Always a fun scene. Everyone knows the feeling. Salespeople rushing in once again after landing a few deals and eager to share it with everyone. Then, they tell us, with a touch of exaggeration, how fantastically they handled it. They are brilliant!
The employer should give them an immediate raise with that phenomenal approach and smart techniques the salesperson used to carefully secure this deal. At least, those are the words of the salesperson.
In reality, the potential customer may have already been convinced of the organization for a long time and signed regardless. In fact, the salesperson may have missed opportunities, and the order could have been much larger.
Identifying errors in sales conversations
Identifying the mistakes salespeople make is difficult. Managers often look at the results. However, a good CRM can provide a fair amount of information in this regard. For example, revenue from upsells, the amount of discount given, the average order value, the number of appointments, and a number of other such figures.
However, these figures provide no insight into improvements in the conversations being held, and more importantly, how they are conducted. Thanks to the work of all our privacy gurus who, against their better judgment, are still trying to protect the last shred of privacy we have left, managers are unfortunately not yet allowed to chase salespeople around all day with a drone to monitor everything.
Still, it would be nice if you gained insight into the conversations and saw which mistakes are being made.
A number of things that come up in sales conversations
- No active attitude;
- Looking away and not looking at the person sitting opposite you;
- Talking too much;
- Talking too little;
- Appearing too smooth;
- Not daring to ask for the assignment;
- Failing to refute the stated objections;
- Failing to come across as convincing (Meanwhile, the salesperson is thinking: It’s Friday afternoon and I’m going out onto the terrace right now. Lovely!);
- Speaks unintelligibly due to complex concepts (common in the ICT sector!);
From my time as a retail salesperson, I know that monitoring salespeople was a common practice. The manager would always be secretly peeking at us from his office to see if we were maintaining an active attitude. Now, that technique wasn't motivating, and the feeling of being constantly watched is, in my opinion, certainly not conducive to sales. What you can do, however, is listen in on telephone sales calls to see how the conversation unfolds and what could potentially be improved.
Anyway, unfortunately, for in-person meetings, we have to limit ourselves to periodically accompanying the client or possibly having the conversation recorded. With the latter, however, you mainly miss the intonation, posture, and emotions. Something that, in my opinion, is very important for selling. For example, when the lead is shocked by the quoted price, which you can notice through various non-verbal signals.
Back to the first paragraph of this blog article. My experience is that salespeople make far more mistakes than you think. They just don't stand out, because they are hardly verifiable. Especially salespeople with good results practically never do anything wrong, if you are to believe them. Believe me, they make mistakes too. Of course, many salespeople are aware of this. However, these mistakes are not shared with much enthusiasm.
Deal or no deal
Every time I get back in the car, I try to briefly evaluate the conversation and realize that I made a few mistakes. Even after the customer's decision-making moment (deal or no deal?), I try to evaluate the entire process. In the case of a 'no deal': Did the conversation not go well? What could have been better? Did I follow up properly? Did I offer the right product, and what else could I have done to turn things around? The temptation is great to think that you couldn't have done anything about it. Salespeople tend to only celebrate success, after all, but I would still advise every salesperson to always take a moment to reflect on this.
By the way, do not do this immediately after the rejection; you need to take some time to process the conversation calmly first, as you might still be frustrated. Take a moment at the end of the week or the next day to reflect on what went wrong.
When a deal closes, you often think “BAM! I'm invincible” and immediately run to your colleagues to tell them once again how brilliantly you handled it. Even then, you should try to find a moment, once the euphoria has subsided a bit, to evaluate. What went well? Why is this new client choosing us? Could I have given even better advice, etc.
Due to a lack of supervision and the limited direct training for all the conversations you have to conduct alone, this self-evaluation is very important. Here are a few final tips:
- Write down the points for improvement and read them through again later.
- Ask your conversation partner what they thought of the conversation and follow up by asking what they would do differently themselves if they were a salesperson.
- Ask your colleagues (from various departments) to join you and dare to be vulnerable. What would they do differently?
- Read many blog articles/books with tips and tricks.
- Do you have any tips? Post them below this article! (I read them with great pleasure)
PS (For the non-salespeople): Is the salesperson coming into the organization again to enthusiastically tell us how brilliant he is? Just let them believe it. They need it, because they are often on the road alone, and after all those mistakes made (somewhere deep down they know the truth), they love to say that they have done something good for once. 😉