4 Little Sales Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making

by Shannon Fandler

Not to make you paranoid or anything, but we’re guessing that you regularly make at least one of these 4 mistakes. The scary part: at some point in your career, you’ve probably failed to close a big deal due to a seemingly minor offence. So to increase your awareness (and keep you obsessively checking yourself) here are 4 slip-ups we see a lot.

1. Getting a detail wrong. If you’re in a hurry (and who isn’t!) it’s easy to write an email to Dear Daniel instead of Dear Danielle, use Mrs. instead of Ms., or otherwise slip up on a small but important detail. Errors happen, but you can avoid ruffled feathers by triple-checking the prospect’s full name, gender, and the name of the company. It’s worth the extra couple of seconds. If you aren’t sure, check Linkedin; your contact’s profile is sure to have the correct details.

2. Asking an unnecessary question. Imagine how many times your prospect has repeated his key company stats! With a little digging around online, there’s no need to ask basic questions like “What do you do?” and “How many employees do you have?” Too many sales reps fail to get to the point quickly, because they are establishing preliminary facts. Thorough pre-call research can help you arrive at solutions based on the prospect’s company size and industry before you even pick up the phone.

3. Forgetting to get permission. If the prospect is annoyed that you interrupted her, those feelings will quickly dissipate if you say, “I know you’re busy – is now a good time to talk?” You can also ask her preferred method of contact – maybe email or an alternative phone number is better.

4. Letting a lead fall through the cracks. Many sales reps don’t realize that their lead management behaviors can lead to lost deals. When we studied lead handling practices across a variety of industries, we found that around 25% of leads were being lost, often due to something silly like forgetting to schedule a follow-up date or overlooking an appointment on a sick day. In fact, InsightPRM was designed to prevent some of the lead management mistakes that cause good opportunities to drop off an otherwise competent salesperson’s radar.

Have a sales question? Email [email protected]