What's the biggest mistake salespeople make? We covered that in our previous clip in this Selling Skills Best Practices series: watch it here.

What about the second biggest mistake salespeople make?

In this segment, Joe Friedman highlights the second biggest mistake salespeople make and how to avoid making that mistake.

Hopefully, you've already watched the first part in this Selling Skills Best Practices series about the biggest mistake salespeople make. If not, check it out first.

Transcript

…That brings us to the second biggest mistake that salespeople make.

Look at the four statements on this page. Imagine that each one is a different thought that might come out of the mouth of a prospect or customer. Of these four, which do you think would represent someone who is most ready to buy something? It’s the one in the bottom right corner, right? “We need to solve this problem immediately.”

Conversely, which of these statements do you think would come out of the mouth of someone who’s least likely to buy something? It’s probably the one in the upper left-hand corner. “It’s more or less satisfactory.”

And yet, think of what our reaction would be if we were selling and someone said *any* of these things… If someone said, “It’s becoming a major headache.” We’d sell to that. If someone said, “We occasionally have problems with it.” We’d sell to that as well. And, in fact, if someone said to us, “It’s more or less satisfactory.” We would use our good selective hearing to ignore the word “more,” hear the word “less” and at least demonstrate our capabilities for that person.

The second biggest mistake is represented by these four different statements. And that mistake is: *We sell too soon.*

Over the years, we have become so sensitized, either by the books we read or by other sales training, to find a need and sell to it that any inkling of interest usually results in a seller starting to put the focus on them the company and the product they sell. And that’s the second biggest mistake that salespeople make. You need to take the size of the need of the person you’re talking to into consideration.

Coming up in the next segment: Part 3: Grow the Need, Shrink the Cost…

Other parts in the Selling Skills Best Practices series:

Part 1: The Biggest Mistake Salespeople Make

Part 2: The Second Biggest Mistake Salespeople Make

Part3: Grow the Need, Shrink the Cost

Part 4: The Order of the Sales Process

Here are some other tips and topics on Selling Skills from Joe Friedman:

Socratic Selling Skills: How Socrates Sold

Buyers Should Talk More?! Selling Is Not Telling (revisited)

How to Open a Sales Call: 3 Things Sellers Should Do

ZEHREN♦FRIEDMAN offers a full range of selling skills courses to help you sell better.