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How good is your product knowledge? Do you come across as a calm, confident expert to your prospects?
John has 20 years in insurance sales and recalls a rookie mistake in which his verbal blunder slaughtered his shot at a healthy commission. Here's his story:
My partner and I had finished a tough series of sales calls on a large corporate farm. The owner was taking on a complete insurance package that we were covering; I was looking at a potential commission of almost $50,000.
I was confident that a city boy like me could make good money in the country -- even with minimal selling skills.
So there sat the four of us: the owner with hands folded on his desk, his accountant with hands folded atop the large leather company checkbook, my partner and me. My partner and I beamed at each other as we pulled out one last form.
"In order for us to see that you're completely covered, we need your livestock totals." I began to call out the animal names and receive the numbers of each herd, with babies listed separately: Beef cattle, milk cows, horses and pigs, then --
E-wees?Huh? grunted the owner."E-wees." I said, clearly mispronouncing the word again. "How many e-wees you got?
"Let me see that form." The farmer said.I pointed to the word and he yelled. "That's ewes, you idiot! Have you ever been on a farm? How are you supposed to help me with my business if you know nothing about farming? You know what? Don't even answer that, just get out; get out of my office!"
My partner and I walked quickly to my car (not even stopping to clean our shoes) and drove away, $50,000 poorer than we thought when we got there.
Postmortem
OK, so John was a bit short on his product knowledge training. What should you do when you similarly blow it on a sales call?
Be very, very remorseful. Say something like, You must think I'm my company's village idiot. I'm so sorry. If you don't want to do business with me, I completely understand.
Don't be surprised if the prospect says: Hey, that's OK. I've done some dumb things, too. Let's keep going. This way, you'll most probably make your prospect want to help you not be so hard on yourself -- and thus save a sale.
[Dan Seidman of SalesAutopsy.com has been named one of the Top 12 Sales Coaches in America by Ultimate Selling Power. He collects sales horror stories for use in his speaking and training programs.]
