6 Sales Mistakes To Avoid
I love that scene from Tommy Boy where Chris Farley’s character actually lights his customer’s desk on fire while trying to close a deal.
I love it so much, because it’s actually one of the sales mistakes that I’ve never made. They say that “to err is human”, but in sales making a mistake can take money out of your pocket, and that really hurts.
When we started building Spiro, we interviewed hundreds of sales leaders and sales professionals to figure out what mistakes they were making, and how an AI-Powered sales automaton CRM would help avoid them.
Here are the mistakes they highlighted:
1. Not Being Prepared
You know that saying, “80 percent of success is showing up”? Well, that’s total bullshit, and especially so in sales. You need to spend some time defining what you want to achieve in sales calls or meetings, know your buyer’s background and objectives and be totally engaged in the movement.
Spiro helps you being prepared by prompting you before meetings and calls to confirm your upcoming meetings, set the right agenda and research your prospect.
2. Not Following Up at the Right Time
You had a great sales call, now what? You need to get the prospect back on the phone, move the deal forward. When do you call? Do you send an email instead? What if you don’t hear back? The choices you make here can make or break a deal.
Many sales reps make a mistake by using their gut instinct to answer these questions. Spiro users have the advantage of machine learning using sophisticated algorithms prompting them at the best time.
3. Using Email Too Much
As a good friend of mine said recently, “I’ve never closed a deal on email.” Email is great for helping find prospects, warming them up to your message, but it’s really hard to build a real relationship without actually speaking with someone. Many salespeople send emails instead of picking up the phone because it’s easier.
But it’s a mistake — you need to have the right mix of emails to calls to push your sale forward. Spiro learns from your interactions with prospects and customers to prompt you call when calling is important, and emailing when that will get a better response.
4. Working on the Wrong Deals
We all do this. I get super attached to one opportunity because I really like the buyer, and I’m blinded by the fact that they might not be the best target. When you’re chasing a bunch of deals, who has time to sort out the best ones, so you can focus on the biggest and most likely to close?
That’s what Spiro does. It learns from your CRM which deals your working on and encourages you to focus on the ones that really matter. The ones that are going to make you more money.
5. Spending Too Much Time on Admin Work
I know salespeople who are super pleased that their salesforce.com is always up to date. As another sales guy told me, “if you’ve got enough time to update salesforce, your probably not selling enough.”
The good news is that Spiro automatically updates CRM for you after each call and email. Boom. Done.
6. Losing Motivation
Sales is a hard game. The best reps get rejected more than half of the time. What would happen to the accounting department if they were rejected half the time on everything they were doing? They’d be hiding under their desks. You need to push through it, but it’s hard to keep that motivation going.
Then when you do make a call or send an email, Spiro will straight up show you a motivational picture taken from the public Instagram feeds like ESPN, GQ or Victoria’s Secret. That will give you a boost for sure!
Sell Better, Sell Smarter
Take my advice and avoid these six critical mistakes that all salespeople make from time to time. I guarantee that the more you avoid them, the more money you will see in your bank account.
