Common Mistakes that Destroy Trust
Selling is often characterized as adversarial; there’s a winner and a loser. No wonder selling has a bad reputation.
It’s amazing the number of ways salespeople have found to shoot themselves in the foot and mess up trust and rapport.
If the salesperson wants to become a valued resource to the buyer, open communication is critical. However, prospects typically do not trust salespeople. They feel uncomfortable, pressured, and possibly even threatened. As a result, they resist open communication, preferring to withhold important information so that it cannot be used against them.
Salespeople often exacerbate the situation in many unintentional ways, including the following:
- Being so upbeat and positive that it’s obnoxious.
- Manipulating the prospect by asking leading questions or using other tricky sales tactics.
- Not being willing to accept “no” from the prospect and pushing too hard to make the sale.
- Taking too much time.
- Talking too much.
- Acting like his product or service is something everybody needs.
- Using a canned presentation.
- Using buzz words or jargon that the prospect doesn’t understand.
- Being late for the appointment.
- Making an obviously insincere comment about something in the prospect’s office in an attempt to break the ice.
- Having a cell phone go off during the meeting.
- Presenting a solution before doing a complete diagnosis. (This is a big problem, as you’ll see.)
- Popping surprises, like bringing the boss along without telling the prospect.
- Being unprepared.
- In general, acting like a salesperson will destroy trust and rapport.
Sales resistance is not a natural part of the sales process; it’s a direct result of the salesperson’s behavior. To eliminate sales resistance, the salesperson must change his behavior.
Self-Study Assignment: How many of the things on this list are you guilty of? Make a short list of the changes you need to make immediately in order to improve rapport and trust with your customers and prospects.