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Business tips///////// A learnable skill

THE FIVE BIG SALES MISTAKES

In this issue, Mike Yates takes a look at the

most common mistakes made when trying to

make a sale. Dispensers need to remember to

listen to the customer, ask the right questions

and offer value, not a cheaper price.

You may have heard of the expression ‘Sales

is a con tact s p o rt-n o contact, no s p o rt’.

But what happens when people are making

contact and having meetings with prospective

clients and it just isn’t coming together i.e. the prospect

walks out of the door w ithout buying o r-w orse s till-

neverto be seen again.

Sales is a learnable sk ill—it’s just know ing what we

should be doing and, more importantly, being acutely

aware of what we shouldn’t be doing.

Many people can unwittingly dig a big hole forthemselves

that can kill off any chance of a sale being made.

Here are five of the most common mistakes to avoid

to increase your sales success and sell more of your

products and services:

1 ) Are you thinking about the sale too much?

When you are in the selling process (sitting with a client

or on the phone in a meeting), although it’s good to have

the end in mind, it doesn’t mean we continuously think

about the sale. The whole focus needs to be on the

customer and what they want. I call this the ‘cat looking

into the goldfish bowl effect’ (the client will pick it up). If

you focus on the customer and help them see you can

solve their problems then the sale will take care of itself.

2) Asking great questions

It’s the classic scenario-you go and see your GP and

they write you out a prescription w ithout asking you

anything. You’d be shocked wouldn’t you? Needless

to say it doesn’t happen as your first reaction would

AUDIO INFOS I N°88 I JUNE - JULY - AUGUST 2014

be “but I haven’t told you what’s wrong with me yet.” If

you really want to help your prospect ail the questions

you ask will give you the answers you need. Failing to

ask enough of the right questions will resuit in failing

to clarify a prospects needs. If we’ve mismatched the

needs of a prospect then this will massively reduce your

chances of success.

3) Offering solutions before asking great questions

Selling can be described as convincing a prospect to

buy your product or service. Asking great questions

is understand ing the term s the purchase w ill take

place. If you start offering solutions before you have

asked the necessary questions then it’s likely you are

selling yourself short. If the prospect doesn’t clearly

understand how you are going to help them then they

are unlikely to be prepared to pay what you ask. They

simply won’t see the value.

JPC

-PR

OD

-

Fo

toli

a.c

om

BUSINESS TIPS

i i Always make sure

you do whaî you promised

you'd do-when you

promised to do it! ^

4) Reducing the price ??

One of the most common reasons prospects will give

for not going ahead immediately will be that the price

is “too expensive” . Many poor salespeople immediately

eut the price (almost as a panic reaction) in an attempt

to close the sale. Howeverthis is a very poor strategy as

once the prospect has seen you do it once they’ll either

ask you again on the same sa le-or they’ll expect this as

the ‘norm ’ for any future purchases they make from you.

A strategy around this is to either offer them a cheaper

option (where you take something out)-to which they

are likely to ask you to put it back in. Or take a back step

and re-build the value in line with the price.

5) Are you following up?

This is probably the single biggest reason that people

don’t get a sale. They simply don’t follow it up. You may

have heard the statistic that “most people will buy after

the 5th to 7th contact-m ost poor salespeople give up

after the 2nd contact !”

A sale isn’t a sale until the order is signed and agreed.

This one thing alone will cost more in lost sales than

anything else. Always make sure you do what you

promised you’d do-w hen you promised to do it!

Mike Ÿates

S U B S C R I P T I O N F O R M

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Mike Yates, Business

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Speaker and Author,