Every once in a while, we need to take a long hard look at our business and see if maybe — just maybe — there’s an insidious “sales PREVENTION department” hard at work… thwarting our efforts, robbing us of should-be clients, stopping sales in their tracks. Yesterday, Women Who WOW members from all over the world came together to examine the 7 Deadly Sins of Sales.
These monthly trainings are a KEY component of WOW membership and you can find out more about that — a why we now have members in all 50 states and 8 countries — here.
But in the meantime, here’s the reader’s digest version of what was covered…
7 Deadly Sins of Sales
- Deadly Sales Sin #1: Verbal Diarrhea. Our guest expert (and WOW member) Tracie Stern of Black Diamond WeWellness shared with us the importance of not filling the silence with awkward and sales-robbing nonsense. Over-sharing can kill deals as quickly as under-sharing.
- Deadly Sales Sin #2: A Just the Facts Ma’am Approach. Emotion plays a much larger part in making sales decisions than reason does. So, engage the emotions of your prospect when you are selling. In short: Know the WHY behind the BUY. Click here to read an article I wrote for ClearVoice that mentions the danger of the “Just the facts ma’am” approach.
- Deadly Sales Sin #3: Pushing Too Hard. Chasing. Pushing. Convincing. Oh my! These heavy-handed approaches are more likely to push your client away from a sale than towards one. So, be respectful. Answer questions. Stay connected. But, don’t chase.
- Deadly Sales Sin #4: Being Needy. Being perceived as needy — often demonstrated by being always available, and overly accommodating — repels clients. As I said in this 2015 article, “Neediness repels and chips away at your perceived authority within your industry. Generosity — of spirit, of information, of connections — does the opposite.”
- Deadly Sales Sin #5: Pricing Too Low. We often assume when sales aren’t flowing in the way we’d hoped that we need to lower our prices. WOW members are always encouraged to INCREASE value (and / or more clearly communicate value) rather than creating a Knee-jerk price-slashing sale. LOW prices are often accompanied by questions about your value, professionalism, expertise…. and can actually COST you sales.
Get your Updated Pricing Strategy Guide here.
Free. Updated for 2016.
- Deadly Sales Sin #6: Pricing Too Soon. Bringing up price… or posting your fees online ABSENT any other information by which your prospect should judge your offer is a huge mistake. Get the Small Business Pricing Guide here.
- Deadly Sales Sin #7: Not Asking for the Business. Oh yes… women… we’re still struggling with asking for the sale. We post. And we blog. And we tweet. And we pin. And we go live. And we show up. And we have coffee. (NO MORE COFFEE DATES. Here’s why.) We have LOTS of coffee. And we network. We do charity stuff, and community stuff… and we may even buy commercials and print ads. BUT, we’re STILL not asking for the sale as often as we should… which is every single time we know that what we sell can help someone else. Don’t make your prospects do the asking. YOU propose the work, invite them into relationship, ask them to do business with you.
Don’t keep missing out. Come on over and find out why small business owners in ALL 50 states are saying, YES… I AM a Woman Who WOWS.
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