I’m often asked to share the biggest mistakes salespeople make. Truth is, these mistakes are the same in selling as they are in tweeting, and they cost salespeople thousands of dollars in lost commissions. How did I figure this out?
Last week, bestselling author and speaker Scott Stratten took the stage at the National Speakers Association conference and stole the show. Best known for his books, Unmarketing, Unselling, and his Unpodcast series and his Twitter following of over 183,000 fans, Scott railed on the taboos of Twitter. I couldn’t help but draw parallels between tweeting mistakes and sales mistakes.
Here are the top three mistakes salespeople make when they sell like they tweet:
- They make it all about themselves.
Eighty percent of all social media posts are about… guess who? The person posting it! Salespeople are notorious for believing the most interesting and compelling subject matter in the world is themselves and their product. According to Mr. Stratten, he attracts more followers, faster, by discussing sports and music than by posting his awards and achievements. Remember, building a commonality is far more effective than trumpeting your accomplishments when it comes to earning trust and winning deals.
- They ask before they give
What’s the first thing you do when you get pitched from a virtual contact who tells you why you should watch his demo, buy his product or donate to his cause? DELETE!
Research shows relationships are built when we give at a ratio of 5:1 on social platforms.” Ask yourself, “Am I leading with my heart or putting on the hard sell to win the deal?” What can I give before I ask?” A partial list may include:
- Valuable information about something other than your product
- A sympathetic ear
- A new insight
- A solution to a problem
- An important contact.
- Genuine curiosity about their life, their values and their goals
- They say something when they have nothing worthwhile to say
Many bloggers and tweeters today feel compelled to crank out content at any cost. Problem is, they offer quantity over quality. Salespeople, too, often speak when they should be listening and tell when they should be asking. Remember, you will make more sales by asking a series of targeted, thoughtful questions than by delivering a perfectly polished presentation.
Selling is and has always been the quintessential social interaction. So, as Scott Stratten says, “stop selling and start engaging!
Learn more with Shari’s book Heart and Sell: 10 Universal Truths All Salespeople Need to Know.
Twenty years ago, Shari Levitin coined the term, “Third Level Selling,” and trained thousands of salespeople and corporate leaders on a system of emotional selling that revolutionized the sales process and created over a billion dollars of ROI for some of the world’s top corporations.
Shari Levitin takes this concept to a whole new level and shows salespeople, managers and entrepreneurs the methods to create an emotional customer experience that creates true urgency, a process to decrease objections that result from a more sophisticated buyer, and techniques to manage your own emotional state to ensure sustained performance and a shorter sales cycle. READ MORE