In a world full of endless information, thanks to growing technology and education, it can be difficult to know what advice to follow. And, when creating strategies as a sales manager, you want to make sure you are giving your team the best tools for success. This combination of information overload and an eagerness to succeed can backfire quickly, causing you to make some rookie mistakes that may lead your team astray. It’s best to stick to the basics and be tenacious about your research before putting a plan in place. To help, here are 3 common mistakes that any sales team member or manager should avoid.
Use Your Ego, And Not Your Experience, To Motivate Your Team
If you’ve been promoted to a sales management position, the odds are high that you have conquered some aspect of the selling process. This is not a small feat, and should ultimately be respected, however, what many new managers do is try to instill in others what you’ve done to get to the top. Of course, motivating others with your experience is an immensely powerful learning tool, but far too often managers do not take the time to look at their team members’ individual skill sets before offering advice from their own experiences. This can be a result of ego from having just been promoted or from wanting respect from teammates. All in all, how you help your subordinates grow from your experiences will ultimately rest on how you can incorporate your strengths with someone else’s foundational strengths. If you try to push your own skills on someone else, whether out of ego or misdirection, you will not have the growth you wish to see.
Not Allowing Your Sales Team To Do The Selling
It can be difficult to entrust your team with closing an important sales pitch– so much so that you may want to do this yourself to ensure you get the win. What this does, however, is allows your team to become lazy. Without facing the sting of rejection, a strong sales team cannot grow. By allowing your team members to handle their sales from start to finish is to learn from their own strengths and weaknesses and shows that you trust them to learn from their strengths and weaknesses once all is said and done. It’s important to close the sale and to meet your goals as a manager and department, but it’s also important to teach your team to be hungry for the win- and to know how hard you have to work to get there!
Leading With Price Negotiation
Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to land a deal. This includes negotiating on price of services and solutions. What many eager sales team members and managers do, however, is offer flexibility too soon in the negotiating process. A recent article from Entrepreneur discusses this concept, explaining that many have been duped into thinking their client is only concerned about pricing, when they really have a much higher budget than they’re letting on. Everyone will pay for quality service and price negotiation should only be used when all other tactics have failed.
Being in sales requires a lot of strength. There will be a lot of rejection and a lot of self-reflection in order to find growth within your skillset. While these are only a few of the most common mistakes made in sales by a team member or manager, they’re important pillars of the job and will act as a great place to start when building a solid foundation for your sales career. Always continue to question your tactics and do the research for a confident strategy, and rest assured that your basic training will help you to make the best decisions.