Where sales people go wrong

The most common mistakes, by general consensus by a number of leading experts in the field, made by sales people include:

• Wasting time
  
• Suffering from little or no discipline
  
• Not following up or practicing bad follow-up techniques
  
• Relying on bad or defunct systems
  
• Placing too much emphasis on the role of a leader

Ongoing list of complaints

The age-old argument in any sales review meeting always hinges around an ongoing list of complaints. Our systems are outdated, our database is inaccurate, our manager didn't brief us properly and so on. The mistakes made by the individuals are, however, the same and most people don't even realise they are making them.

The technology age has in a large part made our lives easier, but has also bred a fair amount of complacency in people. Sending an email is not qualifying a lead, but can rather be seen as a time waster; unless you have made the call and qualified the lead before the email, then the email itself serves no purpose, other than a possible irritant on the behalf of the potential client.

An international study compiled in the US a few years ago revealed that as many as 72% of all leads purchased from lead generation agencies are never called or followed up. Take 1% of your bottom line and flush it down the toilet, then take 72% of your revenue targets and do the same. This lack of discipline and inability to practice follow-ups is one of the biggest mistakes sales people make, with procrastination and laziness the root causes of this.

Spoon-fed

Personally, when I hear the groan from sales about the lack of systems they have in place, I can't help but get irritated. A professional sales person is able to sell without being spoon-fed along every step of the process.

Yes, if your database is a rotten egg, you would be better off tossing it and creating your own, and if you do need a proper system to assist you, then go to your management with a business case on how it could help you, provide an example of where it has helped you and justify why it is critical to your process.

The bottom line is that management is not unreasonable, but hiding behind the veil of systems and databases - and the failing of these - is just highlighting your unwillingness to be proactive and showing flaws in your own approach to selling.

Don't forget the basics

Don't forget the basics! Too many sales people allow themselves to get embroiled in the hype of a potential sale and forget to follow the basics. There are a number of communication tools at our disposal these days, so use them - send an email; make a phone call; invite people to a function, a webcast, a product demo or site tour, and then send the information you promised.

Sales is a simple three-step process; it is not a statistical formula that is designed to boggle. It is simply generating leads, managing the leads you have generated and following up these leads. For the most part, you don't need a sales system if you can embrace these three steps.

And remember, management is not there to spoon-feed you, and at the same time it is not unreasonable. So ask for what you need, even if that means purchasing qualified leads and freeing up your time to make more calls and then doing so. Your organisation is not going to set you up to fail; it needs you to sell or it simply wouldn't exist.