Todd Duncan on Killing the Sale

Over the past two days, on the way to work and back I’ve been reading Todd Duncan’s Killing the Sale: The 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them- its an awesome book about salesmanship, and its certainly changed my perspective about selling.

Certainly a great read for anyone who is involved with entrepreneurship, selling or anything related to that.

For you, here are my takeaways from his list of “sale killers”. Enjoy!

1. Don’t hype about your product. Know your products well, and know your motive to sell. If your motive is ANYTHING but providing value to your customer, it will simply not work.
2. Be authentic. Don’t know say don’t know. People need to buy you before they buy your products - trust is key.
3. Always treat the source, not the symptoms. Working harder will generate more sales, but helping your customers get to the root of their challenges or problems will help you to multiply your revenue in the long term!
4. Don’t moonlight. There is a time for other aspects of your life. Prioritise the things in your life. Build your business into your life, not your life into your business.
5. Don’t do everything. Delegate where possible. Spend time on the things that matter.
6. Listen to the needs of your potential clients first. Listen and ask questions, provide solutions, not products.
7. Never call a prospect who is not expecting your call. Make sure they are excited to hear your call. Always add value during your call.
8. Always add value to your customers. The product is the same wherever they get it, but people buy from you because of the value you add.
9. Follow up with your customers regularly. Don’t leave money on the table because you don’t follow up.
10. Keep improving. Go with the times. Know your products well, know the market well, know your customers well, know yourself well.

Many of these principle apply both online or offline - people has to buy YOU first, then the product. We’ve seen many marketers coming out with “wonderful” products, make a big sale, then disappear, simply because the products are overhyped. Are you planning to be guilty of that?

So, how many sales have you killed?