Selling By Email – 5 Mistakes Most Salespeople Make

In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why most people struggle with ’selling by email’ – they don’t understand it, they don’t know when to use it (and when not to) and they don’t know how to use it for best results.

After reading this article you’ll be able to utilise email to add value to your sales efforts – instead of hampering them – and get your sales figures back where they belong!……..

Please note: this is a ’shortened’ version of a full article I wrote for a sales magazine recently. If you’d like a copy of the full article, please ask for one using this link

When I working with sales teams all over the world, Sales Managers and Directors often tell me that they believe all salespeople are inherently lazy. I’m not sure I agree with that hugely sweeping statement, but I do think salespeople often look for the quickest way to do something!

I think this is partly down to the fact that a lot of salespeople only start earning real money when their commission kicks in, so any task that isn’t directly related to bringing in new customers, orders or money, they tend to try and find the quickest way to do! Hence why the managers think they’re lazy.

As salespeople though, this ‘quickest route’ habit can often cause us problems! Particularly as technology has advanced and email is a popular communication method for many. However, this often results in salespeople resorting to email communication – at the expense of their own sales figures! Have a look at the examples of common email sales mistakes below, and see if any ring true for you……

Email Sales Mistake Number 1 – Using It To ‘Follow Up’

Let’s look at this from a ‘new business’ perspective. You’ve spoken with (or met with) a client previously, you’ve started to develop rapport, but they’ve probably got an existing supplier, or existing way of doing things. So you didn’t pick up their business from your initial call or appointment.

Your boss has probably been putting pressure on you about your sales figures or your sales pipeline. So you decide you need to ‘follow up’ with a few people, this particular prospect included. So what do you do next? Pick up the phone and call them, establish their current situation and needs and potentially see how you may be able to add value to what they’re trying to achieve over the next few months? Close for another appointment, attempt to dislodge the existing supplier (or existing process) and pick up their business? Or send an email?

If you’re in the ‘email’ category, stop it! Right now!

Email Sales Mistake Number 2 – Just ‘Adding’ People To A Mailing List

Another great idea from the marketing department. Sending an email newsletter or similar to keep people ‘informed’ of your products and services. The funny thing is, how many newsletters do you get that you don’t read, or you don’t read in full? I bet it’s quite a few. If you don’t know the sender well, you probably don’t read it at all. Sometimes even when you know the sender well you still don’t read it!

Don’t sit back and think that just because someone is on your generic email list that that’s helping you ’sell’ to that person. In most cases it isn’t. The responsibility to move that person through your sales pipeline is still yours!

Email Sales Mistake Number 3 – Sending Mainly ‘Flyers’ By Email

Please tell me you don’t do this? Even worse if the email is titled ‘offer of the month’ or similar! If the person hasn’t used you before, you’re relying on ‘luck’ for the person to buy from you. And the more competitive your marketplace and the higher the price of what you sell, the less likely people are to buy!

Plus as mentioned in my last point above, it’s hardly ‘personal’ communication to that prospect, is it? Is this really the professional sales job you were employed to do? If this is the best you can do in terms of ’sales persuasion’, you’re in trouble!

Email Sales Mistake Number 4 – Responding To New Sales Enquiries Via Email

Let’s think about this one. You or your company has expended time, money and effort in producing the incoming sales lead. Whether it’s come from a previous phone call by you or a colleague, networking, advertising or over the internet, you’ve managed to get a precious incoming sales lead.

The next question is, what are you going to do about it? Pick up the phone and find an excuse to start a dialogue to understand their needs in more detail, positition a ‘next step’ in the sales process and look for some committment from that person. Or just send a quick email giving some information and leaving them to ‘wander’ on their own, with no idea how motivated they are to purchase, their timescales, or what other options they’re considering?

Looks like you’ve missed your chance again, doesn’t it? In most cases if they come back to you, it’s because when they enquired with your competition, they did a worse job than you did (hard to believe I know, but it could be true). Is this really the best way of dealing with that precious incoming sales lead do you think?!!

Email Sales Mistake Number 5 – Sending Proposals Or Quotes By Email

Now it’s time for my personal favourite! Sending proposals or quotes by email. You’ve had the meeting with a potential client (or at least an in-depth telephone conversation)……you agree to send details of what was discussed……then you put it in an email. Really?!! Now you’re in trouble.

Why on earth didn’t you position your offering when you were face to face with the client? When you could read their body language and reactions to your offering (and your price) best….when you could judge whether you had got the proposal right or not?……when you had the best chance of getting them to say ‘yes’?

Even if you needed time to put the details together, why on earth didn’t you organise a second meeting to discuss it in more detail? Crazy! You’re giving other salespeople a better chance to win that business over you – why on earth would you want to do that?!!

 

So Why Do People Send Quotes Or Proposals Via Email?

Normally people send quotes or proposals by email for a few reasons. The first reason is fear of rejection. It ‘hurts’ less to send it by email as at worst, they just send an email back saying ‘no thanks’ – much easier to deal with than them saying it to your face, isn’t it? Or if they don’t reply to you (or send an email back saying they’re thinking about it) they haven’t really rejected you at all, have they? Can you see how that kind of thinking is holding you back from making more sales?!!

The second reason is laziness. You probably would say it’s because you’re busy, but it’s laziness. This is one of the most important parts of the sales process, and you’ve decided to email it because it’s ‘easier’! From an objective perspective, how stupid is that?!!

The third reason is because is ‘normally’ do it that way! Does that mean it’s the best way? Or even any good at all?!! Let’s think about this – it could be the most important part of the sales process, and you’re just sending it off into the ‘ether’ and hoping they’ll give you a positive response. Again – the more competitive the marketplace, the higher the price of your product/service and the longer the time elapsed from your initial conversation/meeting the less likely you are to get the business!

Please note: this is a ’shortened’ version of a full article I wrote for a sales magazine recently. If you’d like a copy of the full article, please ask for one using this link

You can also ask any questions about this article or sales in general, by contacting Andy here

Follow the tips above and watch your sales soar! I look forward to hearing how you get on……..

---

Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salesbreakfast.net

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here

In this article, leading UK Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why most salespeople and business owners get so many objections to their price……and the mistakes that most of them make…… that often result in lost sales, or lost profit………

Whenever I’m working with salespeople and business owners, they are frustrated that they get so many price objections, particularly because they don’t understand why, or how they should deal with them! As the market gets tougher, you’re probably finding that people are objecting to your prices, and negotiating with you more than ever before – are you prepared well enough to deal with that?

What salespeople and business owners often don’t realise is that there are a number of reasons that clients object to their prices, and sometimes they generate those objections themselves – something in their approach or what they have said has generated the price objection for them – and then they don’t deal with it well!

So let’s have a look at the main reasons they get the price objections, so we can lessen the chances of getting them in future…

Reason No 1 – It’s A Negotiation Tactic

As many regular readers of my articles know, before my successful selling career, I started out as a professional buyer – beating up salespeople for a living! It gave me a great insight into how people buy….and often how people don’t sell well to others! I’ve lost count of how many awful sales pitches I endured during that period!

Any buyer worth their salt (and also a lot of business decision makers these days) knows, the minute a potential supplier to us gives their price, if we come back with a response like ‘ooh, that’s too expensive’ or ‘that’s higher than your competitors’ most potential suppliers crumble!

Most suppliers end up saying something like ‘well how much were you thinking of paying?’ Daft move! The buyer then thinks ‘fantastic, got these guys on the run!’ Their response then is something like ‘ooh….about half that!’ Now you’re in trouble. You’re starting to negotiate from a price that 50% below where you wanted. And if the buyer is any good, the price is only going down from there! Not a good situation to be in, is it?

Andy’s Tip – Sometimes it’s a negotiation tactic – expect it and be prepared to deal with it. Prepare and practice your response.

Reason No 2 – You Don’t Give Enough Value First

This is really, really important – but it’s often overlooked! If you’re the sort of person that never quotes a price up-front, listens intently to what the customer is saying, questions well to uncover their needs, matches back your product or service with those needs, demonstrates huge value and then closes for the business….every single time….then you probably don’t have anything to worry about here.

If however, there’s ever been a time where you’ve been under pressure to deliver a price earlier than you wanted to, where a client didn’t really seem to think your product or service was worth the price you wanted, or where the client bought from someone else – even when you’re product or service would have been better for them – then this is vital that you read this and digest it fully.

The problem is we often let the client control the meeting and the flow of the conversation, so the conversation turns to price quicker than we would like! We haven’t had time to get the client to appreciate the value in what we’re offering, so is it any wonder we get a price objection here?

As the market gets tougher, it’s more important than ever for the client to appreciate the value in what you provide. The faster the conversation goes to price, the less chance you have of the client appreciating the value in what you offer – which then means you get a price objection!

Andy’s Tip – Don’t give prices out before you’re ready – be prepared to deal with the client asking the price and how you’re going to deal with it.

Reason No 3 – You Talk About Price!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing some ‘field sales assessments’ – accompanying some salespeople on their prospective client meetings. The client said that their salespeople had been getting a lot of price objections recently, and had put it down to the ‘credit crunch’ and their particular industry.

When I was observing the salespeople in their meetings though, it wasn’t the prospective clients that were taking the conversation towards price, it was the salesperson themselves!

Think about it. If you ask a question like ‘how much do you normally pay for…’ or ‘what’s your normal rate on this sort of thing’, then what else can you expect from the other person but a question about your price?!!

Even worse, if your only way to differentiate your offering is on price – saying things like ‘we’re cheaper’ or ‘we’ll match/beat their prices’ then who’s to blame for taking the conversation towards price? You are!

Andy’s Tip – Stop asking questions or making comments that refer to price, and watch the impact that has on getting you less price questions from the client!

Reason No 4 – You Don’t Differentiate Yourself Enough

In the current market when times are tough and there seems to be more competition than ever before, it’s absolutely vital that you can differentiate yourself from your competition.

Yet many salespeople and business owners fail to do this adequately. I was doing some work with a recruitment company the other day and one of their consultants got an objection on a live call I was listening in to. The prospective client said ‘I’m happy with the agency I use at the moment’. The consultant then proceeded to ‘tell’ the prospective client how they were different – by saying ‘but we’re different to other agencies!’

The reply from the prospective client was fantastic. They said ‘yeah, every consultant who rings me up says that too’. Hilarious! All the consultant achieved by saying ‘but we’re different…’ was to make themselves the same as all their competition!

Differentiating yourself from your competitors is not done by just saying ‘we’re different’, but by acting, saying and being different – starting with your initial phone call! If your call sounds the same as all the rest, you ask the same questions as all the rest and you say the same things as all the rest, is it any wonder that clients consider you the same as all the rest?!

Andy’s Tip – Start to differentiate from your initial phone call into that client by saying and doing different things to your competitors. Not sure what to do? Contact me for some ideas…..

Follow the tips above and watch your sales soar! I look forward to hearing how you get on……..

---

Andy Preston is a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker. He runs the Ecademy ‘Sales And Cold Calling Tips Club’ as well as writing for magazines, newspapers and trade journals all around the world on anything related to sales and selling.

You can get Andy’s free cold calling and sales tips HERE

You can also see more about Andy’s training for small businesses at www.salestrainingbreakfastclub.com

This article is copyright Andy Preston 2009. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines. Media enquiries – details here