Is Your Sales Process Costing You Sales?

We spend a lot of time talking about selling skills - the interpersonal skills needed to successfully close sales and generate business. However, sometimes the fault for poor or less than expected sales results lies not in the people skills of the sales rep but rather the sales process itself that has been set up. Our processes can trip us up and make it harder for people to say "yes" to us. For instance:


Recently I received a call for a phone company, asking me to change my service. Now I'm always in favor of saving money so I definitely gave a listen. I gave my fax number and promised to look over the information. I had a hard time listening to the rep as she appeared to be calling from a very noisy call center.

About an hour later I got a call (again from the noisy call center) from the original rep's supervisor asking for my business. I politely told her I prefer to think about this type of decision first. She offered to call me back in 3 days. The next day, I received her follow up call. No reference to the fact she wasn't supposed to call me for two days. She asked for my order again. Now, at this point, I had realized that this offer wouldn't be a good fit for me. I didn't like the length of the contact. She immediately offered a contract of a much shorter duration. I declined the offer.

Here's why:

• Why can't the first person conduct the entire sales process? Unless you have a brand new person or a very complicated product, there's really no reason for a second person to get involved. It smacks of poor training.
• Why is a "supervisor" calling back? Wasn't born yesterday... I've worked in industries where all the sales reps had business cards that said "vice president". Come on, we know you're the closer. There are smoother ways to handle that.
• Was inconsistent. If you're going to call back sooner, reference that to me. For instance "I know I'm supposed to call you back in 2 days, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of ....."
• Offered concessions to fast. If you come down in price too fast, or make any concessions too quickly, it makes people feel uneasy. "What else will they compromise on? Would I have been taken advantage of if I hadn't brought that up?"

And... oh yes, get a noise canceling headset...

Obviously, these techniques get sales, but how many sales are you losing? Sometimes, we forget there are human beings on the line with human reactions. We need to be able to walk the line between passive and aggressive in order to achieve our goals. Overly aggressive sales techniques increase the odds that buyers will cancel after the "aura" of the sales environment you're created goes away. For more sales and solid customer relationships, use assertive techniques that focus on your customer's needs.