Marketing Times - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 14)

sellingskills jeff thull SALES SELF-SABOTAGE: No sales professional in their right mind would sabotage their own sales intentionally. Nevertheless, self-sabotage – the act of undermining one’s own credibility and alienating the very customers and prospects we count on for our livelihoods – occurs with dismaying frequency. The many ways in which salespeople sabotage their own efforts range from obvious mistakes, such as blaming customers when their own products and services do not deliver as promised, to very subtle insults hidden in the things that we say to customers. On the self-sabotage spectrum, it’s easy to recognize the obvious “I should have known better” mistakes that damage relationships with customers. The far more common and harmful situations occur when our words and actions insidiously erode the customer’s trust and personal credibility that we work so hard to establish. In this article, I’ll focus on how to solve two sources of selfsabotage that cause salespeople to shoot themselves in the foot: “dangling insults,” and the “old brain.” The Dangling Insult We would never insult a customer by suggesting he is incompetent or imply to an executive that she is negligent. The very idea is inconceivable, yet it’s a common occurrence and salespeople unknowingly insult prospects and customers every day. Here is a typical example. A salesperson introduces their solution by saying, “We save companies like yours from wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost…” It sounds innocuous on the surface. Statements like this are standard sales-speak and are often true, but they also contain dangling insults. After all, if you tell a customer that she is wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars, aren’t you also suggesting that she hasn’t been doing her job very well? Dangling insults are unintentional. Salespeople are unaware of the negative impact because they are built THE CAUSE AND THE CURE into their mindsets and the conventional sales training they may have received. The salesperson thinks he is delivering a compelling message and connecting to the customer’s pain. But to the customer, it can sound like the salesperson is interjecting or ending sentences with, “…you idiot, sir.” At times, you can tell when customers hear a dangling insult because they react physically. They lean back in their chairs, cross their arms, and scowl. They often react verbally, by saying something like: “We’re not losing anywhere near that much money.” Most of the time the reaction isn’t that obvious and most salespeople don’t realize that they have insulted their customer. As a result, they misinterpret the customer’s reactions and can’t properly address them. In fact, salespeople’s natural response patterns often make matters worse. The Old Brain The manner in which salespeople react to their customers’ responses can open the path to open and honest communication, or become a primary instrument of self-sabotage. There are two parts of the brain that are particularly problematic in sales situations: the brain stem and the limbic system, which scientists define as the ”old brain.” The brain stem or “reptilian brain” controls our involuntary actions while the limbic system generates basic emotions, such as fear and aggression. The old brain is not big on interpretation and analysis. It reacts to situations with lightning speed in six ways: attack, submit, flee, reproduce, nurture, or be nurtured. 4 marketingtimes

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Marketing Times - December 2007/January 2008

SMEI Certified Professional Salesperson Certified Sales Executives Certified Marketing Executives Marketing Times - December 2007/January 2008 Contents Chairman's Report An Interview with David Neeleman Founder & Chairman of Jetblue Airlines President's Message Integrated Marketing in the Digital Economy Professional Certification Class of 2007 Marketing Tips SMEI and Puerto Rico Affiliate Partner for Certification Success Selling Skills Why all Star Teams Fail

Marketing Times - December 2007/January 2008

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