Where Sales People Go Wrong

Writing this post less than 45 days prior to the 2012 elections I have chosen to share some findings about the selling of candidates to the public that relate to business to business selling. The item that comes to my mind is the things that salespeople and sales organizations do to drive the customers away.

Our evenings during the last few months have been filled with robot-callers and personal surveys that all seem to end with an appeal for more money. This year the contributions requested are as little as $2.00, yet when you follow the link to sign up for the $2.00 donation there is not even a box to check for that suggested donation. You sure can make a larger one however! The aim of the callers is to sell the candidate and elicit a donation to fund more calls to all of us!

The point that I want to initially make is that the biggest mistake that is made in sales is contacting the customer too much and too often. Nate Boaz, John Murnane and Kevin Nuffer share in a McKinsey Quarterly article in May of 2010 that while customers in this category say they care about product and price, what they really want is a great sales experience. For the salesperson this means getting the basics right.

“Customers want to be contacted just enough, not bombarded. Sales reps should know their products or services intimately and how their offering compares with those of their competitors. Customers need information on exactly how a product or service will make a difference to their businesses. And while they may say price is one of their biggest concerns, a satisfying sales experience is ultimately more important.”

We are approached constantly by sales organizations that do not have a clear understanding of when to develop salespeople. The answer is all of the time! Salespeople are just like athletes who are sent to exhaustive spring trainings every year for baseball near our home in Southwest Florida. The same is true for all teams and also for salespeople who must be groomed and taken to higher levels.

Development is needed to understand changes taking place in the field. Too often the focus of customer is to see a concept and methodology that the customer does not buy into on the first call. The constant pounding of that concept or idea is not the answer to winning the customer over. It is a constant drip of the idea over time. Ultimately even the drip of water will carve its path through a piece of rock.

Jim Ullery