If sales was an easy affair, then your team would have doubled the sales numbers the last quater. Your sales team is your biggest asset. As sales managers and sales professionals there would be some factors affecting the conversion frequency. Although there are a hundred reason to kill a sale, some including not being prepares, not following up, not establishing trust, forceful sale and the list can go on. These are easy to notice and can be trained with behaviorial sales training.
But there are hidden dwelling killers that many sales managers and sellers are not even aware of. They are spme sales weaknesses that are blended with the sellers personality and act like weights pulling them down the tides and waves of the market.
I have created numerous experiments and polls where I studied about what holds a sales person back and lead to the loss of a sale. There are many factoers that play a role in the success of a sale, but a tiny weakness peaking can change the whole game. Hence let us study about the sales weakness that come in the way of your sales team.
The first step to overcome these sales weaknesses is to know what they are and then to determine who on your sales team has them so you can fix them.
4 Hidden Sales Weaknesses
Words are affirmations, everything you tell about yourself manifests into reality and your subconscious mind seeps in the information’s like instructions to the brain.
So what are your sellers telling themselves.
Sales is harsh?
Sales has lot of negotiation?
I won’t be able to speak to a CEO?
There are many. Have you ever noticed how words can impact the entire life of a sales person. As the saying goes“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
Non supportive buy cycle:
Everything is a cycle, if you invest in how you buy and the mindset you have while purchasing any product, the energy flows into the experiences.
If you are a person who do the research, find the best possible deal . You are most likely to support buyers with similar buying patterns. But the biggest disadvantage is that you tend to understand them and let them go. On your part losing a major deal. As a sales person, it can be your biggest disadvantage.
Salespeople with non-supportive buy cycles can be 50% less effective than salespeople with supportive buy cycles.1 Furthermore, 64% of people have a non-supportive buy cycle.
Need for approval: Even though the concept of know- like and trust is majorly impacting people on how they make sales. It also means that there is possible inclination towards always looking for approval. This means that your need to be liked is much more important than your need to make a sale. Salespeople who want to be liked and seek approval, often are uncomfortable asking tough questions or stating an opinion that differs from the prospects.
Buyers aren’t always aware of what they are buying and as sales people need to give more information and bridge the gap and also things that may not necessarily want to hear but they need to hear. They should be willing to ask tough questions to the prospects.
Need for approval makes your salespeople 35% less effective.3
You need your salespeople to be brave and to ask the tough questions that may not win them the popularity contest, but could win them the deal.
Emotional involvement in sales:
This is the most common weakness that stops a sales person to withdraw into a shell and away from success. The reaction is important but for how long and what is the intention attached to it becomes mighty important.
Keep on moving to the next sales pipeline.
50% of people selling have a tendency to become emotionally involved and it makes them about 20% less effective.
Self-limiting record collection: “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” — Henry Ford
There are certain scripts that weave a pattern in hour heads. The sub-conscious mind turns everything into reality depending on the what we tell ourselves.
When records play in salespeople’s heads they can either help or hinder sales success. The ones that hinder, we refer to as self-limiting records. For example your salespeople may tell themselves:
- I can’t talk to CEOs.
- Sales is harsh
- My sales pipeline is never full
- I can’t sell without great sales collateral.
- I don’t have time for networking.
The toughest part with these hidden weaknesses is figuring out who on your sales team has them and what you can do to fix them.
Hence for the sales managers who are amazing at what they do, you need to have training competencies to observe, analyse and train your sales team.
On this very regard, Success Vitamin has a flagship program, Sales Train The Trainer Program that can help you learn the functional and behavioural sales aspects and become the most sought after trainer in your industry.
