Top 10 B2B sales mistakes
If you're a business owner, sales manager or sales rep, you'll find it helpful to know what the most common B2B sales mistakes are.
Sales mistakes happen to everyone, but the truth is that the more mistakes we make, the more orders and revenue we miss, and the more customers go to the competition.
Let's take a look at the top 10 typical B2B sales mistakes.
My observations in this field lead me to conclude that there are typical B2B sales mistakes that are often made by both inexperienced and more experienced salespeople.
The top 10 B2B sales mistakes are:
- Selling without a system;
- Empty sales funnel;
- Bad first impression;
- Ignorance of the product, industry and competition;
- Moving too quickly into the sale;
- Too much talking, too little (and poor) listening;
- Unconvincing presentation;
- Inability to handle objections;
- Not closing the sale;
Lack of contact with the customer after the sale.
If you work in sales, you can look at yourself sideways and see if you are making any of these mistakes too. If so, you should adjust your behavior to sell more successfully.
Let's take a closer look at each of these B2B sales mistakes.
Selling without a system
Chaotic work in B2B sales plagues many salespeople and leads to episodic, temporary, short-lived results.
A major mistake many salespeople make is that they underestimate the power of working with a system. They naively believe that with personal charm and improvisation, they can achieve high and sustainable results over time in B2B sales. This is a myth!
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson hasn't received good sales training and doesn't know or skips important stages in B2B sales.
The salesperson believes that working with a system is not something important and prefers to work by "personal feel".
When a salesperson continually improvises, he or she can sometimes get success, but more often will make mistakes and a significant percentage of sales attempts will end without results.
Empty sales funnel
The term "sales funnel" metaphorically refers to the process of attracting new customers.
A major mistake many salespeople make is that they don't actively fill their sales funnel with leads, which is why it dries up.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson takes a passive approach and invests their time primarily in servicing the current customer base, leaving no time for prospecting for new customers and actively selling.
The salesperson lacks the knowledge, skills, and therefore the confidence to seek out new customers. He or she is unsure how to properly make initial contacts by phone, email and/or in-person meeting.
If a salesperson's sales funnel is not constantly fed with new deal opportunities and orders, customers will inevitably begin to dwindle to the point where they will stop altogether.
This can put the company's growth at risk, especially if the current customer base is not placing enough orders.
Poor first impression
The first impression is formed in the first 4-30 seconds. It is so lasting and impactful that it can predetermine a customer's choice of whether (or not) to purchase a product from that retailer.
A major mistake many salespeople make is that they don't leave a favorable first impression, which is why they miss out on gaining more customers.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson doesn't know how to start a conversation with the customer on the phone or in an in-person meeting, and how to compose a first (cold) email to the customer to gain their initial trust.
The salesperson doesn't know how to position the product, the company and himself in the mind of the customer, who is confused from the start, doesn't know exactly what to expect from the salesperson and why he should listen to him at all.
The salesperson exudes unprofessionalism through inappropriate dress and appearance, unsure eye contact, sluggish greeting, lack of smile, enthusiasm, punctuality...
When a salesperson doesn't know how to make an excellent first impression, his clients form a preconceived and unfavorable (but strong!) image of him on a purely emotional level that is difficult to change.
Ignorance of the product, the industry and the competition
In many companies, unprepared salespeople interact with customers every day. Sad but a fact! Everyone has encountered incompetent employees, right?
A major mistake many salespeople make is that they set out to sell to customers in B2B marketplaces without knowing their product well enough, but also without knowing the market and competition well enough.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson is a new employee with modest experience and hasn't yet had a chance to get a deep understanding of the product, the market, and the competition, but the company "throws them into the sea" to "learn to swim."
The salesperson has not received good product and sales training from his organization.
The salesperson has an "I know it all" mindset and doesn't take personal initiative to develop as a professional - doesn't follow the news about their industry, doesn't read books and articles, doesn't care about customers and their needs, doesn't care what the competition is doing, etc.
When a salesperson doesn't know their own product, industry or competition, customers don't see them as someone who can be of real value to them.
Moving too quickly to the sale
Sales involve two parties - a seller and a buyer. For a deal to go through, there needs to be a good relationship between them.
A major mistake many sellers make is that they have no patience and start selling too quickly without taking the necessary time to build a good initial relationship.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson doesn't realize that before he can win a customer, he must gain the customer's trust in the product, the company and himself.
The salesperson has not received good sales training and therefore believes that "selling" means taking the initiative from the first second and overwhelming the customer with information.
The salesperson is in a hurry because he is pressed for time urgently and the need to sell in order to achieve his goals for the month.
When a salesperson takes a mechanistic approach to their work, they don't view their customers as people, but simply as money-making opportunities.
Such an approach causes some customers to take a defensive stance. Others form the opinion that the salesperson is too aggressive or desperate to sell. Others simply stop listening and don't buy.
Too much talking, too little (and poor) listening
Most salespeople love to talk. They believe that their job is to talk and the customers' job is to listen.
A major mistake many salespeople make is that they talk too much and consequently listen too little (and poorly) to their customers.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson wants to shine and impress with knowledge, in which case they overwhelm the customer with all sorts of (often superfluous) information about the product, the market, the competition, etc.
The salesperson is inexperienced, nervous or unprepared, and to compensate, starts talking too much.
The salesperson does not have a specific set of questions to ask his customer. When there are no questions, there is no dialogue (conversation) with the customer, i.e., all that is left is for the salesperson to monologue.
The salesperson does not understand the power and importance of listening. He does not realize that only when he gives the customer the opportunity to speak will he find his way to the customer's heart and pocket.
When a salesperson leads monologues, is not in the habit of asking questions or listening to the answers, he misses golden opportunities to get to know his customers' needs better - their rational and emotional reasons for making a purchase.
This makes sales difficult. A salesperson's job is not to talk, but to sell.
Unconvincing presentation
In sales, the presentation is that "moment of truth" in which the salesperson gets the opportunity to present his product, with its salient features and benefits to the customer.
A major mistake many salespeople make is that their presentation is unconvincing - chaotic, uninteresting, unengaging, or the same every other time, no matter the needs and specifics of the customer.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson does not realize that the purpose of his presentation is to persuade and sell. Instead, he just wants to talk - to say his lines, to "sing his song."
The salesperson has not received good training in presentation skills and is not familiar with the three methods of persuasion - ethos, pathos and logos.
The salesperson doesn't know his presentation well - he hasn't rehearsed it enough and doesn't know how to transition between the different parts of it in order to "take" the customer through to the end without losing his interest.
The salesperson doesn't know his product well, nor does he know his customer's needs well. Respectively, he cannot relate product features to customer benefits.
Whenever the salesperson makes a poor presentation, he positions himself as a layman in the eyes of the potential customer.
As a result, the customer is confused, misinformed or bored. Ostensibly, he may listen to the presentation, but he has already decided that he will not buy.
Inability to deal with objections
In B2B sales, customers usually have objections to one part or another of the salesperson's presentation or offer. Somewhere in here the negotiation process between seller and buyer starts.
A major mistake many sellers make is that they fail to handle objections in a calm, cool and convincing manner, resulting in missing out on a number of good sales opportunities.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson does not have the necessary experience and mindset that in B2B sales, objections and offer rejections are normal and that sometimes there may even be more objections and rejections than sales.
The salesperson has failed to find the underlying customer need to satisfy.
The salesperson has failed to minimize the fear of purchase in the eyes of the customer, especially if it appears to be a new potential supplier for him.
The salesperson does not know specific negotiation techniques and how to handle objections.
The inability to handle objections is one of the main reasons many deals and sales fail.
When a customer has one or more objections, it often means they need more information or have fears and concerns that are not answered in the salesperson's presentation.
As a result, the customer will most often not make a purchase, but is likely to buy from a competing company if the salesperson there handles his objections smoothly.
Not closing the sale
"Closing the sale" is that final moment in the sales process when the buyer makes a serious commitment to buy and says "Yes."
A major mistake many salespeople make is that at the crucial moment near the end of the sales call, they take a passive stance and simply expect the customer to take the initiative and say they want to buy.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson doesn't even realize how important the closing of the sale is. He believes that the customer has the final say anyway and there is no point in proactively closing.
The salesperson hasn't received good sales training and doesn't know when to close, doesn't recognize the customer's verbal and nonverbal buying cues, and doesn't have specific closing techniques.
When a salesperson does not know how to close the sale, the customer "goes cold" after the presentation and their intent to make a purchase decreases over time. But some other salesperson, but from a competing company, will close the sale for the same customer and make a deal.
The inability to close the sale is common and is prevalent even among salespeople with long experience in sales.
Lack of contact with the customer after the sale
A typical scenario in B2B sales is a salesperson selling something to a customer, then focusing on other tasks and not remembering about it again.
A major mistake many salespeople make is forgetting to "follow up" with the customer after the sale. In doing so, they miss golden opportunities to strengthen their relationship with him and sell to him again in the future.
This mistake is made when:
The salesperson does not give any thought to the fact that contacting the customer after the sale is part of the professional salesperson's job.
The salesperson is overly preoccupied with other potential sales opportunities, so time is short.
When there is no follow-up contact after a sale, good chances are missed to get to know the customer better - what problems they are having, what else they need, etc. These are all opportunities to deepen and strengthen the relationship and gain their trust and loyalty.
It should never be forgotten that serious and sustainable business is built on repeat orders, not episodic or one-off ones.