Most of my posts focus on tips of what TO do, today is a what not to do example.

Yesterday, I had a door-to-door sales rep visit my home. I am always excited when I have a sales rep visit so I can see how they approach the sale!

This man started talking AT me as soon as I approached the door and I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Though I could tell from the truck in my driveway that he was selling beef.

Now I was a bit intrigued because I know people that have made great food purchasers from this company!  But he never gave me a chance, he talked and talked – actually he sold and sold with comments such as:

• I’ve got to end my day to pick up my kids.
• If I return to my warehouse THEY make me pay ‘like’ $20 a box to return them if i didn’t sell them.
• Just for YOU (looking to the side and behind him to make sure no one was listening) I’m going to do a Buy 1, Get 1 today.  THEY don’t care how I get rid of this stuff.
• Blah, blah, blah – list of features that were meaningless and incorrect
• THEY, THEY, THEY when mentioning his company

Turn off!  So many slimey, manipulative techniques in the first 3 minutes.  But I wasn’t done, I wanted more to remind myself how it doesn’t have to be this way.

He put a brochure in my hand and and I heard more “They’ statements.

I asked, “Do you work for THEM?’

He responded with a surprised expression and a sarcastic tone, “No…I just drive their truck and have their product to sell.”

I said, “Well, you keep saying THEY so I’m not sure if you are part of THEM.”

He stuttered and then went on with his slimey sales pitch and ‘deal’.

The finale was when I asked him how many actual pounds of meat come with the $375 price  and he told me ‘I’m not sure – like 25 or 30 I guess.’

Well, I quickly counted the pounds on the sides of the boxes at my feet and it was 16 pounds. And I was done with the fun. Explained I was not interested and walked back in the house.

But it wasn’t over – he asked me for his brochure back!

The top What Not To Dos from this example?

• Do NOT talk about ‘THEM’ when referring to your company. OWN what you sell.
• Do NOT talk AT your prospects, customers and buyers.
• Do NOT play ‘let’s make a deal’ – it makes you look less than ethical.
• Do NOT misrepresent what you are selling – if you don’t know the answer, let the prospect know you will find the information.
• Do NOT waste my time.

Now I didn’t find this 7 minutes was a waste of my time at all – it turned out to be a great reminder that not every sales rep is a sales professional.

How about you? Have any fun or annoying ‘door to door’ stories to share?

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Filed Under: Sales Tips
Tags: Presentation, prospecting, Sales, Sales Tips

Opening a sales conversation effectively is important. Preparing how you will engage, turn the focus to them and earn the right to get into a good convereation helps ensure you oare successful.  Yet with all the time spent on opening conversations, I notice very little, if any, time is spent on how to close the conversation!

Closing the conversation may mean asking for the buy! Yet in today’s complex sale, the close of the conversation may really mean getting a commitment to what is next.

We call the end of the conversation the Consolidation versus the close. Consolidate means to ‘bring together pieces into a whole.’ Think about ANY conversation you have, isn’t that what you need to do at the end of every conversation?

to advance your sales cycle, build stronger value and save you TIME in follow-up efforts, Consolidate your conversations with these specific actions:

• Summarize what you covered in the conversations -what problems, opportunities, wants or needs were revealed?
• Check for readiness. Are they ready to end the conversation? Pay attention to body language, words and sounds, and responses to your trial close questions.
• Confirm value for what you are asking them to do.
• Ask for a decision or commitment to something.
• Identify next specifics, with specifics. What are you going to do? What are they going to do? By when?
• CLOSE - this is your final comment.  The ‘Thank you’ or ‘Thanks’ is so overdone, it doesn’t even register that you’ve said it. Be specific in personalizing the last comment. Make it about THEM, the value they are going to receive, something you appreciate specifically about them or the conversation.
  • “Sharon, I appreciate that you were able to take the time to explore your __________. I look forward to our next conversation.”
  • “Mike, thank you for the confidence that we can help you _________. i will do everything I can to ensure this is successful.”

I’m often told (just this week two different sellers mentioned this) that they run out of time and the end of their conversations become rushed and this miss pieces of consolidating.  A solution? PLAN in your agenda for the 5-7 minutes needed to consolidate. Set the expectation that you will need to identify what comes next at the end of the conversation.

Think about how much quicker your sales will advance and how much less follow-up or chasing you will need to do if you consolidate EVERY conversation in this way.

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity, Sales Tips, Success Tips
Tags: maximize sales productivity, Sales, Sales Tips, skills

It’s no secret that selling to ‘real’ people can be challenging. (Yes, even with the fast growth of e-commerce, many of us still sell to a human being.) The same input does not guarantee the same output (closed sale, upsells, etc.) How frustrating that can be!

Yet, how do we increase our probability of making each sales call and prospect contact valuable? Well, tomorrow (Wednesday August 17th) Alice Kemper and I will share the Secret to Selling Success and how YOU can:

• Connect more easily with people
• Sell with them in ways that make them comfortable
• Build value for your solution
• Advance the sale
• Close the sale
• Get the referrals and upsells that help you achieve long-term sales success

The webinar is 60 minutes and we have secret gifts for you at the end to help YOU succeed in selling.

Please join us for the FREE webinar, The Secret to Selling Success sponsored by Verizon Wireless and SalesGravy.com. It’s part of the Women in Sales webinar series.

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity, Sales Tips
Tags: Communication, free webinar, maximize sales productivity, Sales, sales success, Sales Tips