4 Stupid Sales Mistakes You Must Avoid

“Ignorance is bliss,” until what you’re ignorant about comes back to bite you!

Do your sales results suck?

Have you been making any of these dumb sales mistakes that cause those bad sales results?

Find out below:

Stupid Mistake #1: Selling Features, Not Benefits

Say you sell computers to consumers. You go on and on about their 16 GB of RAM, 1 GB video card, and 2 TB hard drive.

Yet you don’t make sales at the rate you want!

That’s because you sell features (facts) about the product. Only very technical people buy based on features. Most consumers buy benefits (solutions to their problems), not features.

So instead, you change the conversation to “silky smooth performance” and “store all your personal media in one place.”

Experienced marketers commonly use this analogy. Say someone wants to hang a picture. To do that, they need a hole in their wall.

If you try to sell them a drill, they buy at abysmally low rates. If you sell them on what the drill does (makes a hole in the wall), then your sales take off.

Sell benefits to businesses and consumers and your sales will skyrocket.

Stupid Mistake #2: Talking More than Listening

When you review your conversations with customers, you should notice you did the brunt of the listening. Aim for a ratio of 20% talking, 80% listening.

If you do it the other way around, how will you understand the prospect’s problem and sell the right solution?

Won’t you look like an expert if you do all the talking?

Not in most prospect’s eyes. They’ll think  you’re full of yourself.

When you ask questions that strike the heart of your prospect’s problem, they understand you “get” them and trust you to sell them what they really need.

Stupid Mistake #3: Focusing on Yourself Too Much

You can easily check if you’re doing this. Review some of your recent sales calls.

How often do you use words like “I, me, we” compared to words like “you, yours?”

If you use the first-person terms too much, you’re focusing on yourself, your business, and your products and services.

That DOESN’T convince prospects to buy.

Focus the conversation on them, and you’ll close at amazingly higher rates.

Stupid Mistake #4: Leaving Lame Voicemails

Make sure you don’t babble on endlessly during your voicemails. If you use phrases like “it seems like,” “looking forward to,” and “hope to chat soon,” you turn off the prospect.

The same goes for “touching base” and “checking in.”

You often won’t get a hold of your prospects, so it’s important to have a plethora of compelling voicemails in your arsenal.

Keep all voicemails you leave under 30 seconds long. State the reason you’re calling first (not your name) and briefly mention the value you’ve provided to other clients.

Example, “Hello, Mr. Smith. The reason I’m calling is (state the reason).  We’ve helped (client names) get (valuable result to the prospect), and it’ll work for you too. Call 800-123-4567. That’s 800-123-4567 – and ask for John.”

Oh, and here’s a great script of 7 awesome voicemails to leave.

Feel Smarter?

You should after reading these sales mistakes, and learning what to do instead. Add these techniques to your repertoire – and brace yourself for insanely better results!