Learning what kills potential sales is just as important as knowing how to close deals.

Here are seven attitudes that can reduce success and destroy sales:

1. I know more than my customers. Because salespeople are experts in what they sell, it’s easy to assume they know more than their customers. This is a subtle sales killer because no salesperson wants to deliberately demean or talk down to a customer. Their real goal is to pass along expertise. But that may not be the way it comes across to prospects and customers. Without realizing it, they may be making their customers feel uncomfortable.
2. My customers know more than I do. Some salespeople conclude that customers have a lot more industry-specific knowledge than they do. But in actuality many customers feel inadequate and try to cover for it by convincing salespeople of their expertise. The result is that some salespeople hold back and don’t give customers the full benefit of their knowledge and experience.
3. That account is solid. Some salespeople believe, “My customers think of me first when a need arises.” And once a salesperson holds a customer for several years, it’s normal to assume the account is “safe.” But no account is safe today. Even though customers may be satisfied with a salesperson’s performance, they are always ready to listen to a competitor. And complacency always allows competitors to get their foot in the door.
4. When there’s a problem to be solved, my customers turn to me. Many salespeople expect customers to turn to them when problems arise, because they’ve always been helpful and accessible. But that’s not enough today. It’s important to project a strong, clear “problem solver” image and reinforce it all the time.
5. It’s not worth investing a lot of time with this customer. It’s easy for salespeople to develop the habit of pegging certain customers as being “small time.” They even establish a ceiling on how much business they will do with the customer in the future. Eventually these customers will go elsewhere if they believe they’re being treated as second-class citizens.
6. To be successful, I have to concentrate on the big orders. A big sale is obviously a good sale. Big sales can also be killers if salespeople aren’t careful — because if a salesperson devotes all of his/her attention toward making that sale, it can leave little or no energy to serve other prospects or customers.
7. The only thing important to customers is price. This always sounds so hard-hitting and businesslike, but it has no basis. Anyone trying to build or sustain a business on price alone won’t be around long. An essential sales goal for salespeople should be to create a climate in which customers want to buy from them. When that happens, price alone becomes a secondary concern.

Tags: close deals, customers, reduce stress, sales killers, salespeople