Neat Quotes offers a Dashboard to monitor all sales activity
Sales is a numbers game, this much is true. Some sales prospects will turn into customers, and some simply won’t. You can however drastically increase your chances of closing deals if you avoid some of the common pitfalls that salespeople fall into almost everyday.
Pitfall #1 Focusing on benefits that aren’t all that interesting to a client
Most product sales today are about providing solutions to customer problems. A lot of salespeople get so excited promoting all the benefits of their products that they never stop to listen and figure out if any particular set of benefits are applicable to a client. Listen first, and then sell the benefits of your product that satisfies the needs of your client. You can add the other benefits later when you are approaching the close.
Pitfall #2 Selling to the wrong people
A common mistake that many rookie salespeople are guilty of is spending their time selling to the wrong people in an organization. Finding out who the influencers are is the first step in every successful sale. Ask yourself – Who does everybody go to when there is a problem at your customers workplace? Chances are that the person’s name that pops up is also the person the bosses look to for advice when purchasing new products. If you can convince the people on the ground that your product will make their work easier when you finally pitch to the bosses.
Pitfall #3 Asking for the close too soon
The common saying in most sales rooms is ABC or Always Be Closing. The problem with this approach is that it instills the mindset in a salesperson that closing the deal is more important than solving the customer’s problem. Make sure that you sell your customers on the benefits of the product/service that you are marketing and then ask for the deal. Solving customer problems lead to repeat business and sustainable relationships.
Pitfall #4 Neglecting the customer relationship until you need to sell them a new product or service
After making a sale with a customer, follow it up a couple of days later to find out if they’re happy with their purchase. This gives you the opportunity to alleviate customer concerns and strengthen the relationship. It is important to maintain contact at least once a month, quarter or year depending on the product that you are selling. Use sales prospect tracking software that assists you and makes you more efficient and productive, like Neat Quotes from Layton Technology, Inc. This gives you the opportunity to up-sell and an edge when you are selling a new product or service to them later down the line.
Pitfall #5 Sticking to a client to long
Some customers are simply not worth pursuing. They waste time, money and effort. A common mistake that salespeople make is believing that they can sell to any prospect. You can’t, doesn’t happen that way. Sticking to a client that can’t afford your product, doesn’t need your product or isn’t interested wastes valuable time that you could have spent chasing after warmer more inviting sales leads.