Two things most of us hate about sales people
17 August 2009
What do customers and prospects say are the two most common mistakes made by sales people?
A long long time ago in a place far far away – someone taught me that you are always selling whether you like to consider your self a sales-person or not. Because whether you are attempting to win control back over the remote control for the TV from your eight year old, convincing an employee to raise his performance, trying to get your mechanic to fix your clutch a day earlier or for a more reasonable price... you, me and everybody are “influencing others” = we are all, at times, selling...
Now if we are going to have an impact on an “audience” it makes some sense to find out something about that audience so as I wanted to improve my own selling skills I decided to do some research on generic “customers and prospects” to help improve my own approach.
I asked a team of people to ring 600 companies in the South West of the UK and then ask two questions
- What are the main criteria that you would judge a potential new supplier, knowing you'd want to work with them for some time..?
- What traits or behaviours do you like least in sales people who visit or call you..?
In today's blog we will cover the 2nd question...
What did this research show?
The two most common “mistakes” ~ if I can call them that ~ were
a. Talking too much
b. Not asking sufficient or any questions
Be careful before you cast judgement... remember we are “all” sales people at different times in our busy daily lives whether you have that word “sales” in your job title or not. This means each and everyone of us are in danger of falling into one or more of those poor habits.
When in “influencing” mode (code for selling) there is a strong in built temptation to slip into “tell mode” ~ to develop and expound an interesting story, describing the various facts, features, advantages and benefits of our ideas and proposition. Unfortunately.... this can easily mean we
- Start with our self interest – from our point of view, so easily “disconnected” from that of our audience and...
- Keep going – talking, explaining, enthusing, highlighting, so easily “irrelevant” to your audience.
Check out any guru on influencing skills
- Covey ~ Seek to understand before seeking to be understood
- Svennberg ~ Let your listeners speak
- Caldini ~ People have an inherent desire to return favours, first them and then you.
- Fisher & Ury ~ Rather than listening attentively to the other person, parties may instead be planning their own response, or listening to their own constituency.
And the Grand-Father of them all Mr. Dale (How-To-Win-Friends & Influence People) Carnegie
- Become genuinely interested in other people.
- Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
- Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
- Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
- Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
When we listen well to another person, by that very same action we give the three massively important things which we all crave and have done ever since our birth.
- Attention
- Acceptance
- Approval
Attention
If we are listening that of course means the other person is doing the talking and whoever is doing the bulk of the talking has very high levels of mental attention, the talker has high levels of awareness of themselves and what they are saying, they are far more involved and engaged than the listener. And with all this involvement and engagement something happens at a psychological and relationship level inside the talker; the “talkers” trust in the “listener” goes up...
Acceptance
Of course while the other person is listening, they are listening to the ideas and views and opinions of the “talker” ~ the “talker” gains the feeling that they are being heard and as the “listener” is doing just that... “listening” it seems their ideas are being given respect, as there is no argument or indication of rejection, it seems to the talker that their ideas are being accepted.
Approval
A good active listener would probe and ask supplementary questions based on what the “talker” had said. This demonstrate
better than many things an appreciation of their point of view and if the talker senses that the listener can see things from the talker's self interest, sense the listener is on their side, trust grows...
Now of course ~ if you needed to influence someone else there is no value in...
- gaining the other person's trust
- seeing the other person's self-interest
- making the other person feel accept
- keeping the other person fully involved and engaged
...or is there..?
If you want to sell to another person, or influence another person ~ get them talking, explaining their interests, their point of view, their needs and problems, their preferences and decision making criteria ~ oh yes and of course their trust in you grows... Not only do you know how they are wired so you can present your ideas in alignment with their values, drives and needs – they are far more likely to trust what you say.
So when you want to sell or influence another person – get the other person talking and listen as if everything depends on it – because it does...
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Frida - Wednesday 10 February 2010 10:23
The salespersons silence - strikes silver...
"So how do you feel about placing an order?" WAIT!!!
Rarely fails. SO OFTEN see someone jump straight back in and muck their chances.
Shaun Gisbourne - Wednesday 9 September 2009 12:22
David Willox's first comment about companies listening as opposed to simply the sales people is spot on. And not only during the first contact to establish if a sales dialogue is in fact necessary but also throughout the length of the relationship. If the only time customers are called is to be chased for outstanding payments then there is something very wrong
Gary Clayton - Monday 7 September 2009 04:09
Good article. I believe both of the mistakes you present show to the prospect that the salesperson does not care about the person to whom he is making his pitch. Door to door salespeople are probably the worst. Their intent usually is to continue talking until you order something from them simply to get them out of your house. Unfortunately, many business sales people believe in the same approach.
David Willox - Tuesday 18 August 2009 21:58
Strangely I saw another blog today explaining that sales people could expect to get at least 5 "no's" before they got a sale.
My response to this is to agree that listening is critical but it is not enough for sales people to listen. Their companies need to listen too. And most of them do not!
Which is why they fail to come up with sales propositions that their sales people can sell effectively.
Few companies seem to understand that it is not enough just to focus on the "givens" of their product or service. They have to understand their customers goals, plans and problems if they are to produce sales propositions that really give them a decisive competitive advantage.
And to do that the companies have to listen - not just sales people!
Peter Ramsden - Tuesday 18 August 2009 14:18
Bob,
I agree that no one wants to be sold at and less still practically ignored through inconsiderate listening. We can all improve in these key areas and your post provides some excellent suggestions and advice. Your comments also hold true whether one is in sales or not. It is equally true of anyone who has an occupation which involves interaction with others.
By the way most clients that I speak with said the thing they dislike most about sales people is lack of product knowledge. Imagine being in a situation where the sales person is doing everything right and the client asks a question about their product/service and gets a load of old waffle. The sale is blown right out of the water. I am wondering if you have any other dislikes from your survey?
Steven Howard - Monday 17 August 2009 21:09
Bob:
Good comments. Here's a little saying that I have used for years when training sales people: God gave us two ears and one mouth. We should use these in this proportion when selling.....listen twice as much as you speak!
leo - Monday 17 August 2009 19:43
Bob,
I agree on the need to listen but i don't think a salesperson needs to be as attentive to the point of becoming passive, as your research suggests. Your advice seems geared more towards for a psychotherapist.
The focus of a salesperson should not be "the relationship" but the need at hand of that particular client. Once the business is done with a succesufull outvome the relationship and all else will follow.
Mike Reynolds - Monday 17 August 2009 17:41
Bob,
While you raise interesting points I believe you missed the first and most important rule and you can't get to your points if failing on this one.
Whenever you make contact with someone always ask if they have the time. You may have caught them during a busy period when they cannot afford to be interrupted. By asking this simple first question, you will endear yourself to that person as someone who is considerate, polite, etc. and someone you would prefer to listen to and do business with.
That's when you begin to initiate the rules you speak about.
John Mann - Monday 17 August 2009 15:56
I agree 100% with what you have stated,but it is not always easy to just listen, when you are trying to get that deal done and dusted. I believe that people buy from you ( a product or service) because they like you. They like you because you are trustworthy, deliver on what you promise, make them look good for deciding to buy from you,never lie to them and basocally give more than you promise.Of course you need to ask questiosn to find out what they really want from you. But I will definitely take a lot of content from what you have written as it is on a scale of 1-10 9.99999 true what you have said.
Christine - Monday 17 August 2009 14:47
Very interesting.
I do listen to people, but I think I need to listen more to what people say.
When people contact me and ask me questions I do my utmost to answer their questions without going over the top.
Nicholas Collis - Monday 17 August 2009 14:43
Yes, being open-minded, I think everyone can naturally sell themself to another person whether socially or in association with business(albeit perhaps subconsciously).
A light-hearted greeting and a warm smile usually promotes empathy and a little synergy.
Brevity is a key point and it's not always what one says, but how one says it!
Fundamentally, I find that if one follows the Alfred Tack philosophy "You We I", a happy exchange ensues.
janie - Monday 17 August 2009 14:32
Great article, as it is so easy to forget the basics.
I know I get carried away sometimes and get it "back to front"!
It's all worth it though in order to be able to work from home, doing something I love.
Janie
Harlan Goerger - Monday 17 August 2009 13:16
Bob, your right on, the biggest challenge in sales or leadership training is getting people to "shut up", ask questions and then actually listen to what is said. It is amazing, most of the time this is all that is necessary to get someone on your side, just listen!
Kenny Campbell - Monday 17 August 2009 12:50
Hiya Bob
So true, the moment where this became blindingly obvious was when I did my shortest ever presentation.(In your presence)
If I had not asked that question..........I might have had to do the full ten minutes.
kasi viswanathan - Monday 17 August 2009 12:48
Hi
Nice blog and according to me a good salesman should be able to prove that his product has certain number of features and should prove that product is worthy of buying.
Second listening skills are vital for any communication / success.
nic - Monday 17 August 2009 12:39
I am disappointed that one of the factors is 'talking too much', because this has been known as a 'hate' factor for so long that I had hoped that sales people would have got the message by now.
On courses, the analogy I use is to ask sales people how they would respond if they went with their partner to a restaurant and were told that there were no menus as the staff knew what was right for the customers. Most say they would get up an leave.
yet this is exactly what so many salespeople do. They act as if they have a bag full of solutions and are looking to fit the customer to those solutions.
I would add another factor that I dislike intensely; salespeople who treat the whole meeting as a process, using the techniques they have been taught, in the sequence they have been taught, with the words they have been taught.
The initial sales meeting should be a fact finding mission, which implies a natural conversation with the sales person doing the asking adn the customer, or potential customer, providing the information and doing much of the talking.
Thanks for posting this, although it worries me that these are still the biggest sins that salespeople commit!
Graham Bunting - Monday 17 August 2009 09:31
Funny isn't it how people used to say that good sales people have "the gift of the gab" (not sure if that is a local saying), yet as you quite rightly point out - the most interesting people we meet talk the least and allow us to waffle on about ME. Establishing credibility is about asking the right questions and LISTENING to the answers - not merely waiting for our opporunity to talk again. Especially when you think you have uncovered something interesting that you can SELL against. So build a picture through questioning and listening - build rapport as you do through pacing and mirroring and once you have rapport and some quality information you can begin to move to a more trusted position. The best sales relationships are when you move to a position as the TRUSTED ADVISOR rather than merely a supplier.
