10 Obstacles That Most Salespeople Can't Overcome

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

A great salesperson can overcome a myriad of obstacles including my top ten:

resistance
competition
pricing
technology
budgeting
relationship
expertise/reputation
customer service
history/track record
self presentation/first impressions

An average/ineffective salesperson may not be able to overcome any of the ten with the possible exception of relationship. Some salespeople, while strategically and tactically challenged, are quite good at developing relationships. Unfortunately, while a relationship is important, people won't buy if that's the only thing a salesperson brings to the table.

So if it requires a great salesperson to overcome 9 of those 10 obstacles, and only 5% of the sales population is truly great, why do salespeople create obstacles for themselves? I'm talking about obstacle number 10 - self presentation/first impressions.

Yesterday, when I debriefed a great salesperson on his morning call, I learned that there was competition still to be considered. Given the need to differentiate and rise to the top, you would think he would have wanted to make a good impression. Why make it more difficult to be credible, demonstrate expertise, and outshine the competition by making a lousy first impression? I asked if this was a face to face meeting and when he said it was, I cringed when I saw how he was dressed. Poor fitting, wrinkled khakis with an open collar, button down shirt and messy hair does not translate to, "We should give this guy $50,000 this year so he can help us run our business".

The elite salesperson is good enough to overcome this disaster, but why should he have to and how many salespeople are guilty of this and aren't good enough to overcome the problem?

Nobody likes to dress down more than me. I'll come into the office in shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt if I don't have to meet with clients. But to think that you can dress like a slob and get people to feel comfortable giving you a lot of their hard earned money just doesn't cut it for me. It's one thing if you're selling to construction or manufacturing workers, residential landscaping to homeowners, or consumers in a hobby shop. But if you are selling professional services to professionals, err on the side of being conservative.

Nobody will ever refuse to buy from you because you are dressed well.

[UPDATE - Frank Belzer posted and picked up where my article left off.]

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Free PDF Download
Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

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Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

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