Last week I talked about the first four of the seven reasons why you’re not making the sales.

This week I will give you the last three reasons.

5. Lying – Think of a time when you have been lied to. I’m sure you can think of atleast one or maybe many instances.

Maybe it was the repair man who said he would be there at a certain time and showed up hours later or the mechanic who found nonexitent problems.

It seems in our society lying is acceptable. Many people even think it’s okay to have their kids lye for them when someone is on the phone they don’t want to talk and the parent tells the child to tell them they’re not home.

I sales lying is not acceptable, especially when you consider people want to buy from people they like and trust. How can a customer trust you when you lie to them?

However, the number of salespeople who lie or intentionally mislead their customers is staggering.

The old cliche’, “honesty is the best policy” holds true. Customers would much rather have you tell them the truth than stretch it or out and out lie to them.

It will hurt your credibility and ultimately the amount of sales you make and youir repeat and referral business.

6. Failing to understand their needs – This reason is a byproduct of reason number one and two. When a salesperson talks to much and doesn’t listen well then they tend to miss getting to the real need the customer has.

Finding and understanding the needs of your customer is an important step in the sales process, however, very few salespeople really probe and ask enough questions to understand their customers needs.

Many salespeople think they know what the customer needs so they skip this step and jump right in to presenting their product or service.

Without a clear understanding of the specific needs of each customer it’s difficult to know if your product or service is even the right fit.

When you ask specific questions and get a clear understanding of the customers needs you can better tailor your presentation to show your product or service as the best option to fioll their needs.

7. Refusal to take “no” for an answer – Statistics show that most sales are made after 5-7 touches. A touch is a personal visit, a phone contact, email, snail mail or some other form of communication.

As a salesperson it’s important to understand this and to be persistent in attempting to make contact with a potential customer or in the follow-up. However, there comes a time when you need to accept the word as the final answer from the customer and move on.

There is a fine line between and objection and a condition and it’s up to you as the saleperson to determine that line and to make sure you don’t cross it.

It is often better to walk away a little too early than to alienate your self from the customer and kill any chance of possibly doing business with them at a future date.

Over the last two weeks I have given you some valuable information directly from the customers themselves as to why you might be missing out on sales.

Use this information wisely, make some corrections to your current sales process and see if you don’t make more sales.

Think about the last big dollar item you purchased, maybe a car or a big screen television. You probably shopped around and one of the reasons you purchased was because you liked the sales person.

Well recent research discovered 80 reasons why customers dislike salespeople. Here are the top seven. If any one of them sounds like you, you’re probably costing yourself sales.

1. Not listening to customers – Listening is a skill that every sales person should spend time mastering. When I talk about listening I talking about listening to their needs.

Many salespeople go in to a sales meeting having already determined why the customer should buy their product or service. The sales person has preconceived ideas as to what their customers want and need.

When they get to the qualifying phase of the sales process the sales person either glazes over it, not asking the right questions, they ask general questions that only skim the surface of the customers needs, or as the customer is telling them their real needs, the sales person just isn’t paying attention.

It’s so important to ask the right qualifying questions, ones that get to the true needs of the customer and then paying very close attention to what they’re saying and if necessary asking clarifying questions so the you understand exactly what it is they want.

Another reason many sales people don’t listen is because they are thinking about what they are going to say next. They haven’t mastered the sales process and what they are going to say, so while the customer is giving them valuable information, the sales person isn’t listening.

2. Talking too much – To many salespeople talking is selling. The go on and on about how great they are, how graet their company is and how graet their product or service is.

They figure if they do enough talking they will convince the customer to purchase their product or service. These salespeople are convinced that talking is selling, when in fact the opposite is true.

Ask the right questions and let the customer do the talking. There’s an old saying, “they don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”. People like to buy from people they like and the best way to get someone to like you is to show a sincere interest in them and their needs.

By asking questions and letting the customer talk, you will uncover the customers needs and then be able to present your product or service as the best possible solution.

3. Lack of knowledge – So many salespeople are clueless as to how their product or services really works, what’s happening in their industry and what their competition is selling.

They want to get by doing as little work as possible, while still expecting to make impress their customers and make sales.

If you have not taken the time to learn everything you can about your product, your industry and your competition, you are selling yourself short when it comes to making the sale.

Customers want to purchase products and services from salespeople who know what they are talking about. They want to purchase from an expert in their field.

Spend the time doing your homework and become the expert in your industry and an expert about every product or service like yours and the other companies and salespeople who are selling them.

Become the go to guy or gal in for your particular product or service. What I mean is, when people mention your product or service, your name should be the first thing they think of.

4. Lack of follow-up – Many salespeople kill their chances of making a sale when the don’t follow-up with their customers. You see, some customers judge a salesperson and whether they get the sale by how well they do what they say they’re going to do.

It might be some information the customer requested, something the sales person said they would do or maybe just a follow-up after providing a quote. What ever it is the sales person who follows up is usually the one who will make the sale.

Studies reveal that 80% of sales are made after the seventh contact, so do what you say you are going to do, get the customer the information they have requested and by all means, follow-up until the purchase from you or one of your competitors.

However, if you follow-up with your customers chances are your competitors won’t and you will ultimately make the sale.

Stay tuned for next weeks newsletter when I’ll give you reason 5, 6 and 7.

If you’re going to succeed in sales during the current economic situation and in the coming three to five years, you’re going to have to adapt a new way of selling.

These skills are not new to the top sales people. They are the same skills I learned and mastered. The same skills that took me from barely paying my bills back in the early eighties to a six figure income in a matter a three months.

The top sales people in the new economy will have five key skills:

* Empathy with their client

* Long-term relationship-building skills

* The ability to work with people in other departments of their company

* In-depth knowledge of the market

* A dedication to customer service

Let’s dive in and look at each one in-depth:

The sales people who will succeed have empathy with their client.

The dictionary defines empathy as; the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

In layman’s terms, it means you need to be able to put yourself in your clients shoes. You need to look at things through their eyes, feel how their feeling and genuinely care about what’s important to them, putting your own ideas and feelings about what’s right for them aside.

There’s an old saying, people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. So get yourself out of the way and start genuinely caring about what your clients are saying and what their not saying to you.

The sales people who succeed will have long term relationship building skills.

Many sales people and companies for that matter spend more time and money getting a client than they do to keep them. That is so backwards. From the time you first make contact with a client you should thinking long term relationship. Once a client has purchased from you and they like and trust you, they are more apt to purchase more from you and to become ambassadors for you.

When you develop the kind of long term, friendly relationship with your client and they are singing your praises to everyone they know, the business of sales gets so much easier.

As you may already know, it’s a great feeling when the phone rings and it’s a current client calling to give you a referral or better yet it’s the referral calling you want to make a purchase.

The sales people who succeed will have the ability to work with people in other departments of their company.

You need to have good working relationships with all departments of your company. Remember, your all in this together working towards one common goal, to make the client happy so the company turns a profit. People in other departments are not the enemy as many sales people treat them.

You never know when you might need a favor; a faster delivery, so extras added to the purchase, some one to work a little late to get your order out, who knows what you might need from another person in your company some day.

And as the old saying goes, it’s a lot easier to get something with honey, than it is with lemon. So stop being a lemon.

The sales people who succeed will have in-depth knowledge of the market.

There’s no better way to differentiate your self from everyone else who sells a similar product or service than to know every thing that’s going on in your market.

Do you know what your competitors sell, how much they sell it for, or what their customer service is like? Are there any new trends?

Dig in, do your homework and find out everything you can about your market. Many times the sales person will the most knowledge about the market ends up winning the sale, regardless of price.

The sales people who will succeed have a dedication to customer service.

The sale does not end when you collect the check or the order form is signed. It continues on after the sale through the delivery process and for years and years to come.

Remember, your building long term relationships, so get involved in the entire process. Don’t leave every thing up to someone else in your company. Stay involved, even if it’s only to communicate with the client. This kind of follow up will pay off in increase repeat and referral business.

Master these five key skills and you are on your way to being one of the sales people who thrives now and in to the future.

Ignore them and you may very well become one of the casualties of our current economic situation.

These five key skills are the backbone of the way I have sold for the last 27 years and the basis for all my training products and services.

To see the ever expanding list of products and services and choose the ones that are right for you, go to…

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You have until Monday August 3rd at 12 noon EST

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To Your Success,

Jim Klein – From The Heart Sales Training
Sales trainer, Coach and Speaker
Helping salespeople worldwide achieve mastery,
come “from the heart”, and positively impact
lives with perfect solutions.
http://www.fromtheheartsalestraining.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Jim_Klein

Follow me on Facebook: http://profile.to/jimklein/

P.S. If you think this is just another marketing stunt, check the
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Are you constantly worried about where your next sale will come
from? Do you spend most of your time searching for people to sell
instead of actually selling?

Are you tired of making call after call to people who have no
intention of buying? Do you wonder why some salespeople always have
stacks of messages from people who want to buy?

Many salespeople have no idea where to search for prospects who
want to buy their product or service. Their company isn’t much help
either. Their manager gives them a generic list of prospects or
opens the phone book and tells them to make some calls.

He says, “It’s a numbers game. The more people you call the more
money you make”.

It’s true sales is a numbers game but wouldn’t it be great to stack
the numbers in your favor?

You make call after call to people who don’t want to talk to you.
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How much more money could you earn? How much more time would you
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