As markets tighten I thought we could reflect on some lessons learnt in the past by highly experienced, successful sales people. The following lessons are from some of the participants of my ‘Sell like a woman’ research project and make for interesting reading in ‘what not to do’ in sales. Here is the 3rd part of a 3 part series on common sales mistakes.

1. Thinking small

My worst mistake early in sales was to think small about what we can achieve. If I had realised three years ago what sales we could achieve, we would have grown much faster. Realising that we are always barely scratching the surface of what is possible means we stay hungry for achieving the next level of success. [Sharon]

2. Taking on too much

Getting overtired and taking situations personally. This has been a constant battle to keep ego out of both my successes and failures. [Debbie]

My worst mistakes would be trying to take on too much – this compromises my energy and focus and little mistakes would happen like forgetting an appointment, etc. [Deanne]

Taking on too much work, not being able to say ‘no’, and building a business around me. [Kelly]

3. Lacking confidence

Over promising in the early days. Not being 100% sure of the product or company service limitations and this affected my credibility. When I was still “bluffing” it while learning the ropes, one of the Managers pointed out that I did not seem authentic. I thought I was portraying confidence. I learnt better to be humble and to be open about not knowing certain aspects of what you are selling. [Stephanie]

Not calling high enough. There is always that feeling that at a certain level someone will not want to talk to you. That’s usually incorrect, and always needs to be tested. [Kate]

“Lack of belief- in yourself, the product or company. If you don’t believe, why should your client?” Trudy

4. Not prospecting

Expecting my network to build without actively networking! Stupid huh! [Melissa]

Thinking our brand and advertising would sell us in and people would call us everyday. I just sat there for the 1st 4 months of my sales job wondering what I was supposed to do. No one was calling. It was a rude awaking to being in sales. [Lisa]

5. Complacency

Not converting a sale when I had the chance. After a great meeting, there were times when I became slightly complacent and left getting a signed contract until the deadline, rather than following up fairly quickly for a decision. It certainly adds a greater level of stress when it’s all done at the last minute! Now I diarise follow-up immediately. [Kirsten]

Happy selling

As markets tighten I thought we could reflect on some lessons learnt in the past by highly experienced, successful sales people. The following lessons are from some of the participants of my ‘Sell like a woman’ research project and make for interesting reading in ‘what not to do’ in sales. Here is the 2nd part of a 3 part series on common sales mistakes.

1. Not listening

Going in too fast! Jumping ahead before clarifying the whole picture. I had to learn more about people. Recognising that not everyone moves and thinks as fast as I do at times. [Tia]

I have not listened to people enough or rushed through. [Danielle]

Missing vital information, because I was so excited about our new offering I talked too much and completely missed the mark with the client, whose needs were entirely in another area. [Fay]

2. Making Assumptions relying on someone without checking

Assumption! I have been caught out assuming certain things about customers that were completely incorrect and had almost lost me a sale. Customers perception is also very different to my own – never try to guess what they are thinking!! [KarenC]

Believing I had a sale before it was closed. Initially, I believed what I was told. Learned early on that you don’t have a sale until the contract is signed, money is exchanged or order is given. [Debra]

3. No sales process

Not knowing that there is a logical process to selling. Spending too many years ‘flying by the seat of my pants’ feeling my way through selling and losing sales in the process. If only I, and others like me, had known that there is a process to learn and follow, we could have made so many more sales in those early years. Lucky I learned about it before it was too late. [Lucy]

Believing the hype about ‘tricks and secrets’ to selling when all it is a proactive communication process. I would have not wasted so much time and money on self-help books trying to prop me up emotionally and so much energy on stress and uncertainty. [Mia]

I entered the sales world quite young and I recall being completely thrown when a customer would give me an objection. 1:1 sales coaching helped me overcome this and changed my perception that objections were not a negative and in fact were buying signals! [MelissaS]

4. Lack of planning

Not having the right systems and databases to make communication with our clients an easy process. In the early years of the business, we grew so fast that our systems didn’t keep up! It meant that I was doubling up on paperwork when communicating with our clients, which was such a waste of my valuable time! Not using technology to generate reports and keep detailed notes. [Kirsten]

Not having a plan in place. I made calls for the sake of making calls and spent most of my early sales career running around like a chook with its head cut off calling on the wrong kind of people because I didn’t know what a good customer looked like. [Sue]

5. Too focused on self and not the customer

Focusing on the outcome for myself not the client. Early on in my career, I was brash and aggressive and wanted the sale now, sometimes at the expense of the longer term relationship. My clients now are some of my best referral sources as they know I am about their needs before my own. [Nicky]

The worst mistake I made as a sales person was when I became focused on ME and what I wanted rather than focusing on others and what they wanted and how I could help them. I found I would be consumed with my goals and what I wanted to achieve, that I would ignore how this affected my relationships with my customers and ultimately my sales and sales career. [Sally]

Happy selling.

As markets tighten I thought we could reflect on some lessons learnt in the past by highly experienced, successful sales people. The following lessons are from some of the participants of my ‘Sell like a woman’ research project and make for interesting reading in ‘what not to do’ in sales. Here is the 1st part of a 3 part series on common sales mistakes.

1. Arrogance and hubris

Sometimes when you are on a roll with a product or brand (or even with your own success as a sales person), it’s way too easy to lose sight of the client’s real needs. You can easily get caught up in your own mythology. Especially when first starting out as a young rep I made some disastrous blunders – stopped treating clients as individuals, broke a few core promises because “our brand is so successful now that clients have to understand that we need to do this to keep growing” – and I look back now with shame. The big changes I made was to go back to basics, remember that I am only as good as last month’s results and be very, very grateful to both my Company AND my client base for paying my wages. [Trudy]

2. Putting all your eggs in one basket

Probably the biggest mistake I made, was to win a contract, and spend the next year developing and growing it, and then over next 2.5 years perfecting it. This then made this customer dominate our business. It consumed quite a lot of focus and resource. Since then, I have ensured that I balance new sales with additional business. I have to keep myself in check, as I tend to give away far too much of myself, in terms of time and company investment, with no guarantee of return. It’s a new process of self discipline, matching output to need without sacrificing value add. Helen

Restricting your contact to one or two in the organisation- the broader the contact, the better understanding you will have of their business. [Libby]

3. Under-rating your competitors (or believing your own sales story)

Believing everything you read publically about your competitors and what customer tells you. They do not always match up to what is real and actually happens in the market place. [Stacy]

Selling a service that was not backed up by excellent customer service as I believed it would be. I had to tell the customer that I would do everything to change the internal culture of the organisation but I couldn’t. I learned that I need to influence much more than the sales function and since then I have chosen companies that I work for and positions within those companies more wisely. [Hilary]

Bagging the competitors. Oh my did I have to eat humble pie when I did this early in my career. One of my biggest customers was related to one of my competitors and I nearly lost the whole deal because I shot off my mouth about that competitor company and the person concerned being dodgy. I had no real evidence they were dodgy at all. I just was going on hearsay from the gossip in the field. BIG BIG mistake. [Sally]

4. Not understanding your customer’s real needs (business and personal)

Not having a broad enough product knowledge and trying to fit my square product into the client round hole. Not understanding the business problem – e.g. when selling training services and the HR person says they need a certain skill and I didn’t know what the business context was. As a result the service I delivered was a waste of time and money. I learned to trust my gut instinct, if I didn’t understand why the client wanted to buy I wouldn’t sell anything until I did understand. [Jill]

5. Selling the client the ‘Rolls Royce’ solution they can’t afford

The client insisted they required the ‘big’ solution, then I discovered the competitor’s ‘Holden’ was all they could have afforded. Always a trap for young players, especially with government customers. It is always depressing to be told by a client that you were the one they wanted but… [Kate]

Not asking the money questions or doing credit checks to see if your clients can afford it. Then wasting so much time on ‘no sales’ when I could have asked more specific questions to determine the real situation. [Sue]

As mentioned before, Sales and Service roles are not for the faint hearted and can often take their toll on your good nature, your energy and your ability to deal effectively with frustrating issues, especially when you put in the effort to do the ‘right thing’ by your customers and it is not appreciated, acknowledged or actioned.

At the end of a long day or week dealing with lots of people, pulling together various deals, solving problems and keeping your energy levels up and being on your best behaviour, you could be forgiven for being a bit ‘short’ if things don’t go according to plan and something falls short of your expectations.

To manage our frustrations, sales and service people can resort to all sorts of remedies:

• Some go and have a quiet drink after work (hopefully not too many)
• Others talk to their colleagues or friends about it (watch out though for electronic conversations i.e. Virgin Atlantic staff who were sacked recently for this very thing)
• Some get some physical exercise to burn off the stress
• Others further develop their communication skills and behaviours to help them deal with challenging customer situations
• While others simply let is run off them like water off a duck’s back (reciting OM).

However taking out your frustrations directly on a prospective customer is a big NO NO. No matter how irritating they may be.

I understand that not all customers are ‘good’ customers, in that the ‘not so good customers’ can cost your business too much to service, or abuse the privilege of your offering, or just don’t fit what you do. Letting these customers down gently but firmly and ensuring they can be referred to something more appropriate for their needs would be the ideal outcome.

However ‘letting fly’ at someone regardless of their viability to your business is not in anyone’s best interests, especially in a networked world where news can travel fast and you never know who your customers or prospects know.

Recently I wrote about my inconsistent service experience in “Be consistent and keep your customers happy” talking about this very issue. And more recently I received an email from a young, smart, sassy, educated friend of mine (read gen Y) who sent me a string of emails about her customer experience at the hands of frustrated service provider. NB: I have kept it anonymous. Needless to say the emails speak for themselves.

Initial Email (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote for your blog
Hi Sue,
From the top down is how the emails went regarding Monica’s and my experience with a travel agent who was helping us plan our 2009 holiday- it is all very self explanatory. Lastly, I have included my email that was sent back to her. FYI I never met the Travel Agent , but Monica told me that she was laughing at how unorganised we were, rolling her eyes, and making comments such as “about time” when we agreed to something over the phone.

Hope it’s useful reading!!
Steph

Email 1 (Thursday 23 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Hi Steph,

Here is the quote from XXX (Travel agent). Have made an appointment with her Saturday 25 Oct at 12 so see you about 11:45. Go through it, try to get a chance to look at hotels so you know what standard we are staying in.

See you Saturday

Love Monica.

Email 2 (Thursday 23 Oct 2008); Subject: Cancel Saturday appointment

Hi XXX (travel agent)
My name is Stephanie. Monica and I had an appointment with you on Saturday 25th October at 12pm regarding our trip to Bali in May 2009.

Thank you for your quote and assistance so far but as we are a bit unorganised, we have decided to change a few things around and would like to be sure of what we want before bothering you so please cancel our appointment for Saturday and take the hold off the discussed flights.

Apologies about the inconvenience and thanks again for your assistance.

Kind regards,
Stephanie.

Email 3 (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Hi Monica,
I received an email from Stephanie saying that the both of you will be canceling your appointment on Saturday. As I have put in a lot of work into quoting you numerous placing in Bali and held off the $100 deposit until Saturday as a gesture of good faith, I am very disappointed that you would cancel this. I understand that you both have to sort out what you both want to do and where you want to stay however delaying the booking may cost you a price increase.
I hope when you both make up your minds I will be able to help you with your bookings.
Sincerely,
XXX (Travel Agent)

Email 4 (Friday 24 Oct 2008); Subject: Bali Quote
Dear XXX (travel agent),
Of course we were appreciative of your time and did realize that wanting to book a $5400 holiday would be hard work. Unfortunately your email proves it is obviously too hard.

However, may we firstly point out that you wrote ‘FIJI’ in the quote rather than Bali, which suggests you did not care about what you were preparing anyway.

Secondly, we came to you as a travel agent to pay you to research and recommend places for people to go and to prepare quotes, so apologies about the ‘disappointment’ but we never committed to anything with you at the time. You also knew that we were still making decisions and negotiating things with each other and we were planning to come back to you with final decisions within a few weeks. We were appreciative and courteous the whole time in dealing with you and did nothing to deserve your email.

Thirdly, in regards to your good nature of putting off the $100 deposit until Saturday we have it under good instruction that we have 7 days post holding to place the deposit and confirmation on this flight.

Finally, when we both make up our minds we can guarantee that we will not (nor will anyone we speak to who is planning a holiday) be bothering you or XXX Travel Agent Business again with our bookings and perhaps you should reconsider sending out an email such as this to potential customers in the future.

Regards,
Stephanie and Monica.

In dealing with frustrations, especially trying to keep sales coming in, it is often more courageous to remain calm and collected and try again. Here is a little saying I find most helpful in these and other frustrating situations.

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
—Mary Anne Radmacher

Take deep breaths and I wish you happy and prosperous selling