In business and specifically sales, there are many pitfalls lurking around for new and veteran salespeople to find themselves in. A salesperson should never blame themselves if they find themselves in some of these pitfalls, but they should work to avoid them in the future and learn from their mistakes. Marc Wayshak discusses some of these pitfalls in his article on Sales Insights Lab. His article, “7 Things to Avoid If You Want to Be a Superstar Salesperson” highlights 7 things that salespeople should avoid to be successful.
One thing that Wayshak brings up in his article is the need to withhold from “probing” your potential buyer. Wayshak doesn’t mean that a salesperson shouldn’t ask questions, he means a salesperson shouldn’t ask random questions to “try out” different angles. The questions should follow a natural logical flow within the sales conversation. If a potential buyer is “probed” with questions, they’ll know it and they’ll likely shut down and not feel inclined to answer the questions. A potential buyer should never feel like they are “helping out” the salesperson to find their pain points.
Another pitfall that Wayshak mentions is “discounting”. Wayshak explains that new salespeople often get caught up in offering discounts to help to close a deal. When asking a “superstar” salesperson, they are often horrified at the thought of discounting. This is because they believe in the value that they are offering the potential buyer. When a salesperson offers a discount that might be an indicator that they themselves don’t believe what they’re selling offers enough value to the potential buyer for them to pay full price. Salespeople should believe in their product or service enough to help the potential buyer to identify that the value is worth the asking price.
There are many pitfalls that new business people salespeople can fall into. It is okay to fall into a pitfall, but one should always learn from it and improve their strategy. Wayshak shares 7 pitfalls in his article and explains to new salespeople how and why to avoid these pitfalls. These tips and tricks are invaluable so that new salespeople can learn from the mistakes of others and not make the same mistakes themselves.
Article Link: https://salesinsightslab.com/superstar-salesperson/
BoweryJE22
I love the discount point that this writer makes. I found myself making this mistake when we were doing our sales conversations because I thought it would entice the client into making a deal with me. It makes the sales person look desperate and therefore could ruin the sale.
Zach, that’s a really interesting point about discounting. I never really thought about it in quite that way before. Discounting certainly can cheapen the feel of a product, which is almost never the goal in a sales situation. Instead, discussing the extraordinary value that you already should be providing at-price is a better way to go. I will certainly keep this in mind going forward!
I thought the part about discounting was interesting because of the fast that “superstar” salespeople believe in the product so much that they will not discount. Believing in your product is so noticeable. If you do not believe in it, then you lost the sale.
I love how you said that salespeople should never blame themselves because In reality there are a lot of factors that can cause salespeople to accidentally fall into these pitfalls and they shouldn’t blame themselves.
I like the fact that the blog prohibits “probing”, usually salespeople might lean towards probing trying to create rapport or a bond between customers.