10 sales mistakes you may identify as your own !

“To err is human.” But can we be lucky enough to prevent ourselves from making those errors. In most cases we might not know where we go wrong, but the mistakes we make in sales can be seen as those commonly made, and those that are repetitive in nature. Thus like any normal or abnormal situation, when we identify the problems, solutions follow one way or the other. Today’s topic speaks about the 10 commonly made sales mistakes and how we can deal with them.

Inefficient or insufficient database:

Working with database is a great method to know your prospects in an easy manner. Working with an insufficient database often leaves us looking for more and some of us spend a lot of time make a database rather than spend that time qualitatively in front of the customer. An inefficient database is however moist dangerous than not having one or not having enough. Most people spend time and energy on chasing those customers who either don’t have a potential we are looking for or their business does not suit yours. Wrong data can be acquired because of too much reliance on historical data or acquiring data from unreliable sources.

Overdependence on internet:

Internet is a great source for data that might commonly not be available with other sources of data search. The shortcoming however with the data available from the internet is that it is over exaggerated or underexploited in most cases. People use data from internet without knowing if it appropriate and it fulfills the need of the hour. Internet data should never be used for in-depth data knowledge. It should merely satisfy the details that outline of the data would provide and this needs further efforts and time for validation

Improper question:

How much of data is sufficient data. It’s a question we ask ourselves every time we make our first sales with a customer. Agreed that complete data is always collected during the course of the consecutive sales calls.  However the date collected in the first sales calls counts the most since it forms the most important part of information required to make a proposal. Sales people often lose focus and deviate from asking the right questions. This results in making an improper move towards customer leading to longer gestation periods to win a business

Narrow Minded approach:

It’s common to look for bigger gains in smaller time frames which leads to a small scale approach towards the customers’ business. Customers often need things that might have a smaller advantage in the sales point of view but might be a lot easier to gain. This small job might be an entry to a larger part of the business. It’s important to get a 360 degree view of the business so as to achieve complete understanding of customers total potential

Discontinued follow up:

 “Finish what you have started”. This is possible something most humans listen to ever since childhood from a variety of people to. It’s easy to lose focus on things either because they are not interesting or its too tough to continue with. Same applies to sales where we often give up customers because it takes a longer time to win a business it’s too uninteresting to fulfill the demands of a difficult customer. This would lead to a situation where one would always have a set of customers, which are very difficult to revisit, because it has been discontinued at a stage where customer might have needed us the most.

Poor after sales service:

Most sales are repetitive in nature. A sale where a customer does not return is an incomplete sale. What makes a customer return or stick? Sales in most cases happen because of the sales person who is the face of the company. However some of us give up responsibilities post sales. Handing over a customer to CS or a technical team is an easier way out but never the solution to retain a customer. Retention happens because of frequent revisits and repeated face to face interactions to check what a customer needs.

Competitive industry data:

Is stalking bad? Apparently not when it comes to your competition. People always try to occupy the left out shares of a strong competition. If a stronger competitor holds 30% of the market, sales people tend to aim at the remaining 70% market share. This might be the easy way but the smart way to look at it is as if 100% of the market is available. Strategy to perform better than competition is would be possible only when one has complete knowledge on what kind of customers competition holds and what they do to keep their customers happy

Competition strength analysis:

It’s good to keep your friends close. It’s great to keep your rivals closer. People underestimate their rivals or do not know their strength as a result of which one cannot offer the right bid. SWOT analysis of the market strengthens the company’s competitive edge. This in turn leads to the discovery of simple things one can do perform better than the competition.  

Wild goose chase:

This is the exactly opposite of improper follow-up. Sometimes people attach emotional values of time and effort on certain accounts / customer in spite of knowing it might not be successful. We often get into a mode of not being able to give up on a customer because we have worked too hard on it in the past. What we do not realize is the time and energy spent on a non-convertible customer can be spent elsewhere finding a new one.

Forget the missing:

It’s bad enough to lose a customer, what could be even more disappointing are to lose them forever.

People are either embarrassed to go back and apologize or they are scared to be rejected. This leads to ignoring a large amount of database of existing customers which we are used to working with and whose needs we understand. It’s a great idea to go back to angry customer and give them the confidence that we care for their business rather than try to compensate that with an entirely new customer which could have been an additional customer and not a replacement.