To Get Sales Superstar Status, Avoid These Sales Mistakes
Discover the five most deadly sales mistakes and how to use sales skills to avoid them.
By Nick Moreno – Sales Trainer & Head Sales Coach
The National Sales Center
What Are The Sales Skills Of A Great Salesperson?
In my own sales career, I learned that most non-salespeople believe that professional selling has to do with having charisma or some sharp outgoing personality. But professional sales has nothing to do with either of those two characteristics. To be a good salesperson you must first study, learn and use sales skills. You must understand the sales process, and the only way to do that is through effective sales training.
After thirty-five years of sales experience, I know what makes up a Sales Superstar and I know that there are five common selling mistakes made by so-called “salespeople”. Too many salespeople continue to make these sales skills mistakes and don’t know why they’re not being more successful in their sales careers. More often than not, it’s the following top five selling errors that get in their way and keep them from the big commission checks.
1) Lack The Sales Skills To Develop A Strategic Sales Strategy
Inexperienced sales people don’t have a sales strategy because they don’t have the sales skills to develop a sales plan. They just spend their day introducing prospects to their products in the hopes that someone will buy from them. Well, that’ a strategy for sales failure not sales success. These salespeople, that I affectionately call “walking-talking brochures,” never make it to the top of the sales profession because they don’t have the sales skills to develop a sales strategy. Sure, they work hard but they work hard at the wrong things.
2) Lack The Sales Skills To Connect With Sales Prospects
Salespeople who don’t become successful don’t have the sales skills to fully “connect” with their prospects. Sure, they smile a lot and act friendly but that’s not how you build rapport with a sales prospect. These “salespeople” simply don’t know how to build the type of professional sales rapport and professional trust that leads to an order. You get this sales skill when you take sales training based on the sales process.
3) Lack Probing Sales Skills And Uncover A Reason For The Prospect To Buy From Them
Too many novice salespeople never uncover a reason for a prospect to buy from them because they lack that key sales skill. They explain their product and hope the prospect connects the dots and figures out why they should buy. They don’t understand that selling is a lot more than explaining a product; selling is all about solving a problem with sales skills. You need the sales skills to know how to structure a series of questions that uncover a problem you can solve with your product or service. Now, that’s “selling”!
4) Lack The Sales Skills To Successfully Address Sales Objections
Sales objections are part of “selling”. Ill-equipped salespeople simply don’t understand that when the prospect has a sales objection, they shouldn’t ignore the objection. These salespeople don’t understand that a sales objection is not a rejection. It is in fact an opportunity to communicate new information that will lead to new beliefs. Salespeople need to be prepared with sales skills to answer sales objections. You will never succeed in sales if you don’t have this sales skill.
5) Lack Sales Skills To Close Skills
“Closing” is what selling is all about. You need sales skills get the order. Too many novice salespeople don’t ask for the order because they don’t know how or when to ask for an order. They just keep talking in the hopes the prospect will eventually want to buy. If you don’t know when and how to ask for an order, you are in for a hard time as a salesperson! Closing is one sales skill that can’t be overlooked.
Have You Reached the Sales Success You’re After?
Hard to believe but twenty percent of the sales reps generate eighty percent of the sales results. This is so true that it is referred to as “The Eighty Twenty RULE”! Think about that for a minute. Eighty percent of the salespeople produce only twenty percent of the orders. If you are not in the top twenty percent, you just can’t be doing what those in the top 20% are doing. Salespeople that make the mistakes I mentioned above, work hard at what they do, but they never reach the status of a superstar because they lack the sales skills required to succeed. They often go from sales job to another sales job and soon have a sales resume that reads like a big book. All too often, they get discouraged and stop trying to sell. They blame their product, employer, their sales territory and even their prospects. For them, life is not good, but the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Anyone who wants to be successful in the sales arena can change everything by learning salesmanship and sales skills. The key is to start by replacing sales frustrations with sales education.
You see, Sales isn’t a job. Sales is a profession. As with any profession, success requires training. You get powerful sales skills when you take a powerful sales training program. Then, use those sales skills to earn those big commissions.
Good Luck,
Nick Moreno, Sales Trainer
National Sales Center – A Sales Training Company
Related Articles
“Close More Sales In Slow Economy”
Sales Training Articles – Free Sales Training Videos - Sales Training Blog – About Nick Moreno – Sales Training Programs – Prospecting Articles – Sales Strategies – Prospecting Skills
