Are you accidentally alienating your potential customers?
A while back, I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Susan Scott, author of the best-seller
Fierce Conversations. During our talk, she pointed out that many companies pursue self-defeating sales strategies. Here are six of them:
1. Selling Over the Customer's Head
If you sell directly to the CEO after the executive you've been
selling to seems ambivalent or hostile, you probably will not get the
sale anyway and you'll have made that executive into your enemy for
life.
2. Backing Off From a Strong Negotiation Position
If you offer a discount after insisting that your company never
discounts, customers will rightly conclude not only that you were BSing
them in the first place, but that you totally lack a backbone.
3. Dissing Your Competitors (or Theirs)
When you trash-talk your competition, the customer will assume that
your own offerings are so weak that you must resort to low blows. And
criticizing your customer's competitors always sounds like butt-kissing.
4. Giving a Sales Pitch
Nobody wants to hear a sales pitch. Ever. The moment you launch into
one--either in person or online, your customers shut down. To engage a
customer you must
open a conversation, which is the opposite of giving a sales pitch.
5. Pulling Your Punches
Never be afraid to tell clients what they need to know when you feel
they might be making a mistake. This includes advising them NOT to buy
from you if your offering isn't right for them.
6. Assuming Customer Loyalty
It's all too easy to mistake client apathy for client loyalty. Any
client that is not actively praising and proselytizing your firm and its
offerings is open to changing vendors and may be actively looking to
switch.
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