June 18, 2019

[E47] Q&A Week: Biggest mistakes, self-confidence and rejection, not being an expert in your niche

11 minutes

In this episode, I answer:

What is the biggest mistake a salesperson can

make?

How can you build more self-confidence in

handling rejection while working in a sales role?

I’m not an expert in my niche. How to persuade

people to trust me and buy from me?

If you have any sales or mindset related questions, send

me a message through the contact page

or via LinkedIn.

Episode 47 – Transcript

this episode, I answer more questions about sales like what mistakes

salespeople make, how to build more self confidence when dealing with

rejection, and what to do if you’re not an expert in your niche.

Welcome

to Episode 47 of The Sales Experience Podcast. I’m glad you’re here. I’m

excited. I’m having a lot of fun going through these questions and answering

them the best that I can. Hopefully, you’re getting value from it. Make sure

you subscribe and send me your questions.

you have sales related questions, whether you’re new to sales, you’ve been in

sales for a long time, you’re thinking about getting in sales, or maybe you’re

a sales manager or sales leader, run a sales organization; send me those questions

that you’ve got in your mind that you want to know about either that you’re

struggling with, or you’re curious about, send them to me, I’ll answer them.

And

if you haven’t checked it out yet, make sure to go to the CutterConsultingGroup.com website.

There’s transcripts, all the information about the shows, lots of other

articles and links on there, as well as subscribe to the podcast, wherever you

download these from; iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, it’s on SoundCloud, as well.

You should be able to find them all over the internet.

So,

just make sure to go wherever you download podcasts from, you should be able to

find it there. If not send me a message. Let me know where else it needs to be

at so you can find it easily every single day as I put these out. But for now,

let’s jump into some questions and see how this goes today.

Now,

the first one, what is the biggest mistake a salesperson can make?

Fundamentally,

there’s so many mistakes a salesperson can make, just like anything in life.

However, there’s some big ones. And most people would agree that the mistakes

that salespeople make, like the biggest fundamental issues fall in the category

of manipulation and lying.

Now,

why would a salesperson do that? Why would they manipulate somebody? Why would

they lie? Why would they not be honest and transparent about what they’re

selling? Typically, it’s because they have their own intentions in mind.

They

have their own goals, they have their own desire for why they’re selling, what

they’re selling, the money they want, or whatever it is that they’re going

after. And they want that more than they want the prospect to turn into a

client who’s happy with what they’re buying.

They’re

thinking short term, they just want to make money and so they’ll do whatever it

takes. This is unfortunately, what has given sales, the bad reputation that it

has, as a profession as an industry, especially in the minds of prospects and

I’ve talked about this many times before.

And

so this big mistake and I’ve covered it, but I would just want to answer this

question one more time is this mistake is when wraps, manipulate and lie. It’s

so important that you avoid that at all costs. Even if that means not getting

the deal, not closing the sale; make sure you’re always honest, you’re always

transparent, you’re always telling the truth because that’s the only way to get

it done if you’re in the business long term.

Now,

if you’re short term, you want to sell stuff, make some money and move on,

you’re probably not listening to this podcast anyway because you’re not in this

to learn and grow and enrich what you’re doing and become a professional.

So,

I’m not speaking to that group, I’m speaking to the rest of you that are

listening to this, who want to know how to create a better experience for their

prospects, turn them into clients. And not just clients who are happy and

satisfied because that’s not enough.

You

want customers who are raving fans who are willing to send you referrals who

are shouting from the top of the mountain, because they’re so excited and they

want everyone to know about what you’re offering because they see so much value

in it.

Now,

will all the people you deal with want to send you referrals? No. And I’ve

covered that in the past. But that’s the attitude you want to have and you

can’t get there, if you’re not transparent, if you’re not authentic, if you’re

not honest about the good and bad of what you’re selling, and you’re solving

actual problems for people.

So,

make sure that that’s how you always operate. And long term you will win some

days, it might not feel like it some days, you may think, “Oh, this isn’t

working for me. I’m not closing deals.” but long term. Just keep at it and it

will make sense.

All

right. Question number two, how can you build more self confidence in handling

rejection while working in a sales role?

This

and I’ve covered this before, so make sure you listen to the episode about

“It’s Not Personal, It’s Business”. And that can take two different approaches.

On one side, it’s all personal. It’s all relationships, it’s all conversations.

Whether

you’re getting into a deep relationship with all your prospects or it’s a one

call close, at some level, it’s one human talking to another in a conversation.

It’s relationship selling, it’s solving their problems and helping them move

forward. So on that side, it is personal.

the other side, it’s business. So, remember that if they’re rejecting what

you’re selling, most likely, they’re not rejecting you. Now, if you’re rude or

you’re mean or too aggressive, then they might be rejecting you. And that’s

something to look at.

And

somebody, your manager can give you some feedback and tell you maybe it’s you

and you’re doing something wrong, that’s pissing people off, basically. But

otherwise, if somebody is saying no, they’re not rejecting you as a person. So,

you want to be able to separate that.

Now,

there may also be techniques and things that you’re doing that is causing the

same know like maybe you’re coming across too salesy, and too cheesy or too

happy. Because whatever you’re selling, there’s going to be a certain tone

that’s effective, that matches your product or your service.

For

example, and this is a crazy example, but if you’re in the funeral business,

and you’re selling funeral services to somebody to a family, where you know,

member of their families just passed away, it’s not about being excited, not everything is awesome, not

everything is great. It’s about you know, being there for them, empathetic,

taking care of their needs, and getting to the point and understanding

everything that they’re going through.

Now,

there’s other times you’re selling vacation, selling timeshare, selling

something else that may be exciting, that may be awesome, that may be cool,

that may be great, but not everything fits into that category. So, you got to

make sure that you’re on so setting up the right framework for the person,

because you could be triggering them to reject you, because you’re just not a

professional in terms of what it takes for the sale that you’re in.

Otherwise,

outside of that keep in mind, they’re going through something. Everybody is

going through something in their life. And sometimes for a lot of people, they

might be going through something that’s so bad or so terrible in their mind,

that it falls in the category of I hope nobody finds out.

Maybe

they’re going through a divorce, bankruptcy, financial issues, relationship

issues, health issues, you know, it could be anything and everything going on

in their life, in their mind. Everything is not perfect, like they try to show

on Facebook or social media. That prospect might not be telling you what they

have going on in their life, but they’ve got something. Everybody has

something.

you’re listening to this, most likely you have something going on in your life,

that’s not pleasant, you’re not happy about, you have to deal with or you

should be dealing with or maybe that season just ended. Maybe you just went

through a storm, maybe you’re in the middle of a storm, or the storm is just

passing by and another one is coming soon; everybody is going through

something.

So,

try to remember that, they’re not rejecting you. And so you don’t want to put

your confidence in the results you get from other people and the response from

other people. Just remember, everyone’s going through something. And so put

your confidence in you your abilities, what you’re doing. If you know you’re

doing the right thing, you’re taking the right steps, you’re building the right

habits; that should build your self confidence, less than the feedback you get

from other people or needing other people’s approval or buying from you to

build your confidence.

All

right, third question. I’m not an expert in my niche, how do I persuade people

to trust me and buy from me?

So,

this happens all the time. You’re brand new and sales, maybe it’s something that’s

pretty complicated, and you need to be at an expert, you’re not because you’re

brand new. And then you’re talking to prospects who are probably an expert and

know your product or service better than you. And you have to then persuade

them and talk to them, and they’ve got to trust you. Or maybe they don’t know

about your product or service, and they’re not going to want to buy from you if

you don’t really know what you’re talking about and you’re not an expert.

remember when I first started out in the mortgage business, so many times I was

concerned and worried like I didn’t know what I was talking about. Luckily, I

had a manager who helped a lot stepped in explained a lot of things.

And

then I remember having a coworker who was in the same situation brand new,

little bit younger. And he was worried that you know, just being new in the

business and being young people might not see him as an expert. And so he

devoted a lot of time and energy into learning it and being professional and

overcoming that by just becoming an expert.

Now

until that point, what can you do? Two things. First one, study your face off.

Just literally study and learn everything you can about your company’s product

or service, the industry, competitors, and not because you’re going to compete

against them, but just learn what they’re doing.

See

what they’re doing, how they explain it, what their messages like. And put all

that in the framework of what your company has given you for the training

materials and documents. Just study like crazy, make it your goal, your job to

learn as much as possible, be a student. So, that’s on one side.

The

other side is just make sure you know enough to help people and ask the right

questions. And then make sure people know that you’re new. There’s nothing

wrong with being new. Everyone’s been new, and your customers will appreciate

it if you tell them that you’re new. You want to help them, you’re still

learning, and you have a team of people behind you who can step in if there’s

any questions.

So,

this is one of those things where you want to make sure you take the approach

of, “That’s a great question, I don’t know the answer to that. But let me get

my manager and they can answer this because they have all the experience and

knowledge.” You want to go that route.

What

a lot of people I see do is they get nervous, they get excited. And they think

they can just talk their way out of it because maybe that’s how they’ve done it

in their life up to that point. And so somebody asked them a question, they

don’t totally know the answer and all they do is just start vomiting, all kinds

of terrible things that are probably wrong, maybe misleading, not compliant,

inaccurate, whatever that is.

And

then it just becomes this terrible response instead of just saying, I don’t

know, let me find somebody that does. And then when that manager steps in or

comes to your meeting, or gets on the phone, listen, take physical notes, take

mental notes, absorb as much as you can learn from other people. So, that down

the road over time, you don’t need to ask for help because you now have the

answers.

There’s nothing wrong with being new.

Everybody’s been new. Every expert, every professional, anyone you see on the

surface, it looks like they’re amazing and maybe an overnight success. It took

years, took thousands of hours to get to that point. And so just take that

pressure off and be willing to ask for help.

That’s

where I talked about in the mindset week, being open and willing, you want to

be open and willing to the tools that you’re providing your company, feedback,

and then being new and trusting the process. So hopefully, that helps and

that’s it for another episode of The Sales Experience podcast. And as always

remember that everything in life is sales, and people will remember the

Experience you gave them.

...more

View all episodes

By Jason Cutter

4.9

3535 ratings

June 18, 2019

[E47] Q&A Week: Biggest mistakes, self-confidence and rejection, not being an expert in your niche

11 minutes

In this episode, I answer:

What is the biggest mistake a salesperson can

make?

How can you build more self-confidence in

handling rejection while working in a sales role?

I’m not an expert in my niche. How to persuade