Do You Know What Your Sales Team is Saying to Your
Customers
Graham Winmill - 4th September 2008
Improve Your Sales
Message...
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How many of you are sales managers or directors and truly
know what your sales team are saying to your
customers
IF YOU’RE ANYTHING LIKE most that I meet
you’ll have some idea, but would probably be horrified to learn
exactly how the conversations go between your sales team and
individual customers day-to-day. It’s hard enough if you’re
managing internal salespeople, where at least you can overhear
some of their telephone conversations but, if you’re managing a
field-based team, the problems
become far worse!
Whether it’s just carelessness, or a lack of focus, salespeople
say the strangest things to customers, without any thought of
where it might lead them! Below are some actual examples of
phrases I’ve heard salespeople say to clients or prospects,
either over the phone when I’ve been listening to calls or
directly in front of them when I’ve been doing field visits
with the salesperson.
SALES MISTAKE NUMBER
1
— Telling the Customer they’re wrong!
Customer: “I’m
not convinced about the reliability of the machine. I’ve heard
you can get problems when it’s been running for a certain
period of time”.
Salesperson:
“Well I don’t know who you’ve heard that from but that’s just
plain wrong! This machine is the best on the market and never
breaks down!”
Customer: “Oh
really? That’s not what Jim said over at XYZ Machinery where
you installed one last week and have been back to it twice
already”.
Salesperson: “Oh…
so you know Jim at XYZ Machinery? Erm…”.
This type of response happens so often it’s frightening! The
salesperson hears an objection, can’t deal with it, panics and
makes something up on the spot in a desperate attempt to sound
convincing!
The result? The salesperson loses all credibility in front of
the prospect or client and is so embarrassed that, not only do
they not get their outcome from this call, but they rarely feel
like they can call this person back ever again.
SALES MISTAKE NUMBER
2
— Not Listening To the Customer
Customer: “I’m
sure that it’s a great system but I don’t think we need
anything that complicated here”.
Salesperson: “It
really is good. It’s the best system on the market and you can
even program it remotely and configure it in real-time from an
external location”.
Customer: “I
don’t think we’d use that feature, it’s too complicated for us
and we don’t have the budget for such an extravagance”.
Salesperson: “Oh
so budget’s a problem for you is it? When will you get your new
budget?”.
Customer: “Not
until next March”.
Salesperson: “Oh,
so we’d probably be better waiting until then, wouldn’t we.
Shall I call you back towards the end of February?”
Customer: “Great,
speak to you then”.
No, No and No! How on earth did the salesperson mishear what
the customer was saying to him?
The problem is, most salespeople don’t listen to what the
customer is saying to them, they’re too busy thinking of what
they’re going to say next!
You wouldn’t believe how many conversations I listen to where
buying signals are missed and critical information is ignored
because people just aren’t listening! Even worse, the
salesperson then left the call and wasn’t going to call back
for a few month’s time. What do you think would happen in that
time?
That’s right — a competitor would call the customer and
actually listen to them, propose a solution more to their needs
and close the business, leaving our salesperson to call back in
February already having lost the business.
SALES MISTAKE NUMBER
3
— Making the customer feel
worthless
Customer: “What’s
the extra charge for?”
Salesperson:
“That’s the small order charge. All orders under £50 are
subject to it”.
Customer: “But I
don’t need any more than what I’ve ordered. I don’t see why I
should have to pay a penalty for placing an order with you. I’m
sure that some of your customers don’t pay that charge; is that
right?”
Salesperson:
“Well, our gold level customers don’t pay it. But that’s
because they spend a lot of money with us”.
Customer: “So are
you saying that you charge it to some customers and not others?
Why is my business worth less to you than theirs?”
Salesperson:
“Errrrmmmm……”.
Blabbermouth strikes again! Instead of explaining what the
small order charge was for and suggesting ways around it, our
salesperson has now created an irate customer who feels that
their business isn’t important to the company!
Anyone suggest a better way to get a customer to seek out
another supplier? Again, a small situation that escalated into
a very big one!
SALES MISTAKE NUMBER
4
— Making a complaint worse
Customer:
“Martin, we’ve been having a few problems with our xyz system,
can you do anything to solve it? We’re getting sick of it going
wrong”.
Salesperson:
“Well I’d like to do something to help, but you’re outside of
your warranty period, you see”.
Customer:
“And?”.
Salesperson:
“Well, we’d have done something for you if it was still in the
warranty period, but it’s not.”.
Customer: “So are
you saying you’re not willing to help me?”.
Salesperson:
“Well, as I already said, it’s outside the warranty period. But
we do have a great range of new machines you could buy….”.
How helpful was our salesperson in this scenario? Not very! Not
only, by stubbornly sticking to ‘policy’, did he annoy an
existing customer and virtually drive them to his competition,
but he also put in a very badly-timed sales pitch as well!
I’m always astounded how much effort salespeople will put into
winning new business and then, as soon as the customer is
‘on-board’, they treat them like a second-class citizen and
virtually drive them elsewhere!
Not very helpful if you’re trying to build long-term
relationships and business with your customers is it?
—How many opportunities do you think the average salesperson
blows?
—How much money do they leave on the table every month?
—How many deals do they lose that they could (and should!) have
won?
If you explore this within your organisation, the answers may
scare you!
If you would like
more information on Improving Your Sales Message then please
contact me on the numbers below.
That's all, now get back to work.
Graham Winmill AInstIB
Invest two hours of your time to grow
your
business
Call Graham
on 0800 1300
534 Now
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