I Wish Salespeople Would STOP…

I Wish Salespeople Would STOP…:from The New Sales Coach by Mike

I love Sales and I love most people who sell for a living. But I get tired of seeing salespeople shoot themselves in the foot on a regular basis. Out of frustration, the other day I launched into a rant on twitter with a batch of consecutive tweets proclaiming what I wish salespeople would STOP doing in order to be more successful. Here are two dozen things I keep seeing that drive me crazy (and hurt sales performance):
I wish salespeople would STOP…

1. Starting the day by spending two hours responding to emails
2. Calling prospects to “check-in” or “touch base”
3. Leading with offerings or using lame openings like the pathetic “we’re a supplier” or “we offer…“
4. Showing pictures of their facilities early on during sales calls and presentations (or any time for that matter!)
5. Allowing the buyer to dictate the flow of the sales call
6. Initiating the price conversation and committing Sales malpractice saying stupid things like “let me quote that for you and see if we can do better”
7. Pretending they’re part of the Operations department
8. Volunteering for committees, other corporate assignments and projects so they can avoid prospecting for new business
9. Waiting around for a warm inbound lead or perfectly qualified prospect
10. Faking like they’re making outbound phone calls
11. Immersing themselves in customer service issues and putting out fires
12. Spending an inordinate amount of time tweaking marketing materials
13. Telling prospects about how long their privately held company has been around
14. Changing direction on a whim instead focusing on a strategic, finite list of target prospects
15. Listening to false teachers who preach that proactive prospecting is dead and not productive for developing new business
16. Talking so much on sales calls and talking over the potential customer who is trying to provide clues as to how to sell them
17. Presenting before doing appropriate discovery work
18. Telling prospects how much they know and how wonderful their solution is
19. Hiding from potential objections and pretending that everything is going to work out
20. Saying that they “love the hunt” even though they’re very uncomfortable with the associated risk, conflict and rejection that is part of prospecting and new business development
21. Spending more time on Facebook or sports websites than reading sales blogs or investing in their own development
22. Playing the victim; blaming the economy
23. Obsessing over the very few hot opportunities in their pipeline as opposed to spreading effort and energy across deals in various stages of the sales cycle
24. Trying to fool everyone by overcomplicating the sales process in an attempt to hide their lame effort or poor results

Do you agree with these? Are you seeing the same things? What’s on your list? Which bad habits do you see hindering sales performance?
Related posts:

1. Stop Over-Qualifying!
2. Many Salespeople Do Not Prospect Because They Never Had to or Do Not Know How
3. Asking Salespeople about Social Media Use and Effectiveness as a Sales Tool