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“DANGER – Mouth Operates Faster Than Brain” in Professional Selling
Last week, we conducted a training and coaching workshop with a client’s sales team on how to improve the outcomes of sales calls and meetings. These workshops typically involve audio and video role-play simulations so salespeople can hear things they say during prospect and customer calls.
I’ve summarized a few things I heard during the workshop that salespeople should never say:
“Are you the decision-maker?”
Prospects won’t readily share the decision-making process in their companies, nor want to admit if they don’t make the final call. And if the answer is “no,” you are stuck. Better questions are, “How does your team finalize a buying decision?” or “Besides you, who else weighs in on decisions like this?”
“I don’t want to waste your time”
Just saying that sentence wastes time. Instead, get to the point. Try this, “It doesn’t look like this the right time for us to work together.”
“I can only do this for you”
If you promise special treatment – which is a thinly veiled lie in a statement like this – now, your prospects will expect it time and again. If it’s not special treatment, don’t say it is. Instead, say, “What I can do is this..”
“Let me email you some information”
Your email will be overlooked or intentionally trashed. Instead, take advantage that they are in front of a computer and say, “If you’re in front of a computer, I have material we can walk through that will crystallize what we might be able to do together.”
Salespeople are in “hand-to-hand” combat with competitors, so they must be precise in what they say throughout the sales process. This is where Professional Selling Skills come in handy.
Training and coaching can be effective in improving salesperson performance, so make sure you are planning the right level of investment for 2020 to keep your teams sharp!
Find more things a salesperson should never say below:
Things Salespeople Should Not Say #1
Things Salespeople Should Not Say #3
Things Salespeople Should Not Say #4
Things Salespeople Should Not Say #5
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