The Top 5 Sales Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

In coaching hundreds of people each year in how to sell more effectively, these five mistakes keep popping up. And good news, they’re an easy fix!

Over the past six months, I have put my blogging, podcasting, videos, and pretty much any marketing on hold because I’ve been working solely with clients on THEIR STUFF.

I found I was way too distracted by trying to be everywhere all at once. So I dove in and absolutely skyrocketed my business.

I’ve grown a large global client base and was just recently invited to do a workshop at a castle in north Germany for a really cool client. I brought my girlfriend and we traveled to Berlin, Amsterdam (my new favorite place), Nice France, Poland, New York, Vegas, and Wisconsin. And I’ll tell you, Madison Wisconsin is an awesome city!

Some of the projects we’ve been working on:

• Coaching tons of reps on sales calls, mindset, and language
• Working with CEO’s and VPs on sales strategies, branding, and vision
• Helping startups get launched and profitable
• Coaching coaches on attracting the right clients and building premium offers
• Building sales system for clients
• Designing comp plans for sales teams
• Restructuring cross-functional teams
• Sales call reviews and finding the hidden secrets of communication
• Hiring and onboarding new team members

I’m now growing my OWN team so we can better serve our clients and I can get also back into the content game (because I love sharing ideas) and wanted to share the big topics that have kept coming up in our training and sessions.

Check out this quick video and if you like it, register below for the free training that’s coming up as well. 

Click here to register for the webinar: 

https://app.webinarjam.net/register/5411/81db098446

 

Here are the 5 Sales Mistakes (And how to fix them)

Ahh, I figured I would also write them out for you to save time:

Tip #1: Add Value First

I see this mistake happen quite a bit where people simply reach out to their customers and try to pitch them. They use “I” and “we” language and essentially just talk about themselves.

• “Here’s what we do”
• “We’ve worked with all these great companies”
• “We have an industry leading product”
• “I would like to set up an appointment”
• “blah blah blah, we’re awesome, look at us…”

In one of my coaching sessions we loaded the client’s emails on the screen, highlighted the words “I” and “we” and compared it to the highlighted word “you.” We instantly found the disconnect.

So when communicating with potential customers (or anyone for that matter), ask yourself, “Is this for me or is this for them?” I do this every time I am about to send an email.

What do you send people? What do you talk to them about? Add value. Make it about them. Share things that will help them TODAY. Give your best stuff away for free and basically show them you are worth talking to. In every communication – email, text, voicemail, face to face, phone, etc.

Tip #2: Be More Authentic

Now this may sound like common sense, but here’s the truth…

I listen to hundreds of sales calls and watch for the interactions between people. I notice that for most people, it takes them a while to warm up to their prospects. They are sort of “feeling” each other out. They use their professional, guarded voice and test the waters. I know this happens to me too. And on the flipside, instead they may use that fake salesy voice that screams, “hiiiiii, how are yoouuuuuu today?”

But when we are not our truest selves, it sets of the BS radar in our client’s minds. It taps into that primitive, reptilian brain and they INSTINCTIVELY know “this doesn’t fee right.” It also lets them know they are in charge and positions you as a sales rep.

And trust me on this one, because we have been testing this concept for more than a year. Start every conversation as authentic as possible and watch how quickly they change.

• You will connect faster
• You will be in control
• You will disrupt their patterns

When I added authenticity as a METRIC to my own sales conversations, everything changed. Also it has helped me for how I craft emails, blogs, videos, and everything else. Just look at how you show up everywhere you go and compare it to how you would like to show up.

We are going to dive into these tips further on the webinar tomorrow, so get registered

Click here to register for the webinar: https://app.webinarjam.net/register/5411/81db098446

Tip #3: YOU Are the Product

Forget about pitches! In the five buying decisions, most of us forget that product and price are number 3 and 4 on the list and that YOU are the thing they buy.

It is all about your ability to connect with them, to share insights, to ask amazing questions, and ultimately get them to think differently about their own business.

If you can get your customer to think differently about themselves, they will think differently about you.  So stop telling them what you do, and start showing them how you can help. Demonstrate your ability to understand their business. Connect the dots and show the change path for them.

Get them to know, like, and trust you. Then show them how you can help them get where they need to go.

And use questions as much as possible. Being able to dig into issues is a huge skill.

Tip #4: Use a Contact Strategy

We are all busy. Your customers are busy too. And how darn frustrating is it to keep calling them, emailing them, and basically getting no response? Wen we look at our client’s sales processes, it becomes clear quite quickly. There is no contact strategy in place. Nothing to test, not sure what works, and they keep doing the same thing over and over.

Insanity.

So in your sales process, simply do this:

1. Identify your buyer personas
2. Pick a frequency of contacting your prospective customers – let’s say every 3 days for three weeks – 7 times
3. Craft those 7 emails and make sure each one has some crazy good value for them (the more specific the better – hence the personas)
4. Schedule those outreaches
5. Use each outreach as your phone game plan. Make the call and when you get that “dreaded” voicemail…no problem…tell the what you’re gonna send them
6. Send those emails
7. Track the response rates. You will see some patterns and actually be surprised that the fifth and seventh ones will have better response rates than the first one
8. Tweak this contact strategy. Make multiple tests for various markets and personas

This process will help you stop wasting time and increase the amount of people who want to talk to you

You can also use automation tools and do these processes for every type of customer you have.

Tip #5: Ownership Mindset

Probably one of the biggest areas we work on is with mindset. If you have a great product or service, but you sell it like a sales rep, you are probably missing out – this is a major sales mistake. You KNOW you can help your client, but they wont give you the time of day. They may say:

• “Just send me some stuff”
• “What we have is good enough”
• “That sounds great, maybe in six months when we review our budgets…”

Sound familiar? Well, you need to make sure you are coming across as an EQUAL to your clients. That you are partners in this. All of the other four tips add up to this one. Get the customer to see you as a strategic resource, not as a nuisance.

I constantly work on these power dynamics myself and have created the mental image of myself and set my intentions. I want every potential customer, CEOs, VPs to think of me instantly as, “hey this guy sounds like someone I would go grab a whiskey with and talk business.” 

If I can get that across right away and make them see me on the same level, then we can have the right conversations about their business. How do you do it? Well, you have to be prepared, you have to see things they don’t, and you can’t be looked at as an employee of theirs. The employee mindset will kill you.

And you have to focus every time on who you are BEING. 

Be confident and committed to helping them as partners, and you will see more deals start popping.

…

Well there you go!

Join me tomorrow to dive deeper into this.

Click here to register for the webinar: https://app.webinarjam.net/register/5411/87bc223c5c 

– Joe