5 Fatal Sales Traps That Stop You Dead & How To Avoid Them

Have you ever dug a big, deep hole and then been stupid enough to fall into it?
Countless people unwittingly dig fatal sales traps for themselves that kill off any chance of a sale being made.  Five of the most common traps that you must avoid if you want to sell more of your products and services are:

1)      Thinking about the sale too much

When you are in the selling process you must stop thinking about the sale.  My  book ‘Bare Knuckle Selling’ does stress how important it is to set solid objectives for every sales call.  However, once you have done this, put your objective out of your mind and concentrate on the customer and what they want.  Get the dollar signs out of your eyes, forget your objective and focus on the most important person – the customer. Help them to get what they need and the sale will take care of itself.

2)      Failing to probe

If you truly want to help the customer then you must probe their needs thoroughly. Failing to ask enough questions and failing to clarify customer’s requirements leads to sales proposals that are off target.  If your proposal doesn’t meet the customer’s specific needs, your chances of success are slim.

3)      Negotiating before selling

Selling is convincing someone to purchase your product or service. Negotiation is agreeing on what terms the purchase will take place.  If you start negotiating before you have followed the correct selling process then you are, quite literally, selling yourself short.  If the customer does not fully appreciate how much you can help them then they are unlikely to be prepared to pay what you ask.  Sell first, negotiate second.  If you sell well then you may not need to negotiate at all.

4)      Price dropping

Many customers, particularly trained buyers, will always tell you that your price is “too expensive”. Many salespeople immediately drop their price (and cut their profits) in an attempt to close the sale.  This only encourages the customer to ask for further price cuts.  One of the many counters to “It’s too expensive” is, “you are absolutely right, it’s not cheap.  Would you like to know why?” And then re-commence selling the benefits of your product or service to justify your price.

5)      Failing to follow up

A sale isn’t a sale until the money is in the bank.  Failure to do what you say you are going to do will lose you more sales than anything else.  Always do what you promised to do, make sure the customer gets what they want, and make sure they pay you for it. The selling process is far from over when the customer says ‘Yes’. Follow through and make sure you don’t lose the sale through poor customer service.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

3 Surefire Ways to Get Your Customers To Say Yes!

Master salespeople are adept at utilising powerful psychological strategies to influence people. Here are three from my personal top ten:

1)      People will buy from people they like

Extensive psychological research demonstrates the importance of ‘liking’ in persuading people.  Master salesman Joe Girrard (In the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s “greatest car salesman”) credits liking as one of the most important factors in closing sales.  The fastest and most effective way to encourage people to like you is to use the rapport building strategies of "postural echoing" or matching and mirroring body language and other observable behaviour.  People like people who are like them.  Matching the behaviour of your customers will enable you to establish deep levels of liking.

2)      People will buy if other people are buying

The impact of other people’s behaviour on our own is powerful.  We will view a specific behaviour as correct to the degree that we see other people doing it. It is possible to encourage someone to take a specific action by demonstrating how other people are taking that action.  Utilise this persuasion strategy by making frequent use of testimonials from existing customers, and by using stories about how existing customers made the decisions you want your prospective customer to make.  This strategy is particularly effective when people are feeling uncertain.  When people are feeling uncertain they are more likely to use the actions of others as guidance.

3)      People will buy if the decision is consistent with previous commitments

The drive to be and look consistent is a powerful motivator of human behaviour.  Utilise this strategy by getting your prospect to commit to something early in the selling process and then use it to leverage a decision later in the sale.  Far too many salespeople have far too many customers “thinking it over”.   Early in the selling process I get a customer to commit to “taking a look at what I have to offer and then deciding ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if you want to go ahead”.  At an appropriate time in the sale I remind them of their earlier commitment and ask them for a decision.  This bold approach results in far more closed sales.  It filters out timewasters, which maximises my selling time with people who are actually going to spend money. This approach is not for wimps. If you feel more comfortable wasting your time re-contacting all of the people who are allegedly “thinking it over”, then please don’t use it!

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

Why Salespeople Don’t Make Good Negotiators

Do you think that sales people are as effective at negotiating as the procurement professionals they are facing across the buying table?  I’ve got some bad news for you.

In the course of my work as a speaker, consultant and corporate trainer in the areas of sales and negotiation I have spent increasing amounts of time working the “other side” of the buying table.  Over the last few years I have trained both sales professionals and procurement professionals in approximately equal numbers to negotiate. 

And I have come to a disturbing conclusion - in the majority of cases salespeople just aren’t as good at negotiating as they need to be.  As this concerning reality became increasingly apparent I spent much time and thought working out why this is the case and what can be done about it. My conclusions are as follows:

At an early stage in their career sales people are usually told to “keep the customer happy”.  They have been taught that happy customers are good customers and will go out of their way to placate unhappy customers.   Professional buyers know this and will deliberately make salespeople uncomfortable by appearing to be “unhappy” as a way of tipping the power balance in their favour. 

In addition selling and negotiating are two distinct skill sets.  Although selling and negotiating are inextricably linked there are distinct differences:

In selling we are attempting to persuade, convince, enthuse, justify and explain.  By contrast in negotiation we are stating our position, considering, making and weighing proposals and making demands for what we want.

In the majority of cases sales people are far less comfortable with negotiating than buyers are.   If salespeople receive sales training the majority of the time will be spent on the process of selling and very much less time (if any at all) will be spent on the process of negotiating.  Buyers on the other hand will usually only receive training in negotiation.  Therefore when it comes to the negotiation stage of the sales process - buyers have the advantage. 

Buyers will attempt to short cut the sales stage and pull the salesperson out of their selling comfort zone and into their negotiating discomfort zone.  The experienced buyer will increase the levels of discomfort as much as possible using psychological ploys and tactics.  The uncomfortable salesperson will often pay their way out of discomfort in the form of (at best) some form of financial concession or (at worst) a non-reciprocated “give away”.  They will literally pay their way out of discomfort with their employer’s profit margin.  For salespeople to become more effective negotiators they need to recognise this and get more comfortable with being uncomfortable!

Having spent countless hours running realistic and demanding negotiation simulations, I have often seen the salesperson’s selling comfort zone once again rearing its ugly head in terms of negotiation behaviour.  Salespeople will tend to do far too much information giving in the negotiation– driven by their predilection for persuading and selling.  In doing so, they miss out on gathering the necessary information that would enable them to make effective negotiation proposals.  They spend far too much time thinking about things from their perspective and not enough time where their focus should be – getting inside the buyer’s head, understanding things from the buyer’s perspective.  Professional buyers will tend to exhibit higher levels of information gathering, giving them far more knowledge and information that they can the use to their advantage.  In negotiation knowledge is power.

To successfully negotiate you need to understand – really understand – what the other person wants to achieve.  When you fully understand this you can create a deal that meets the needs of both sides.  If you fail to gather enough information (as sales people frequently do) your chances of securing a profitable deal is very limited.  Salespeople need to move their own agenda and objectives from the front of their mind to the back of their mind.  The buyer’s needs and priorities need to be in the front of the sales person’s mind – and they usually are not.

If this situation continues sales professionals are going to continue to be taken advantage of by the procurement professionals they encounter.  The sales profession must put more far more emphasis than it currently does on equipping sales people to be more confident and capable negotiators.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Sellin
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www/SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

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