By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership
There are certain things that average salespeople do over and over that can kill a sale. I know because I’ve done most of them. For some, I’ve been guilty many times. [I’m not hopeless, but I am slow.] Turns out, however, it’s not just me; most every salesperson makes these same mistakes. Which is sad because every single one of the seven things listed below can be fixed immediately.
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By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership
In many cases you’ve worked for weeks or even months to secure a piece of business – a process that likely included several meetings, a number of presentations, and a host of follow-up calls before you finally hit the goal line and heard the magic words, “Let’s do this.” Do you really want to screw it up now? This is when the real work begins. Like when a home builder sells a house — it’s great to get the sale, but you still have a home to build. And that experience can lead to a delighted customer who tells everyone about you, or it can become a train wreck that kills the opportunity to get tons of referrals.
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By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership
One of the most significant challenges that confront sales management is the salesperson that insists on cutting prices to gain business. Although salespeople have no shortage of excuses for taking a little off the top, it is my experience that this pervasive problem is almost always a sign of poor or undeveloped selling skills. To be clear, there are times when companies or salespeople should choose – strategically – to lower a price and, as a result, accept a smaller margin. But, while there can be good, rational reasons for cutting your price, the much more common scenario is that salespeople simply use a lower price to close a deal because they lack the skills to present and negotiate value.
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By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership
The biggest mistake salespeople make is in failing to think about and prepare for the sales call. Since every sales call is different — the introductory call, the discovery call(s), the presentation call, follow-up calls, negotiation calls, and so forth — it stands to reason that a salesperson should be uniquely prepared for that call.
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