10 things you do not do at a sales appointment

by Xoseph » Sat Sep 13, 2008 03:03 am
Posts: 128
Joined: 30 Jul 2008

What are the 10 things a saleperson should not do during a sales appointment?

Total Comments: 16

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 10:10 am Post Subject:

IMO the sales person shouldn't try to persuade the customer. We often make this mistake in the hurry of closing the deal. But this instead of helping the sales person to win the deal often pissed-off the consumer.

The customers don't like to be wheeled. They want their decisions to be valued above all others, and, hence, try to lengthen the negotiation period. The signs of impatience from the sales person may influence the customer to decide otherwise.

~Jeremy

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:25 pm Post Subject:

What are the 10 things a saleperson should not do during a sales appointment?



1/ show up late
2/ NOT listen to their prospect (being to focused on what they want to sell)
3/ talk too much about themselves
4/answer their cell phone
5/stay too long
6/talk talk talk talk without asking questions and LISTENING
7/be unprepared
8/not able to answer any and all questions about their product
9/fail to get pertinent information for follow up
10/ if successful fail to ask for leads

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:44 am Post Subject:

I think Lori's answers were excellent. Put yourself in their shoes, how would you want to be treated if you were with someone making a very important decision in regards to your financial needs?

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 06:26 am Post Subject:

Dear Lori, thanx so much for sharing such vital points.
Many times we are so busy expressing things to our clients..that we don't wanna miss even a second...especially during B2B sales appointments..& that is where we mess up...we completely forget that time is equally important for the party at the other end! ArindamSenIndies

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 06:57 am Post Subject:

See SenIndies...most of the things mentioned by Lori are purely highlighting 'unnecessary time consumption'. So, in order to make our speech more effective we'd need to avoid a couple of things while we are pushing in with our deal-

# Place things without an order

# Make things inexplicable to our client

# Exert unnecessary explanations

# Avoiding effective comparisons

# Not comparing with competitors

# Not offering choices

I'm sure results would be much better if we try to be realistic & patient. If we try to be too pushy right at the very beginning, then results might just not be in our favor. Often do we tend to be rude wile we need to be assertive. Evan

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 09:00 am Post Subject:

Hi..

NOT listen to their prospect



Sales people should exercise 'instant stop' while communicating with the prospect. If they don't remember this their sales speech would lose effectiveness & get boring for the prospect. In a way they would avoid some things that a prospect may wish to convey-

  • The doubts that he may have

  • Queries that may arise

  • Suggestions that he needs to forward

  • His objections

IMO, it could be a lot of satisfaction on the part of the representative, but may result in no sales at the end. So, its time be careful!
ArindamSenIndies

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:43 pm Post Subject:

I know one of my biggest pet peeves as a customer is when I am trying to look around and they follow me non stop trying to jump on a sell. If I can not look at something with out being bothered I get really irritated and always leave. I will find something somewhere else.
the next thing is if I am really interested but want to hold off for a little while to catch up bills or pay off something, vacation or whatever reason and get the line"We can finance it" or "why wait"...When I am pressured I usually lose interest.

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 01:08 pm Post Subject:

You know I forgot something that really irks the crap out of me...re: selling life insurance...the scare tactic...all these awful storys, then the 'ta-da' story , 'i sold this 23yr old couple a life policy and he died the next day'.... :roll:

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 01:35 pm Post Subject:

Well..I'm sure a pretty good conversation is getting developed over such an interesting & important topic!
I'd also agree that it is always important to clarify each of the doubts that the prospective client may have right through the course of the conversation.

If a doubt is not clarified in time-

* The client may not get the real sense of the proposal
* The pricing may not be explicable to him

As, a result of these, the deal may seem unprofitable to him...n consequently give rise to confusions while signing the deal. So, it is always better to move slowly with the details served to him in a platter. This would certainly bring in a sense of transparency amongst both the parties.
fatman

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 05:24 am Post Subject:

Yes, as Lori has mentioned we'd need to ask questions to the client in order to know if he's following us the right way. In doing so it is always worthy of asking 'open-ended questions' than asking 'close-ended questions'.

If we remember this while communicating the prospect would get a chance to express his thoughts about the different areas concerning our product & thus give us an opportunity to rectify any misconceptions or confusions that he may have. At the same time we ought to be careful that the discussion doesn't get misdirected or go way out of control! ArindamSenIndies

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