Some More Mistakes by Salesperson

9. Pitching rather than conversing

Take turns. It’s going to feel more authentic for everyone and will increase your chances of success. Bounce back and forth between speakers to make sure everyone is engaged in the conversation.

In fact, a higher number of “speaker switches” per minute correlates with your odds of a second meeting and a strong connection.

This is not a football game. You don’t want to hold onto the ball for extended periods of time. Think tennis instead.

10. Bringing up the competition too late in the cycle

This one’s simple. Address your competition early in the sales cycle, not late in the game (e.g. during discovery and first demos). When you do, your chances of closing a deal increase by 49%.

If you wait until later to discuss your competitor your win rates will decline.

Competitive deals are won early and lost late.

11. Using filler words

This one’s a shocker. Coaches and trainers tell everyone to avoid filler words. Truth is, top, mid, and low-performing reps use the same filler words with the same frequency. Filler words don’t correlate with a call or deal’s success or failure.

That’s right, they have no impact on win rates, sales cycle length, conversion rates from opportunity stages … nothing.

However… they are still annoying 

So it’s worth stripping them out of your sales conversations, if for no other reason than to hold yourself to a high standard of communication.

Here are the most common filler words used on sales calls. Notice that “so” is the most common; it takes up 33% of all filler words.

12. Giving more than a two-minute company overview

Talking about your company too much (e.g., overviews, awards, history) decreases your chances of progressing to the next opportunity milestone and winning the deal.

How much is too much? More than two minutes. It’s like a cliff — go over it and you’re done. As long as you speak in general terms about your company for two minutes or less (on average), you’ll be fine.

13. Selling alone

Sometimes, the cheesiest sayings are true. Like, “there’s strength in numbers.”

During your sales cycle, have at least one call that includes other people from your company.

It could be your sales manager, a product manager explaining the a product’s benefits, or even your sales engineer.

That simple act correlates with a 258% higher likelihood of closing a deal, compared with flying solo on every call.

Bring peers or managers into the mix and watch your numbers soar.