Mindsets That Sabotage Sales Success

Five mindsets that sabotage your sales success!

Tim Connor

If you have been selling for more than a few months I’m sure you have made a few mistakes and lost business as a result.  I could go on for pages about all of the common sales mistakes that are made every day by well meaning salespeople, I even wrote a book about it called “91 Common Sales Mistakes”.  In general most of these common mistakes fall into five categories or what I will refer to as sales mindsets.  So, what are the five and how can you eliminate them from your behavior, approach or sales attitudes?

1)     Allowing outside influences to impact your thinking.

2)     Giving sales focused rather than customer focused messages.

3)     Giving more information than you get.

4)     Defending price rather than focusing on customer value.

5)     Getting set-up with a variety of prospect/client strategies.

Allowing outside influences to impact your thinking.

It’s been proven again and again in a number of research projects that how the mind works it is either your greatest ally or your biggest enemy.  When you expose yourself continuously to negative outside sources whether the media, nay-sayers in your industry, government B.S. or just your next door neighbor, you are setting yourself up for disaster sooner or later.  Consistent  exposure to negative influences will contribute in a significant way to your goals, actions, behaviors and overall approaches.

If you believe that the number one issue confronting prospects today is uncertainty and whether they should buy from you now, this mindset will impact how you deal with this attitude long before you are in the presence of your next prospect.  Over time these relentless negative messages will take their toll on your sales success.

The answer – Turn these negative influences off.  Surround yourself with only positive and optimistic people.  Turn off the news media.  Start listening to positive messages whether on CD’s U Tube or wherever you can find them.  Start reading positive stuff every day.  Create some positive affirmations and Psychological anchors that keep your thinking on the right path every minute and yes all day every day.     

Giving sales focused rather than customer focused messages.

People buy what they think or believe they want or need.  They sell themselves.  You don’t sell them. They seldom buy because of the so-called features and benefits that salespeople have been spouting off about for years.  There is a significant difference between a customer driven and a product/organization or sales driven process.  The sales driven process focuses on what you believe are the important characteristics or traits of your product or service.  These are nothing more than a random set of reasons why you think someone will or should buy from you.  A customer driven approach is simply letting the customer determine what you cover in your sales message or presentation as a result of careful and thorough investigation through probing and appropriate questions before you launch into your sales message.  One of the biggest mistakes most salespeople make is they “talk too much” and they give information before they get it.

The answer -  Develop a long list of carefully thought-out and planned questions on every aspect impacting the prospect regarding the product/service you are selling.  This list should be well over 50 – 100 questions in a variety of categories such as previous experience, goals, needs or concerns, financial issues, decision process, timing, etc.  I’m not suggesting you ask all of them at the beginning of your presentation, but you better ask the most important ones before you launch into your sales diatribe of a message if you want to avoid another –  no sale – outcome.

Giving more information than you get.

As I said above, one of the biggest mistakes salespeople make is giving information before they get it.  Why is this a problem, why can’t we just launch into our sales message listing al of the features and benefits of our product or service?  For starters, everyone who buys a product or service will make that purchase based on their own agendas or perceptions.  Ten prospects can all but the same product for ten different reasons.  Here’s the key – if you don’t know what a prospect’s buying motives are before you start your sales message you will give unnecessary, wrong or inappropriate information that can or often will doom the outcome and not because they don’t want to buy, but because your sales appeal was not focused on the correct aspects of your sales offer from their unique perspective.

The answer – As I said above, the first step is to develop a pertinent list of probing questions.  The next step is to decide what the order of these questions should be and which ones you must have honest answers to before you develop you customer developed presentation.  What I’m saying here is that every presentation you give should be tailored to each prospect’s needs, motives and desires.  As long as you follow a standard approach or one size fits all – you will not achieve the closing percentage you want.

Defending price rather than focusing on customer value.        

There are three elements when it comes to price and how prospect’s reacts to it.  There is price – this is what is listed on the brochure, website, car window or proposal.  Need a new tire and the price is $100?  You write a check for $100.  That’s the price.  Then there is cost.  This is what a product or services cost’s you to own it over time.  Buy a $25 tire and if you plagued with flats - well you get the point.  The cost to own it will exceed the price you paid for it.  Then there is perceived value – This is the value the prospect puts on the product.  If they are concerned about flat tires they may well be willing to pay $200 for the tire if it gives them peace of mind etc.

Poor prospects tend to focus on price.  Good prospects tend to focus on value.  This doesn’t mean that people want to pay more for their purchase than necessary, but what is a fair price giving them the value they want.

The answer – First, You have to build value before you deliver price.  If the prospect knows the price before you create value the price will always seem high, I don’t care if you are selling pencils.  Second you have to know how the prospect defines value so you can customize your message by building increased perceived value with each aspect of your product or service.  Third, you need to present price in a way that is confident and professional.  Start defending price or apologizing for price soon after it has been given and I’ll guarantee you’ll create unnecessary concern or uncertainty.  

Getting set-up with a variety of prospect/client strategies.

Send me a brochure.  I’ll put a check in the mail.  Send me a proposal.  I’ll get back to you in a few days.  I need to check with my boss.  It’s not in our budget.  Need I go on?  Every day millions of prospects and clients set up salespeople with these and dozens of other promises, statements, commitments or answers to questions.  Why do they do it?  Lot’s of reasons, but the most common one is they are not a good prospect now.  They might be in the future but today? Forget it.  Another common reason is they don’t like to close the door with a no.  Or, they just don’t want to hurt your feelings with a no and hope with time you will just fade into the background.  No one wins when the setup is used as a tactic especially salespeople who waste time, energy and emotional assets while you wait and hope.

The answer –

Some people have legitimate reasons for waiting, stalling or just putting you off for the moment.  The key is to determine whether a prospect’s agenda is real or fake.  The only way to determine this is with follow up questions when you get a delay, stall or put-off.  Send me a brochure.  “What do you plan to do with it?”  I’ll put a check in the mail today.  “Will anything get in the way of you doing that today”?  I’ll get back to you in a few days.  “Let’s set up a telephone appointment to talk.”

Let me wrap this up with a simple concept.  If you want to sell more there are only three ways to accomplish this – learn to do more right – focus on doing less wrong – and how about – doing them both!