Top 10 Mistakes by Sales People

I have compiled a list of the TOP 10 mistakes made by sales people. This list is formed based on years of being in sales and sales training and years of being a consumer.

While most people don't do all of these thankfully, many salespeople do a couple of them. When you read this, be honest with yourself. After all, the only person you are hurting is yourself. Think of all the other people you could help and how much more money you can make by getting a little better at these.

1. Assumptions - Never assume you understand what a customer is asking. If you think you have a solution to a need the customer has, confirm it. State the solution, then ask if that solution will help them. Remember that just because you like something or your manager likes something, every single customer may NOT like it. Don't point out a "great" feature of your product if you are not already aware that particular customer has a desire for it. When you assume you set yourself up for failure and awkwardness.



2. Wrong Energy Level - Too many sales people haven't grasped the concept of either having a normal energy level or somewhat mirroring your prospect. Way too often it's either over excited sales person or super relaxed low key sales person. Neither is good. Be normal. If you are too many energy levels higher then the prospect, they WILL think you are obnoxious. If you are too low, then you are perceived as aloof and mildly clueless.



3. Not Prepared - If you don't know the basic information about your products, you lose. It's okay and perfectly understandable to not be aware of every detail of every product. That is actually a good follow-up scenario. But, if you are not aware of basic pricing, functionality, process, or how a particular product will benefit that particular customer you should NOT be selling it. Learn first, sell second.



4. Lazy - This one is fairly far reaching. Laziness really encompasses a bit of each category because of a failure to be aware of your deficiencies or lack of knowledge. For the context of this writing, I am going to use lazy to encompass a different meaning. Be on time. If you get to work 10-15 minutes late everyday, you are lazy. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but get to work on time. It just isn't that hard. If a client shows a desire to go see a home, car, product demonstration or whatever else. Take them! Don't give directions. Don't hand them a key. Go take them! What else are doing besides killing a possible sale that is right in your face?



5. Bad First 2 minutes - Does your greeting stink? Try something else. The first two minutes of any conversation are important for a customers perception of you. Make a note: Many customers don't want to talk to you anyway and want to avoid you initially. Why? Because so many sales people pounce on them in the first two minutes. Don't be that guy / girl. NO SELLING ALLOWED in the first two minutes. This is rapport building time. Be Likeable. Be someone that another person may actually want to talk to. If you screw this part up, it is hard to get yourself back to being viewed favorably.



6. Over Selling - Over selling is obvious and boring. It is NOT necessary to point out every feature of a product to a customer. They don't care. People want to know details about the things they find important not you. People have short attention spans and no time to waste, so don't bore people with insignificant details. You will lose them. They will tune out and start coming up with escape mechanisms to get away from you.



7. Confrontational - If a customer makes a statement of dislike, distaste, or dissatisfaction with a product you offer, DON'T take offense. You most likely didn't design it, create it, or invent it. Why are you offended if they don't like it? Find out what they dislike about something and why, then attempt to shift them to something they will like. Confrontation makes the experience bad for the customer and awkward for you. Avoid it.



8. Talk too Much - If you talk more then you listen, you are talking way too much. If you want to be good at selling and I mean better then most other people, scale your talking way back. You should only be talking to greet someone, ask question about your customer's needs, and answer questions that your customer asks. If you talk to fill what you perceive as an awkward silence, get some more confidence and hold your tongue. If you love to tell personal stories while making a sale, you lose. Customers are there to be helped, not listen to personal stories of some random sales person. Listen to your customers and respond with helpful and thoughtful solutions.



9. Wrong Focus - If your sole purpose of being in sales is to make a ton of cash, you will lose in the long run. If your goal each day is too sell your product, you also most likely lose in the long run. Focus on that individual customer that is standing in front you. Only focus on helping them. Don't push any product on any person. People love to buy, but they hate to be sold. Focus on helping the client see the benefits of your product and how it improves their current situation. Sales and money will come consistently when and if you have the right focus.



10. Arrogance - Confidence is crucial. Arrogance is the kiss of death. Arrogance is thinking that you already know everything. In many cases it leads to laziness because you stop learning new stuff. It is annoying and is a major turn-off and it has been a dagger in the heart of many once good sales people. In reality arrogance is false confidence that is created to make up for some personal deficiency in another area. It is basically a personality flaw that covers up a weakness.

Curt Fletcher aka The Likeability Guy, is a Real Estate Professional, Business Development Strategist, Published Author of the book, "How To Sell More Homes and Increase Your Income," Sales Trainer, and Professional Speaker that focuses on improving your Likeability to increase your Opportunities for Success!

8 Great Reasons the Hand Written Thank You Note is Better

I have been involved in Real Estate selling for the last five years. In that time, I have met countless people for the "first" time. To ensure I met as many as possible a "second" time, I knew I needed a better approach then my competition.

Among other things, I knew I needed a strong immediate and genuine follow-up method.

The hand-written thank you note.

This is such a strong tool that is vastly misused and underused in virtually every "service" oriented business.

Over the years I have compiled this list of outstanding benefits of the hand written thank you.

1. It is pure. The hand written thank you is the purest, oldest, and most understood form of appreciation.


2. It is conscientious and caring. The implied message from the recipient is that you sat down and took time to write and think only about them at that moment. It is subliminal, but understood. Most people personally dislike the act of writing thank you notes, so when they get one, they appreciate the time dedication you took for them.


3. It helps you learn and pay more attention on your first encounter. If you know that you are going to write a hand written thank you note after you meet someone, you pay more attention during the visit.


4. It's better then what your competition is doing. Most people send out an automated email or standard generic letter. This is boring, easy, and average....so is the received perception of your prospect when they get this type of letter.


5. It is personal. In the thank you note do not list your credentials or boast about your company. Recount a detail from your encounter. Jog their memory to create a visualization that only you and that prospect shared.


6. It will actually be read. Most generic forms of follow-up are easily identifiable and discarded into the trash without being opened. When people receive a handwritten thank you note with a handwritten address on the envelope, they open it.


7. It demonstrates confidence. By taking time and writing about a detail during your encounter displays a level of confidence that you feel the meeting went well. It affirms to the prospect that you believe in your product and yourself. And it subtly relays that the prospect also enjoyed the encounter. If you thought it went poorly, would you be writing to remind them about it?


8. It's a Reminder. People often visit many different locations before making a purchase, so they may not actually remember you. The thank you note is a reminder that they did come visit you and the experience was a good one. Many times, they may still not remember you specifically, but the thank you makes them "think" they enjoyed what you had so they will come out a 2nd time.

Remember that follow-up isn't about you and what is the fastest and easiest way to complete it. It is about an individual customer that took their time to come and talk to you. If you want to have better results with the people you meet, try a personal hand written thank you note. You won't be disappointed.

Curt Fletcher aka The Likeability Guy, is a Real Estate Professional, Business Development Strategist, Published Author of the book, "How To Sell More Homes and Increase Your Income," Sales Trainer, and Professional Speaker that focuses on improving your Likeability to increase your Opportunities for Success!

What do you do well?

Do you ever get stuck in that mode of wanting to be something or wanting to do something that someone you admire does?

Have you ever found yourself trying to emulate that person, but seemingly not having the same results?

This is a tricky topic to explain because it can be thought of in different ways.

The old school of thought is to simply copy or emulate what the most successful people in your field of work do and you will improve. While I believe much of this is true, there is always one little hitch left off of this theory.

If you are ever going to do something really well, meaning better then most others, you must make it unique. You must put your own spin on it to allow for obvious differentiation amongst you and anyone you are competing with.

If everyone takes the same books about success, implements all the theories, then what happens? Truthfully, not much. You will be working and operating in a big sea of similar people with no unique standout features.

What made the people like Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar, or you name the "success" person, is that they were totally unique in their particular era. So much is written today on the topics of success based on the theories of a small handful of people, that the message has been diluted.

What brings real success is when you implement successful habits on a daily basis, but also make yourself or product unique. You have to answer the "why" question for people, but it has to be answered in a way that is obvious to them. This isn't something you can just tell someone.

To be selected in any situation, your clients, prospects, hiring managers, or whatever, must internally be able to answer these questions without much deep thought.

• "Why would I pick you?"


• "Why would I buy this?"


• "Why do I need that?"


• "Why is this better than that?"


• "Why is this person better than that person?"


• "Why is this person worth this much?"

If the decision maker is having difficulty answering any of these type questions, you may not be positioned in a very clear and unique manner.

Curt Fletcher aka The Likeability Guy, is a Real Estate Professional, Business Development Strategist, Published Author of the book, "How To Sell More Homes and Increase Your Income," Sales Trainer, and Professional Speaker that focuses on improving your Likeability to increase your Opportunities for Success!

Doppler Radar Marketing

As I'm typing this here in Dallas / Fort Worth, we are under a severe weather storm warning. This time of year, we are pretty much always under the threat of a severe rain storm at some point during the day. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't.

I started thinking though. When there is even a small hint of possible severe weather around here it glues people to their TVs. It could be rain, wind, snow, ice...you name it. It is "stop down" viewing when the weather person interrupts your regularly scheduled TV show to give an update.

What if you could tap into that kind of "stop down" reading for your marketing efforts? What would that entail? How could anyone possibly pull that off?

My thoughts are this:

1. Be Original...ALL the time. Don't start out with original thoughts then revert to what everyone else in your business does.


2. Don't be in people's face ALL the time. It's good to stay in touch and communicating with your fans, but I am referring to the emails, commercials, ads, etc, that are ALWAYS preaching "limited time" or "unique." We all know that is crap. If you are selling something for one price today, I guarantee I can get if for the same price tomorrow. Stop lying to us. We are not that dumb.


3. Don't always hold the details back from the public. If you are going to build up your skills, products, or whatever, then give us a taste. A good taste. Don't provide a million testimonials from people we don't know and think we will hand our money over. I want to see a decent sample of your "uniqueness," not just words.

Watching weather reports on TV and looking at their ratings, should be a message to everyone that it is still VERY possible to hold someone else's attention span for longer then 2 minutes. All you have to do is provide people with valuable information that has an impact on their life. The trick is creating your information in such a way that people have no doubt that you can have an impact on them.

When you do that. People will listen. Everything else is just noise.

15 Minutes

It seems everyone is looking around trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame. With all the social networking sites and you tube videos, people can plaster themselves all over these days.

The problem with this approach today is that it is no longer original. To gain a new following via any of these type sites is going to be very difficult if you are relatively unknown. With people everywhere around the world inundating these sites every moment of every day it will continue to get harder and harder to gain recognition this way.

So how do you grow a following?

There is actually no big secret here, just know that unless something out of the ordinary happens, it will take some time, consistency, courage, and hard work to get yourself out there. Once you are out there, these other social media sites can serve you very well in growing your personal brand.

What to do:

1. Start small with a core group of people that are loyal and believe what you do is something great.


2. Ask your core group of supporters to help you by passing the word to their sphere of influence.


3. Repeat

Stay consistent and your personal core group of supporters will start to grow exponentially. Many folks call this pyramid marketing. I just call it common sense. No fancy terms. You can't start marketing on a large scale first if people don't know you. Build your brand, create some value, and enlist the support of those that believe in you.

Social Networking a Crutch?

Social Networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc, have become sensations in a very short amount of time. There are scores of articles and blog posts about these sites and how great they are. I'm gonna take a slightly different approach.

If your an aspiring speaker, trainer, marketer of any sort, or your goal is somehow to create new business by networking on such sites, its gonna be a tough road for you. The reason these sites are so popular is simply because they pique that little twinge that 95% of people have called curiosity.

These sites make people feel like they are part of a group. It really helps those people that are more reserved or shy in their real life interactions, but the mask of the Internet allows people to come out of their shell just a bit.

However, creating new business and marketing yourself via these sites will have very little impact on your future success. People use these sites as an escape from their workday reality. They want to relax and communicate with their friends or acquaintances. That being said, it makes these sites not very receptive to being hit with solicitations.

Unless you are already established in your business with lots of followers, this will most likely not be a good payoff for you to spend time marketing to these sites. I'm not saying don't do it, I am just suggesting that if your allocating your time to certain areas of business development, this should not be the area with the most time allocated.

There is no substitute for face to face encounters and good old fashioned hard work. Build your business by hitting the street and talking to warm bodies. Maintain that contact with your business via these social networking sites. That's the order. Not the other way around.