In your Sales Process, you must be a master of controlling your emotions. All sales are emotional. And your emotions impact buyer behaviours. Everyone in sales loses sales but do you recognise any triggers that lose you sales? Ronan outlines 5 ways you can kill a sale without your realising it.

5 Ways To Kill A B2B Sale

You earn the right to sell. You work hard to become a Trusted Advisor. You build Rapport. You provide solutions. So, don’t blow it all by employing any of these 5 ways to Kill A Sale.

Remember these
In your Sales Process, you must be a master of controlling your emotions. All sales are emotional. And your emotions impact buyer behaviours. Everyone in sales loses sales but do you recognise any triggers that lose you sales?

5 Ways You Might Trigger A Lost Sale
All of the reactions below are prevalent among salespeople. And they must be avoided, at all costs. Take a little time to read everyone and reflect honestly on your performance in sales meetings with clients and prospects.

Selling is not Telling
You’ll know by now that you can lose up to 75% of sales due to a lack of Rapport Building. When I talk about Rapport, I don’t mean being liked. I mean trusted. Telling is not a great strategy for building rapport and gaining trust.
There are four core styles of behaviour.
Director (likes to tell you directly what they think)
Influencer (likes to win you over with their verbal skills)
Relater (likes to build trust with you slowly as they are risk averse)
Analyser (likes to see the detail first)

As a general rule of thumb Directors and Influencers default to “Telling” in conversations.
Your job is not to take control and assume a position of authority. Your role is as a consultant a trusted advisor, a partner. Your role is to listen deeply and seek ways in which you can collaborate and develop solutions.
So, Ronan, you are saying I can never tell someone? No, I live in the real world and if you are seen as an expert people often want you to tell them what could work. However, don’t confuse this scenario to the “know it all” who likes to tell prospects that they are wrong. I have seen this happen hundreds of times.

Overselling
There is a fine line between enthusiasm and overselling. Enthusiasm is so important in a salesperson, but saying whatever it takes to get the sale can kill the sale.
Over-promising is easy. Delivering on these promises is never quite as easy. When you are put on the spot regarding a feature or benefit the prospect needs, don’t just say yes to please. Often the best policy is to understate what you can deliver.
“Remember 93% of all communication is non-verbal.”
You may think you are getting away with it, but if your prospect suspects you are bluffing, and your body language agrees, you are in trouble.

Correcting or being the “know it all”;
Never correct or cut across a prospect. John Maxwell, a world-renowned leadership author and speaker, states it in this way
“Never try to be interesting, always be interested”.
In other words stop showing off your superior knowledge, or experience. Never try to highlight the prospects lack of knowledge or experience. You may feel your status is improving, but remember at whose expense? It can’t be at your prospect or customer’s expense. You kill the sale.
Showing interest means, you are focusing on the other person, not yourself. And remember a critical point. Never argue with a prospect

Giving opinions
Always be mindful of your audience. Avoid opinions on topics that people may have strongly held beliefs on. The obvious ones are politics and religion, but be mindful too of giving opinions on a company’s, products, decisions or strategies. The effect of this is that you may well be criticising the very people who made the decisions.

Knocking the competition
Smart salespeople can undermine a competitor’s products and services, by avoiding direct criticism or comment. Focus on your strengths, not their weaknesses. It is unprofessional. And customers rarely appreciate it.

Key Takeaways
You have worked hard to get into a position where you can close a sale. Don’t blow it by, telling, overselling, correcting giving opinions or knocking your competition. Keep focused on the result and your prospect. It is always about them not you.

Actions
In what ways have you unconsciously being “killing the sale”? What will you do to overcome this approach going forward?

Regards Ronan

Ronan is the “Sales Infrastructure Guy”.

Helping high growth tech companies build world-class sales systems and processes that scale.

Call me on +353(86) 7732201

Ronan Kilroy | Insthinktive Sales Leadership Ltd. | Blanchardstown, | Dublin 15, | Office 01 8220523

www.insthinktive.com

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