Why you are my enemy!
I would love to send a letter to all the bad salespeople in the world, explaining what they are doing wrong. Then hopefully, they would take my well-meant advice and stop bothering me! If I did, I suppose it would look something like this:
Dear salesperson,
Do you know that you were never going to sell to me? Would you like me to tell you why? Actually, even if you don’t want me to tell you, I’m going to. Perhaps it will help you improve; perhaps it will make you change jobs. I don’t know, but at least you won’t bother me any more. So here goes:
- You asked me how I was. I know you don’t care about me (you don’t know me), so it screamed ‘salesperson’ at me and it also showed me you were insincere.
- You didn’t research my business. Why don’t you know what my company does? I have a website, I’m on social media and, to be fair, you can tell from my company’s name what I do. You don’t need to be a genius, but a bit of common sense would have taken you a long way. Major fail.
- You talked ‘at’ me and not ‘to’ me. This meant that you didn’t listen. I didn’t feel important and I just wanted to get rid of you.
- You used a script. I might not be able to see it, but I can hear it. I am an individual and I would rather you had a conversation with me than read me some mindless junk.
- You used ridicule when I said I didn’t want to buy from you. How dare you! I know my own mind.
- Finally, I am a sales trainer – I spend my working hours teaching people how to sell more, without being pushy. You are my enemy. It is because of people like you that selling has a bad name. It is because of people like you that my clients are worried about being perceived as a ‘salesy’. It is because of people like you that selling is not always considered a good career for professional people. I have to re-educate them that selling is about being authentic, listening to customers and finding solutions that solve problems and/or add value.
So go away and don’t try and contact me again. I only want to speak to good sales people in the future.
Regards
Janet
p.s. if you want some sales training, then I can help you, no matter how bad you are, but based the above, you must expect a steep learning curve.
Janet Efere has recently reached the finals of the APCTC Trainer of the year. If you enjoyed this blog, please vote for her here: