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The Top 10 Reasons Why Salespeople BLOW Sales!

Guest post by: Gerry Layo

Article Overview: This month, I find myself taking inventory of some of the things that I have learned throughout the year in my various projects and engagements with sales teams and business leaders. As many of you know, I do a lot of training on "Top 10" lists in my teleseminars and live events. In these, I often identify and explain the Top 10 things that Top Sales Professionals do in specific areas to constantly and consistently win business. In my observations over the past year I have seen many reasons why salespeople (and thus the companies for which they work) have lost a sale. I have also interviewed many companies after my clients presented to discover why we lost. In this article, I thought I would share the Top 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Blow It!

The Top 10 Reasons Why Salespeople BLOW Sales!

This month, I find myself taking inventory of some of the things that I have learned throughout the year in my various projects and engagements with sales teams and business leaders. As many of you know, I do a lot of training on "Top 10" lists in my teleseminars and live events. In these, I often identify and explain the Top 10 things that Top Sales Professionals do in specific areas to constantly and consistently win business. In my observations over the past year I have seen many reasons why salespeople (and thus the companies for which they work) have lost a sale. I have also interviewed many companies after my clients presented to discover why we lost. In this article, I thought I would share the Top 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Blow It!

1. They are focused on what they sell rather than what the customer needs.

The typical salesperson comes into almost every sales interaction with the same intent: To tell the prospect as much as they can about the product or service that they offer and then get them to buy it. It's no wonder that customers hide behind voicemail and screen us out! Who wants to beput through that? Sales professionals need to understand that customers are only talking to you because they have a need that they wish to have met. Instead of throwing up on the customer, the salesperson needs to find out what those needs are as well as how the customer wants them to be met. How can this be done? SHUT UP AND SELL! Ask questions and listen!

2. They have very little, if any, pre-call planning.

We wouldn't expect our attorneys to go into court on the day of the trial and winging it, would we? We don't expect our doctors to go into the operating room without a plan. We assume that the sports teams that we watch have a game plan that they execute for every opponent, don't we? If we wouldn't expect any of these professionals to "fly by the seat of their pants" when it comes time to earn their pay, why in the world do we allow our salespeople to do it?

The most valuable asset that our customers have today is their time. And salespeople are getting less of it, especially ones who are coming into the interaction unprepared and without a clear strategy and plan to execute it! In what areas can your people be more prepared? Here's a major one: What is the purpose of the call? Without a clear purpose for the sales call, the salesperson will invariably waste their time and the time of their prospect, customer or client.

3. They act and sound just like everyone else.

I got a chance to sit through a day of sales presentations this year for a software development client of mine. They were reviewing a few components that they were seeking to add to some of their products and had invited several companies to present their offerings on the same day-one after the other. What an eye opening experience! One after another, the salespeople and their engineers filed in and gave their presentations. One after another they set up their PowerPoint presentations and began the show and tell sessions. A bit of introductory mambo jumbo was typically followed up by a "Thank you for your time today and the opportunity to show you why we.......blah, blah, blah, blah.

No matter what company they represented, their sales processes typically followed the same dance steps. The salesperson spent the opening portion speaking about their company, it's history, it's customers, it's special qualifications, etc. Next, they started extolling the many features and virtues of their product or program. Not one of them asked the customer (my client) what it was that was most important to them. Not one of them asked what it was that my customer wanted as far as a result of ownership. I found myself "glazing over" when they spoke because I felt, as did my client (their prospect), a profound sense of non-involvement in the process. I felt as if I was watching a bad re-run over and over!

4. They do not LISTEN to the customer.

The customer has all of the answers as to why they want to buy. One major problem, however, is that most people (prospects and customers included) do not volunteer information all of the time. Therefore, it isnecessarythatour salespeople ask solid questions to pull information (answers that we seek) from our prospects and customers. Throughout this give and take process, I have witnessed salespeople merely going through the motions of listening. They sit still, nod and look introspective as the customer speaks. When the customer finishes, they proceed to ask another question and too often it is not necessarily a question that is connected to the previous one. They donot ask a follow up question "to go deeper" and to show the client that they were heard.

Many sales are created, many accounts are opened and many careers are built upon one small piece of information that may come up at one precise moment in all of the various conversations and sales interactions between a salesperson and the prospective buyer. We need to be highly receptive at all times in order to key in on the information that may be the "tipping point" for our hard work.

5. They try to sell to someone who cannot buy!

Qualification of the prospect is one of the top priorities of sales professionals. Too often, salespeople get through many stages of the sales cycle with one or two members of the company. By making this progress, they feel that they are moving the deal forward only to discover that the person or persons that they have been dealing with all along are not the decision makers and have very little, if any, true influence on the decision. All of their correspondence, all of their time, all of their efforts and their proposal has been geared toward the wrong people.

It is absolutely imperative that we qualify early and often in our sales cycle and listen for clues along the way. In addition, asking about the buying decision throughout the process will help you gain clarity on not only who is involved, but also who makes the final "stroke of the pen."

6. They bring NOTHING of value to the table.

Salespeople today need to understand that simply being there to take the order is no longer enough. Anybody can do that! A true sales professional in today's marketplace needs to become a valuable asset to the customer by adding value at every opportunity. A salesperson needs to be "in the know." They need to offer guidance, wisdom and ideas to the customer. They need to know the customer's marketplace as well or better than the customerdoes.

Whether it is through suggesting the occasional article, referring a piece of business, assisting in the training of the customer's employees, or simply grinding out a late night next to the customer, the sales professional must understand that the value that they add must create the perception of difference in the mind of the customer. It needs to be a big enough difference so that a premium will be paid and the loyalty of a relationship will result. It is the difference between being a vendor and being a value-add advisor. It is the difference between being a choice or being the choice!

7. They are unaware of who (or what) they are up against.

The competition for a prospect or customer's time, attention, and money is greater now than it has ever been. Not only are we up against competing companies and vendors in the marketplace, we are also up against things like internal competition, the current vendor, internal pressure to fund something else (another project), and indifference (no action). When we are up against others, we need to be aware of who they are, how they sell, what they say, what they offer, and what it costs. We need to do SWOT analyses (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of the products and services offered by our competition so that we can professionally create and discuss our differentiators. When faced with internal competition, we must understand what it is and do our best to navigate the political and economic environment with our customer to best help them understand the value of choosing our offering.

Getting blindsided by any competition is a direct result of lack of preparation (you need to know what you're going to run into) and a failure to listen to the things both said and un-said by our prospects and customers.

8. They lead with price and cry when price resistance comes up.

This is a big one. I have hundreds of salespeople every year complain about customers getting more price sensitive and cheap. They say that every time, without fail, their customers try to beat them up on price. After many ride-alongs with salespeople this year, I have discovered that it is the salesperson, more often than not, that actually brings up price very early in the conversation. They say things like, "Mr. Customer, we want to make sure that we get you the very best price that we can" or "I promise that we will definitely figure out the best way to save you money on this purchase" or "We have the best price in the industry." These are the same people who get mad when the prospect or customer brings up the fact that they need a lower price! Well who do you think planted that seed??

We must be prepared for price concerns, but we cannot lead with our wallets! Again, the customer gets something out of the ownership of your product or service. Speak to that! The less you focus on the cost or the price, the less they will. The more you focus on the benefits of ownership, the more they will. And the more they focus on that, the more they will be willing to pay.

9. They don't have enough opportunity in the pipeline.

It has been said that the best sales strategy is a full pipeline of business. What does this mean? When salespeople have a lot of prospects that are in their pipeline of business, they intuitively make moves that position themselves and their companies in more of a positive, confident light. They do not waver or buckle to terms or pricing demands of customers. They have a greater tendency towards action. In contrast, a salesperson that has very little in his or her pipeline tends to come across as desperate. We watch these salespeople bow to the pressure and buckle to the demands of prospective customers. Instead of working from a position of strength, these salespeople work from weakness and hope!

10. They are simply not the right person for the job!

The profession of selling is for sales professionals. Sales pros have certain characteristics and traits that are necessary for sustained sales success. Too often we have people in the position of salesperson by default! Not only do they not possess the things needed for the Smart Selling approach (empathy, listening ability, curiosity, persistence, tenacity, assertiveness, self-belief, a bias for growth, etc.), but they also have very little, if any, training.

The position of sales professional for any company must be one that is filled with great attention to detail. Too often we find companies hiring QUICKLY to fill a spot on their sales team roster. On top of that, the subsequent training that goes into that new hire is typically centered on product training and not enough around the customer and/or the sales process. The result: Too many BLOWN sales or lost opportunities.

Take a look at the performance of your sales team over the past year. How many of your salespeople are going to reach their goal this year? How many of them are heading out into this competitive market half-cocked? How many are "winging it" every day in hopes of divine intervention? How much value do they add? How well do they differentiate themselves and thus, your company, from the competition? How often do they run up against the "wall" of price resistance?

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  Everyone has a plan. Some plans are better than others because they contain all or most of the necessary steps and sequence them in an appropriate order. Most plans have gaps where steps should be and the sequence doesn't lend itself to success. One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND

Article Tags: competition, differentiate, listen, precall planning, price, salespeople, top 10 lists, value



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