Selling to the Dead

Dumb things that salespeople do to make a killing

By Steve Lentini

Sales people and business owners do dumb things to make a killing in sales. When I say that they are "selling to the dead" it's that they act like their prospects are dead. People have feelings, intuition and logic all working when they consider making a purchase. Sometimes we ignore the signals that people give us, just as if they were dead. 

What would the dead tell you if you were trying to sell them. "I'm not interested, I'm dead?" 

Our prospects tell us all the time that they are not interested and we ignore them because our goals, quotas and commission checks are all more important. Most salespeople venture right into their sales offering. Maybe they bond a little, like standing at a coffin in a funeral parlor, they do not know what to say so they say things like, "how many children do you have?" or "wow, how about those Red Sox?". "Sorry for your loss"... at least that is appropriate. What is better you ask?

Remember that your prospects are alive and well. They have relationships with your competitors perhaps or they do not know you and while they may be interested in your company, trust is missing. Trust is developed, or not, by the salesperson. If they're dead, trust is not needed. Ask yourself, before you say or promise anything, "will this help to create trust or destroy trust?"

Here are dumb things that sales people do that destroy trust. Things I have seen salespeople do in my thirty plus years of sales

1. Get mad when a customer leaves them, calls them and tells them "how could you do this to me?"
2. Says "my quota is coming up, could you order today?"
3. Says "I'll win a paid vacation if you buy this today."
4. Starts a complete stranger with a sales pitch.
5. Hides their car keys at a new car dealership, and it takes four requests to get them back when they say "no, sorry we are not buying."
6. Does not make any eye contact ( if they were dead I could understand this).
7. Pushes harder when the prospect says no, tries other tactics... gets or calls the boss or lowers the price.
8. Pushes even harder after the second no and the police get called.
9. Keeps talking even after the sale is made and then loses the sale.
10. Spends no time bonding because after all, it's really about them.
11. Is oblivious to the amount of dandruff on their blue sport coat.
12. Has bad breath, so bad it would wake up the dead.
13. Lies about the delivery date.
14. Over promises and under delivers.
15. Does not return all phone messages within 24 hours.
16. Lies about the product or service to make a sale.
17. Dresses suggestively.
18. Dresses sloppily.
19. Calls 20 times and leaves 20 messages when the prospect refuses to return a call.
20. Challenges the prospect and makes them wrong.
21. Doesn't listen at all.

I could continue. I have either seen these all happen or they were done by salespeople that were competing with me for business. In every case, they might at well have been selling to the dead. There was certainly no consideration of the living prospect.

If you want to sell successfully to the living, do the opposite of each of the above. The dead don't have much of a budget.

Gratefully yours,
Steve

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