The Top Five Sales Tactics All Salespeople Should Avoid

When someone decides they want to pursue a career in sales—which is as honorable a profession as any other—they also get to decide what kind of a salesperson they want to be. Very few people would purposely choose to become the stereotypical sleazy salesperson, but it can happen if no one ever takes the time to explain the “old school” selling tactics people associate with sleazy salespeople, and why you should avoid them at all costs. Here’s a quick refresher of the top five tactics all salespeople should avoid: 

1. Directly putting down your competitor’s products/services:  Doing this is basically telling your prospect they are ignorant of the world around them. Face it, your prospects have access to the same information you do. Your job isn’t to prove your products/services are better than your competition’s. It’s to show your prospect that your products/services are a perfect fit for them.

2.  Hoping your prospect is as lazy as you are:  I once worked for a VP who always asked, “Did you do your due diligence?" The reality is that there are business owners who don’t do their due diligence with regard to their own company, or with the sales reps they encounter. For the sales rep who gets their foot in the door, it’s a choice. They can do just enough work to get the account, or they can do their own due diligence and become an invaluable resource to the business owner.

3.  Insulting you prospects intelligence: If there’s one trait that’s become synonymous with the sleazy salesperson, it’s the idea that they’re always on the lookout for the easy mark. Never assume that the way someone looks, dresses, or talks is an indication of how well they know their business. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that just because someone’s desk is a mess, you have an edge. Don’t let your assumption about how business savvy a prospect is end up showing the prospect just how un-savvy you are.

4.  Making promises just so you can get the order:  Everybody knows how the “bait and switch” approach to business works. What people don’t understand is how it can still happen in this day and age. Easy. When the order isn’t delivered on time, or as expected, or at the price quoted, it’s always someone else’s fault. These kinds of sales lead to short-term clients. Think about it… if you go to a restaurant and everything about your visit is sub-standard, are you likely to go their again? Over time, short-term clients lead to a short-term career.

5. Talking over your prospect: Yes, you may have a lot of great information to share, but good sales conversations are a two-way street. Talking over your prospect’s questions before they can even ask them forces them to look for answers in what you’re saying. That might have worked in the old west when the “snake oil salesman” sold from his wagon, but many of today’s business owners know more about your products/services than you do! Remember, relevant conversations are building blocks for solid long-term business relationship.

Fortunately, many sales professionals learn not to pursue these tactics early on in their careers. But I can't tell you how many times I’ve wished I hadn’t been present to witness a sales person falling into "old school" selling tactics simply because they didn’t realize that’s what they were doing.

Chances are that the stereotype of the sleazy salesperson will never be eradicated either. Fortunately, as sales professionals, we do get to choose whether to conduct ourselves as part of the solution, or part of the problem.

Alan Luoma: I am a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new

product development, sales and product training. I work with a great national sustainable packaging company and their exceptional distributors to increase sales. My success has been and is in utilizing the Pareto 80/20 principal in business and life. I have become an expert in seeking out and eliminating behaviors that prevent business people from being successful. I am a member of The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view my profile on LinkedIn, or contact me at Luoma@snet.net 

What is One of the Best Ways to Improve Your Business?

I just returned from another seminar in New York City given by Peter Shankman the founder of HARO or Help a Reporter Out. His seminar, entitled Shankminds, is a day long mastermind group which brings together entrepreneurs, from a variety of backgrounds, who listen to the most pressing problems that are presented by each participant and then provide their suggestions on how you can move to the next level in your business. The process is quite interesting and is very productive and allows you to view what is sometimes obvious to others but somehow escapes your critical eye. So what was the big take away from this event for me?

 

Each and every day we come into contact with people that can provide us with tremendous insight. We meet people with various types and levels of expertise, educational backgrounds, experience, creativity and the ability to help out those around them. I was fortunate enough to meet a very entrepreneurial branding expert who was an amazing font of information. I was able to discuss a number of my business development issues with her and she immediately provided me with some very insightful, helpful and clever branding and marketing strategies. How many people are there around you that could provide you with the same type of assistance? How many people do you know that could benefit from your expertise and experience?

 

One of my favorite self-help books, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich talks about the power of the mastermind alliance. The importance of such an amalgamation of like-minded entrepreneurial individuals cannot be sufficiently overstated. If you were to put together such a group of people, and meet on a regular basis, then you could gain the insights, experience and expertise that you might otherwise have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to obtain. So why are you not looking into this very valuable resource that can help you get to that next point in your business growth and development?

 

A great place to start is to develop a list of people who have the quality and attributes that would make for a great mastermind alliance member. Who are your go to experts? Who are the people on your email lists, customer or client lists, people in your social circles, or those in your community who are held in high regard that you could invite to be a part of a group that could meet on a regular basis either in person or through a teleconference? If you are going to form a mastermind alliance that will meet telephonically then you can make a list of your competitors in different parts of the country who you could connect with and invite to your group who could provide you with the best practices of what they are doing and you could share the same information with them so that both of you could benefit from this information without impacting your local markets.

 

In order to attract these talented individuals, you need to be in a position to show them what's in it for them. What other individuals will you have in your mastermind alliance that could add value to each new invited participant? How would this be a productive use of that person's time? What is the format of the meeting and how will it be run? You need to develop some type of compelling reason as to why the individuals that you invite would want to become a member. You need to have a limited number of people that can present very valuable information at each meeting so that each participant is able to take away some important tip or technique that they can utilize in their business.

 

The contacts that you will make, the information that you will receive, the energy that will be shared, and the accountability that will be required of each participant in the group will be invaluable. This will present a regular opportunity for each member of the alliance to review their best practices, what is new and exciting as far as methods, apps, or programs that people are utilizing and requires that each member of the group regularly prepare for these meetings. It provides each member with a group of accountability coaches and forces people to get tasks done that might otherwise fall by the wayside or require additional amounts of time.

 

I have participated in these groups and have been quite impressed with how much more productive I can be. I'm always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to do business because I want to share this information with my fellow group members. I advise the group what project or task I intend to complete by the next meeting which forces me to make sure that I get this done because members of the group will point out my lack of follow through which only makes me feel like I have not lived up to my responsibilities to the group. Please consider putting together a mastermind alliance because the benefits are tremendous and the energy and contacts that you will take from this are exceptional.