Selling In A Crisis: What Not To Do

At this point, with the pandemic going on, folks are looking for anything to do to bring food to their tables — as long as it’s legal.

Even in a global health crisis, sales are still a huge factor that keeps businesses afloat, whether they offer goods or services. Almost every industry, if not all of them, benefit from highly skilled sales agents. However, in the same breath, companies that have under-performing salespeople will struggle to survive in a dog-eat-dog market.

That being said, a company’s lifeline is its sales department. From formulating efficient and effective sales strategies to closing deals, salespeople are the ones that bring in the money.

5 Things Sales People Should Veer Away from When Selling in a Crisis

With a lot at stake — especially during a pandemic — sellers should be more mindful and aware of how they do their jobs. It’s pretty basic, actually. If they don’t make a sale, the company doesn’t earn. If the company doesn’t make money, they don’t get paid. It’s as simple as that.

With this in mind, sellers typically try to be creative in their own way and devise certain strategies that they believe will help them close deals. But sometimes, their creativity also proves to be their costly downfall. It doesn’t matter whether they’re selling dry goods at a retail shop or are working hand-in-hand with insurance marketing or even promoting landscaping services at this time. They sometimes go over their heads by having their own way.

Here are some of the most notable seller mistakes — things no seller should ever do — when it comes to their work:

1. Talking too much and listening very little

Most salespeople have this mindset that they need to do as much talking as possible to sell products. On the contrary, it is found that salespeople who dominate conversations often turn potential clients off and are considered pushy. The most effective salespeople understand that listening more allows them to understand their customers’ concerns which helps them give solutions with the products they’re selling.

2. Becoming a good Samaritan

There are many cases where salespeople want to show potential customers that they sincerely want to help out, so they lend a hand to people going above and beyond the call of duty to prove their sincerity. And while wanting to help is as noble a deed as it can get, most of the time, they end up as unpaid consultants who wasted their time offering help for nothing instead of focusing on the task at hand, which is selling.

3. Focusing on the bells and whistles of the product

Plenty of great products are out on the market with outstanding and unique features that blow people’s minds. It’s all great until it’s not because of lousy sales tactics. When a person doing the pitch only focuses on the bells and whistles of the products and not how it can be the solution to what a customer is concerned with, the chances of that customer making the purchase is very slim.

4. Selling the price

Competitive pricing is one of the main considerations businesses focus on. And while low prices do attract people’s attention, they’re not always convinced into buying things because of how inexpensive they are compared to the competition. Keep in mind that people are willing to pay good money for value and not just because an item is cheap. If one makes the low price the center of the pitch, it may come across to a customer as a desperate move to make a sale, or perhaps they might have the impression that the product quality just won’t cut it.

5. Failing to do your homework

One of the main things that will help a seller close deals is the right information. Any seller worth his salt knows the value of hard work, including extensive research about the product, the different trends, the target market, and the changing consumer behaviors. If a salesperson comes into a meeting with a potential customer unprepared, they will only have a very low success rate, especially if the customer knows more about the product. This shows unprofessionalism on the seller’s part which often leaves a bad taste in a customer’s mouth. As they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Have you ever encountered any seller who used any or all of the tactics listed above? Did they convince you to buy what they were selling? Let us know your thoughts and share with us some of your experiences in the comments section below. Hopefully, aspiring and experienced sellers can take note of them and learn a thing or two.