Questions That Sell

The Mistakes Salespeople Make

There are six common mistakes that salespeople make when they encounter a customer’s objection or stalling tactic:

1. Fearing the customer’s reaction. Many salespeople are afraid of what a customer might say and they end up losing a sales opportunity because they do not discover what the customer really wants. For example, a salesperson dreads hearing the words, “Your price is too high.” It’s almost a knee-jerk reaction to respond with a lower price. Instead, a salesperson should be proactive and try to uncover the unique buying criteria important to the customer so the price objection would never come up in the first place.

2. Taking it personally. Although in our heads we know that a customer’s bad attitude does not ...