a strong desire to succeed in sales. This is the sales training others use to generate overwhelming sales success. I guarantee this sales process.

I want you to succeed in sales!

Nick

Tags: sales advice