The 4 Sales Styles You Need To Avoid

THE ORDER-TAKER

They just literally take orders. They take your order and then they don't try to do anything else. They don't ask any questions. They simply just do the basics. That's cool if someone wants to buy a sandwich quickly. But there's so much more they could be doing; introducing other items or building a good relationship so they’ll come back next time. Order takers just do the order. They take a sale and do the minimum paperwork. They haven't discussed anything else or offered any other benefits. They are coasters. Just coasting along not offering anything special.

THE OVERSELLER

They promise the world and deliver less. That is the worst thing to do because you need to be over-delivering rather than over-selling. The overseller often just loves making the sale as an adrenaline “rush” not as a genuine service. They can also be known as The-Sell-Anything-to-Anyone-at-Anytime Type. They promise everything and often get shocked as to why people feel ‘let down’ when ‘they gave them such a good deal’. They often love money and status. Sales is their passion, but they’ve got to learn emotional intelligence.

THE PRODUCT PUSHERS

Product pushers are pushy and annoying. They talk about the product and want to push it regardless of whether it’s a right fit for the customer or not. They think in terms of short-term sales or KPIs rather than long-term customer satisfaction. Sure, they are happy to door-knock or cold call, but they often fail to listen to the customers objections and take their ‘no thank you’ seriously. They’ll be the type that keep calling you even if you’ve said ‘no’ three times to their face. They care about how many items they sell, not the people they sell to.

THE OVER-STATER

Then you've got people who don’t listen to their clients because they just love hearing their own voice. They love over-stating why you should buy from them. They love spruiking about who uses their product or service. They don’t listen to the person.. It’s all about their product, how good they are, or how good their services are. But they're not listening to what the client needs. They are over-stating their value and under-stating the customers’ value. They often name drop and assume you’re interested in status.

THE BEST SALESPERSON IS THE SOLUTION SOLVER

The best salespeople that I have worked with, and the type I love, teach and live by, is the solution solver, or the problem solver. They listen to the client, building a genuine and trusting relationship and try to help them solve a problem or find a solution. That’s the way good selling works. The solution solver will ask the questions to really find out what the customer needs. They are curious and open to investigating solutions for them.

For example, if you’re a lawyer, dig down to find out what's important to your client. What are the issues that matter to them most? What are they trying to achieve? Rather than shooting off how good you are as a lawyer or how you can do this and do that, find out what the client wants and what's important to them. Then provide that service that they want, not what you want to do.

Yes, guide and use your expertise, but listen, empathise, and understand first. The best salespeople build relationships and offer great solutions. Stay honest and authentic, use supporting documentation if that helps build trust. Don't be down people's throats, I see so many salespeople do that. They're flogging their own product and telling you all how fabulous it is, but if it doesn't help solve the customers problem - it's irrelevant.

You'll find out more about these little surprises throughout my book.

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