Enigin Team

Sales Teams Don’t Sin 3

In the last of this series we present the last three sins in Geoffrey James’ excellent article for Bnet.com titled “The 7 Deadly Sins of Successful Sales Teams” - which is useful for everyone connected with Enigin, customers and clients using Enigin products, Enigin Partners and Enigin Distributors, plus Enigin staff.

Here are Sins 5, 6 and 7.

DEADLY SIN 5: FECKLESSNESS

• Definition: When results are good, many sales teams start to relax and celebrate their wins, rather than develop new business.
• Why It Happens: Let’s face it: selling is hard work. It’s natural to want to take a bit of a rest on your laurels, especially after a big sales campaign has paid off big.
• What Results: This is the great disaster of many successful sales teams. Their pipeline dries up and the numbers start to decline. This is then followed by frantic effort to build to another peak and lo! the cycle repeats.
• How to Prevent it: During the good times, make the effort to continue doing all the things that caused the good times: relentless prospecting, cold calls, building out your network. Make the pipeline a constant priority.

DEADLY SIN 6: OVERCONFIDENCE

• Definition: Sales teams assume that the buying process is moving forward because they’ve presented the deal to all the key decision makers.
• Why It Happens: When you’ve put a lot of work into building up an opportunity, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor (without getting the sale) by simply assuming that it will take place.
• What Results: While you’ll sometimes get the sale, it’s also more than possible that something will go awry and the buying process will stall. You lose momentum and, eventually, the sale.
• How to Prevent It: Assume nothing. Stay on top of each major deal. Continue to ask questions, listen carefully, and make sure all the bases are covered.

DEADLY SIN 7: SANDBAGGING

• Definition: The sales team becomes (or pretends to become) overoptimistic about sales that will take place in a quarter.
• Why It Happens: Sometimes it’s because they’re upbeat and optimistic people and sometimes it’s because they’re telling management what they want to hear.
• What Results: When the sales don’t take place, everyone ends up looking stupid. Or worse, you end up antagonizing customers trying to get them to buy, simply because you need to make the numbers that you foolishly promised.
• How to Prevent It: Stay focussed on reality and make sure that you are putting effort into maintaining a realistic pipeline. Tell management what they need to know, not what you think they want to hear.

Thank you Geoff for another great article from bnet.com

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