25 mistakes salespeople make and how to avoid them

1. Gary Michels
25 MISTAKES SALESPEOPLE MAKE
AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

2. The 25 Mistakes That Salespeople Make
What makes the perfect salesperson?
Sometimes we get a bad rap, so I wanted to know what people
really look for or want in a salesperson and what mistakes that
we make in the sales process. I spent several years asking this
question of my prospects and clients and here are the results of
years of research revealed.

3. MISTAKE #1: Being a Poor Listener
• God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason (Listen twice as much as you
talk).
• Never interrupt. It is ok for them to interrupt you if they need to get more
information.
• By listening, you are showing them that you are there to help them and you
really care about their success.
• You are there to help them, not “get them”.

4. MISTAKE #1: Being a Poor Listener
• Be interested, not interesting. This is where trust is built.
• Listen not lecture - a good rule to live by.
• You need to listen to the non-verbal clues.
• A good way to improve your listening skills is ask if it would be OK to jot down a few notes
from the time together and then read them back at the end of the meeting to affirm you were
listening and to clarify things.
• Make sure to cover these three areas in every presentation: past, present and future.

5. MISTAKE #2: Seeing the prospect as somebody that is a friend, not an
enemy
• Don’t assume that the prospects are always going to “work you” and have a
bad impression on salespeople as a whole.
• The best selling comes from an approach that is a win-win for both parties.
• “Walk in their shoes” to see where they might be coming from.
• Even if you are upset with the prospect for one reason or another, let it go and
move on.

6. MISTAKE #3: Not keeping up to date with what is going on currently in their
business
• Knowledge is power. Is their business doing well? Have there been layoffs or new
product launches? There are tons of reports, journals, articles and info on the
internet for you to use to gain knowledge.
• If they ask you to send something, first confirm that they really are interested and
ask them if they promise to read it if you do send it over and then send it.

7. MISTAKE #3: Not keeping up to date with what is going on currently
in their business
• If you do send it send it, follow up.
• When you send it, put a little post it on the info saying, “Here is the
information I promised I would send and you promised you would read.”

8. MISTAKE #4: Not empathizing with the prospect
• Do everything you can to see the other person’s perspective and realize
you are not the most important thing in their lives.
• This is not just about your product, but about life.
• Sincerity is a good trait to have and can be felt by your prospect by asking a
lot of questions and showing you really care about them.

9. MISTAKE #5: Not planning your day effectively
• Commit to a daily schedule and measure your actual performance against
it.
• Plan every day the night before to avoid using valuable selling time to set
the day up.
• Use a ranking schedule: A=Must do, B=Should do and C=Do if you have
time. Try to get to your A’s and B’s by 2:00 PM so you still have time to get
to your C’s.

10. MISTAKE #5: Not planning your day effectively
• Schedule in some time for crisis situations in case there are things that come
up you can still have time to handle them.
• Get up 10 minutes earlier than you do right now and do your 10/10
Visualizations in the morning to properly start your day.

11. MISTAKE #5: Not planning your day effectively
• Have some sort of tracking sheet to compare your actual plan for the day
verses what you actually end up doing.
• Plan out a solid Monday morning on Friday before you call it quits to get off to
a quick start.
• Schedule something productive for Friday to finish the week strong.

12. MISTAKE #6: Not looking your best
• Put forward a sharp, professional, well-groomed image.
• Little things like crooked ties, spots on clothes from food,
frazzled hair, etc. seem small, but make a big difference to
some people.
• If you are a prospect, you remember somebody who walks
in the door looking sharp and in the first few seconds they
have already gained respect.

13. MISTAKE #6: Not looking your best
• Check yourself out in your car mirror or window or a restroom, if there is
one available, before going into every appointment.
• Save the casual wear for the off-hours.
• Failing to look sharp just leaves an opening for the next sales person who
does look sharp.

14. MISTAKE #7: Underestimating your prospects intelligence
• It is often said that a polished salesperson is a conveyor of
information. We are simply the connecting unit between the
business and the end user.
• The prospect has a lot of knowledge about their needs, a lot
more than you have of their needs.

15. MISTAKE #7: Underestimating your prospects intelligence
• The prospect is also a lot more business savvy now as to their wants and
needs and what you may offer and what your competition has because of the
use of the internet to do their own homework.
• You should strive to be their PARTNER in finding a solution to their problem or
challenge, not have a client-customer relationship.

16. MISTAKE #8: Being fooled by “sure things”
• Do not become distracted with sales on the horizon that may or may not become
real sales. If you do this it reduces your effectiveness of focusing on the current.
• Focus on your daily sales activity and what each activity is worth rather than what
you will make on that one big sale.
Example: Average commission is $1000 per sale. If it takes 4 presentations to make 1 sale, each presentation is worth
$250. If you have to make 10 contacts to make 4 presentations you learn that each contact is worth $100. You could
even say that you have to make 30 dials to make a contact and know that each dial is worth $3.33.
• Focus on current activity at hand because that is real.

17. MISTAKE #9: Underestimating the importance of prospecting
• This is very obvious, yet so many salespeople spend less than 25% of their day
actually doing it.
• 60-70% of your day should be spent doing Income Producing Activities (IPA’S)
and the only 2 IPA’s that we do are prospecting and presenting.

18. MISTAKE #9: Underestimating the importance of prospecting
• You cannot present anything unless you have prospected in the first
place.
• Sales has its ups and downs and if you consistently prospect you will
almost have an insurance policy to make sure you don’t have slumps.

19. MISTAKE #10: Not taking notes
• You establish control and show that you are listening.
• The qualifying stage of the sales process requires several questions to know how to
properly sell them, and being able to refer to your notes during the sale and after is crucial.
• It solidifies what they say if what they say gives you an opening for you to go in and close
the sale. “So what I heard you say a bit earlier, if I wrote this down right...” “I am curious
what it was that caused you to have me come on out and see you today? Let me make a
note of that so I can see to it that we make our time together worthwhile.”

20. MISTAKE #10: Not taking notes
• Make sure that your questions hit on the past, present and future.
• The prospect will talk MORE when you have a pen and pad out. Your note taking
reinforces the prospects desire to speak and this gives you more to write. If you are
writing they are talking and they are listening and that is a good thing.

21. MISTAKE #11: Not asking for the sale
• Make sure you ask for the business with a definite close.
• People don’t close because of lack of confidence in their presentation or close or they
want to be polite and may feel uncomfortable putting the decision maker on the spot.
Prospects want to see confidence in you as it inspires confidence in them. No matter
how bad the presentation was or how much you don’t want to put them on the spot,
you need to close. It is the only way you will pull out any objections they may have and
know how to fix things before they make their final decision.

22. MISTAKE #11: Not asking for the sale
• If they say they do not have it in the budget, ask for another chance to rework the
proposal.
• Find out how much they do have in their budget.
• Sell value and benefits even more than you have already.

23. MISTAKE #12: Not keeping in touch with past clients
• Just because they fall out of your current customer base does not mean they are not
prospects for the future.
• It is estimated that you can get additional business from a current account 1 out of 2
times and 1 out of 4 times from a past client.

24. MISTAKE #12: Not keeping in touch with past clients
• Keep up with past clients at least every quarter after they are no longer working with
you as they may realize what they left was not that bad, actually it was pretty good.
• Make sure to not get mad at people when they choose to go somewhere else. It is
very unprofessional and will shut the door off to future business. It also makes you
look desperate in that you were banking too much on them as customers and don’t
have other people to work with.

25. MISTAKE #13: Not keeping sales tools organized
• Make sure your briefcase, samples and other materials are neatly organized and
reinforce your overall professional image.
• Don’t bring too much into a presentation. Often a simple notepad and a few brochures
is all you need for a first meeting. You can always bring back more materials and things
to show on future meetings or mail or email more information if needed.

26. MISTAKE #13: Not keeping sales tools organized
• If you must bring in more material to do a demonstration, make sure your samples,
papers, cases, etc. look good.
• If you are making a presentation on your laptop make sure it looks clean and not all
dusty and oily from your daily usage.

27. MISTAKE #14: Rushing the sale
• Stick to your Sales Cycle and only move to the next step if you have made it through
the step before.
o Pre Approach
o Approach
o Qualifying
o Presentation
o Close
o Answer Objections
o Solidify
o Get Referrals

28. MISTAKE #14: Rushing the sale
• If qualifying is taking a while, don’t rush to the presentation. If the approach (rapport
building) is important to the prospect and they are staying there, don’t move forward
in a hurry. You can ask questions like, “I have approximately 30 minutes today, what is
the most important item that we need cover this afternoon.” Or “Now that I have
asked you some questions regarding your situation, is it OK with you if we begin the
presentation of our product?”

29. MISTAKE #14: Rushing the sale
• Rushing the sale gives the appearance of a pushy sales person. We are supposed to be
“assistant buyers’ rather than salespeople and as assistants, we go at their pace.

30. MISTAKE #15: You are not obsessed enough with what you are doing
for a living
• You must like what you are doing for a living and the prospect must see it in your eyes.
• You have to be so dedicated to the idea that you and your product can satisfy the
customer’s needs that you move into a “zone” where there is simply no place for
watching the clock, wishing it were break or lunch time or that you were doing
something else for a living.

31. MISTAKE #15: You are not obsessed enough with what you are doing
for a living
• The prospect needs to see the look in your eye and the bounce in your step that you
love what you do.
• Make sure to be obsessive but disciplined to do the right things, not just work for the
sake of working.
• Remember the 60-70% IPA.

32. MISTAKE #16: Not using testimonials always and often
• This is one of the most powerful tools you can have at your disposal.
• Testimonials give people a logical reason to confirm the emotional decision to do
business with you.
• This builds trust in you and your product and without trust there is no sale.
• Create a Championship Letter Binder that can have all sorts of testimonials you can
use to overcome questions and concerns a buyer may have.

33. MISTAKE #16: Not using testimonials always and often
• Have them at your finger tips so that you can email them out to a prospect before an
appointment.
• I have had sales over the years where I simply sent out 6-7 testimonial letters and a
hand written card telling them I was looking forward to our meeting, and when I
arrived they informed me that they were going to work with me.
• Ask your real supporters if they would take a call from time to time to express their
satisfaction.

34. MISTAKE #17: Not being humble
• Do not have a huge ego.
• Let them know you are for them but they will not be successful just because of you.
• Have confidence.
• The prospect does not want to see you trying too hard to be good; they just want to
see you being good.
• Give credit to others instead of always taking all of the credit yourself.

35. MISTAKE #18: Not knowing when to stop talking
• When you have your prospect moving over the buying line you need to close and not
keep talking. If you keep talking they will fall right out of the buying atmosphere, which
is the only time you can successfully close without getting objections and excuses.
• Ask yourself this question: If I were on the receiving end of this conversation would I
want them to stop talking?

36. MISTAKE #18: Not knowing when to stop talking
• If they give you a nod, ask questions, smile and laugh a lot; these are buying signs and
you should ask for the business.
• They may have more questions and you may need to present a little more and close
again, but that is ok.

37. MISTAKE #19: Not showing a competitive spirit
• Keep an ear open for intelligence about your competitors so that you can have educated
conversations.
• Have the attitude that everyone in your company is on the same team shooting for victory.
• Each department plays a role in your success. Encourage everyone to work together and be
excited and pumped up about what your company stands for and what you provide.
• Set high goals and then go all out to attain them.

38. MISTAKE #20: Failing to follow up
• Keep a stack of professional looking note cards on your desk and write hand-written
thank you notes after each presentation.
• Once you walk out the door you become less and less important on the prospects mind
as time goes on. (50% next day, 25% next and 3 days out only 10% as interested)

39. MISTAKE #20: Failing to follow up
• Getting a thank-you card reignites the original interest and shows you pay attention to
details. I like the 2/2/2 Plan. A thank-you call 2 minutes after you leave really letting
them know again how much you appreciate the time they gave you and you look
forward to the opportunity of working together. The second is 2 days later, they get
the card. And the third is 2 weeks later, an email to see where things are currently in
their decision making process or how they like the product so far.

40. MISTAKE #21: Not assuming responsibility
• When faced with a no answer consider that it is not their fault it may be your fault for
not bringing enough value.
• Record yourself and listen to yourself sell as to see where you can grow.
• Ask co-workers or leadership to go along with you on a presentation and critique you.

41. MISTAKE #21: Not assuming responsibility
• Ask your prospect where you went wrong and what might you may be able to change
to bring around a positive result.
• I know we have the best… I am sorry I must have done something terribly wrong in the
way I explained things to you. Because they see you being real and very
compassionate about what you do, they will usually come out with the real reason for
not working with you. And if you know that, you may be able to overcome it.

42. MISTAKE #22: Taking rejection personally
• Try to develop resilience and self-assurance when confronting rejection: remember
that hearing a no answer is the only way to get to a yes answer.
• Every no will get you one closer to a yes.
• You need to know your ratios and get excited about the no’s because you know how
the numbers work.
• Rejection is not a reflection of you. It is usually just your product or service or company
and part of the game.

43. MISTAKE #23: Focusing too much on the negatives
• Always look at the glass of water half full rather than half empty.
• If you are not making sales, step up your self-talk, affirmations, motivational readings,
hanging out with successful people, etc.
• Being negative will bring more negativity.

44. MISTAKE #24: Being Distracted
• Be completely focused. Focus is power.
• Work off lists to make sure you get to all of the things you need to.
• Do not do errands or trivial work 4.5 days a week and give yourself ½ day to catch up
on the cleaners, gas, errands etc.
• Learn how to not get caught up in checking and responding to emails. Pick certain
times dedicated to that and focus. Don’t allow the non IPA stuff to creep into your life.

45. MISTAKE #25: Not having a fallback position (a Plan B)
Make sure to have a plan when Plan A goes wrong.
Many times a salesperson goes for the big elephants and ignores the low hanging fruit
that is right there in front of them. You need the fruit to fill in around the big elephants in
case the big elephant does not come.

46. MISTAKE #25: Not having a fallback position (a plan B)
• Always have a big pipeline because things will change and people will back out and go
other directions, and you can have a laid back attitude full of confidence that if that
happens you will be ok.
• The sand analogy is very good here. If you hold sand loosely it stays in your hand. If
you hold it tight it comes out. Treat your people great but don’t hold them too tight
and know a plan B is there in case things go wrong.