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7 Bad Habits That Prevent Sales & Lower Your Bottom Line

Guest post by: Scott Smeester

Article Overview: So many articles focus on the traits sales people should have to be successful. But what about weaknesses to watch out for? What about bad habits that may have crept into a sales person's routine. Let's take a look at the said bad habits sales people can develop that prevent them from ever achieving the success they are capable of.

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7 Bad Habits That Prevent Sales & Lower Your Bottom Line

Many articles focus on the traits sales people should have to be successful. But what about weaknesses to watch out for? What about bad habits that may have crept into a sales person's routine. Let's take a look at the said bad habits sales people can develop that prevent them from ever achieving the success they are capable of.

Bad habits can cause your sales team to miss its sales goals due to the poorperformance of a few individuals. These habits can also spread throughoutyour team like a bad virus and start lowering your sales. In addition, these habitscan have a demoralizing effect on top-performing, bad-habit-free sales people whoare forced to work alongside reps who are just not "bringing their A game."
Here are seven particularly bad habits to keep an eye out for:
  1. Being unresponsive to clients

    Customers who buy from you have an expectation that their inquiriesand requests will be answered promptly. Failure to do so can quicklylead to their frustration and dissatisfaction.

    Solution: Be sure to stressthe importance of customer service – and satisfaction – to your team. Reward your team for responding to your customers needs in a timely manner by implementing a standard tracking mechanism (i.e. under 1 hour from when an initial email came in)

  2. Poor prospecting

    Sales people with a bad habit of prospecting either don’t understand who their ideal customers are or are not willing to spend the time to properly qualifyprospects. In either event, they end up wasting way too much timetrying to convert poor prospects.

    Solution:Find out who they're calling on and talking to. Make sure they clearly understand who buys from you. In necessary, give the sales person additional training to increase their confidence.

  3. Not understanding customer needs

    Many sales reps jump right into selling without completelyunderstanding a client’s needs. How well would this go over if a doctor prescribed surgery for you without doing any tests or asking questions? Not well, right?

    Solution:Record telephone sales calls or go with your sales person, (DO NOT rescue them). Based on what you learn, train your sales person to become a better listener and structure sales call scripts tobetter touch on prospect needs.

  4. Dislike of cold calling

    Cold calling is one of the least liked sales techniques but itdoesn'tmean it can’t be very effective, and in fact is usually very effective. Many reps, once they have worked ona territory for a while, discard cold calling and instead begin to relyon existing customers for referrals, which can seriouslylower new sales.

    Solution: Make it a behavioral requirement to cold call and developmore new business as part of the base pay.

  5. Not following through on commitments to clients

    Sales reps often make commitments to clients and then forget tofollow through once the sale has been made. This can severely diminish valuable trust the client had in your company.

    Solution: Train reps towrite down any commitments made and be sure to follow through.Also, make sure reps consider who and what might need to beinvolved before making a commitment.

  6. Managing time poorly

    Many reps find themselves getting sidetracked from sales byadministrative tasks such as completing paperwork, researching,organizing their desk or office, handling personal activities, etc.

    Solution:Again, make sure you have behavioral requirements as party of their base pay to consistently push your reps to minimize non-sales activitiesand focus as much of their time and energy on sales as possible.

  7. Handling rejection poorly

    Sales is full of rejection – sales reps have to be able to handle itpositively. Concentrating on past failures can lead to burn out and alack of enthusiasm for the job.

    Solution:The real key to success is being able to forget failures and remembersuccesses. However, that is easier said than done, right? The smart manager always rewards behavior, because the more behavior, the more new closed business. If it is beat into a sales person's head that your organization respects behavior most, they'll be okay with "no's".

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Home > Sales > Scott Smeester > 7 Bad Habits That Prevent Sales Lower Your Bottom Line >
Article Tags: routine, sales bad habits, sales poor performance, weaknesses

About the Author: Scott Smeester
RSS for Scott's articles - Visit Scott's website

Passionate About Sales Systems

Upon graduating from engineering school in 1992, I worked for several years in sales for a variety of different types of products and services. In 1997 I started a web development company that ultimately failed following the collapse of the ‘Internet bubble'. I attribute the failure of that company to a lack of reliable sales systems - inbound leads, closed deals, etc. - and that experience instilled in me the drive to leverage the structured thought process from my education with my sales and entrepreneurial experiences for creating and implementing sales systems - for myself, my companies and the clients I serve.
Objective

I help the leaders of small and startup companies...

* Accurately discern all the problems that are limiting the expected growth for the organization
* Create effective and unbiased strategies that work hand in hand with the values and goals of the organization
* Implement sustainable business systems into the overall growth strategy



Click here to visit Scott's website Dashed Line

More from Scott Smeester
3 Tips to Empower Your Negotiations
Mistakes Most CEOs and Managers Make When Hiring Salespeople
7 Bad Habits That Prevent Sales Lower Your Bottom Line
The Difference Between A Good And Great Sales Person
Hire Salespeople Now to Gain Maximum Momentum


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Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Sept 10, 2010 Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Sept 10, 2010 - Glad you liked it David! I only managed to get partway through the list today because my one year old was looking for some playtime but I did read the Zen Habits one - I love reading Zen Habits while relaxing at a coffee shop!
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Another Moderator Tip Another Moderator Tip - Note to mods... Anytime you edit someones post to take out a promotional link, it is a very good idea to also check the little box next to "Lock post [Prevent editing]" so they can't just go back in later and re-add their link.
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: Today's Hottest Franchise? Re: Today's Hottest Franchise? - I try to keep up on some of the hot franchises, I have noticed an increase in interest in the service industries. Lower cost, lower overhead etc... I think this is because most folks have less to invest or less they are willing to risk. John Henning Franchise Consultant


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