Overcome The Top 5 Weaknesses Of Salespeople

Everyone wants to be working at their full potential, but if you’re not keeping a close eye on your sales team for possible weaknesses then you could be missing out on many opportunities.

Even if your salespeople are generally dependable and good at what they do, there are five common pitfalls that could be weakening your team and having a drastic impact on your bottom line.

Need for Approval — Let’s face it, we all want people to like us. Rarely does anyone enjoy playing the bad guy. You don’t have to be the bad guy when you’re trying to make a sale, but salespeople have to be very careful that their actions are driven by confidence and conviction, and not just telling the client what they want to hear.

Emotional Investment — Because they are driven to succeed, good salespeople may very easily become emotionally involved in making a sale. That’s an admirable quality, but only to the degree that it’s healthy and doesn’t affect business. Do you have a salesperson who gets angry when he thought a sale that was going well ends up derailed? Does he become consumed by the loss, even off the clock? If so, it’s time to take a step back and reinforce training and skills that will help close the next deal.

Scared to Talk Money — Most people are taught that it usually isn’t polite to talk about money in a social setting. You don’t go around asking acquaintances how much they make, how much cash they’ve got in their pocket or other money-related conversations that can make people feel uncomfortable. Salespeople can often have this phobia, too, as they don’t want to make their client feel uncomfortable. But the ability to deftly talk about money, price, and value make for a better salesperson. Talking money means knowing what you’re working with, so don’t be shy to ask for specific numbers.

Creating Self-Fulfilling Prophecies — Most salespeople have a pretty good idea of their own strengths and weaknesses and that’s a good thing. But, too much conscious focus on weaknesses can damage confidence when trying to make a sale. Learning to focus on the positive leads to better, more successful outcomes.

Too Much Trust — A salesperson is often an optimistic “people person,” the kind of personality that tends to believe people when they say something. In the sales process for example, a client may say they “need to think about it.” But that shouldn’t necessarily be taken at face value. Instinct and experience can help drive the conversation toward motive.

Go here to read 5 Ways Your Sales Team Will Sabotage Selling Opportunities

At Sandler Training / Peak Sales Performance, we have proven ways for helping even the most seasoned and experienced leaders root out common weaknesses like these. Having difficulty reconciling a drop in your numbers? Give us a call at 203-264-1197, so we can help.