Over the last twenty years of selling in a variety of capacities, I have had many great mentors and been given some excellent advice on how to sell more effectively.  On the other hand, I have also been given a fair share of sketchy sales advice. I figured a short blog on some of the worst advice I have received over the years might provide some insight to others on what not to do and be a bit humorous.

Here are 7 pieces of worst sales advice I’ve received:

1. Show up late to meetings

Years ago while working with a particular client, we were going to a prospect meeting and I suggested that we meet 15 minutes before to catch up, do a bit of last minute planning and strategizing and then we can go into the meeting together.  Upon suggesting that to our client, he proceeded to mention to me that he would prefer to go in to the meeting late so that the prospect felt we were more important and in demand.  In this case, I think I cocked my head and was momentarily speechless.  I then took a second to regroup and suggest that he trust me and that we should meet earlier and be on time for our meeting.   Being on time shows respect and professionalism.

2. Charge double

I was selling to a large global telecoms equipment company and we had managed to sell them a license to our deliverables for the US and Canada.  In addition, my European and Asian counterparts were also working on licensing deals in their respective markets.  Global procurement for this firm was run out of the US so I had suggested we apply our typical pricing model and offer them a global license vs. doing individual regional licenses as it would be more cost effective for the client. It would be the honest thing to do as we had already sent pricing for it.  My boss and the senior team at the firm I worked for opted rather to pursue regional licenses instead which would drive double the revenue in the short-term and only make adjustments if the internal client parties started communicating more effectively.  We inked those Regional deals and then guess what, our internal contacts got word that they had all purchased a similar license and we had to backtrack on pricing and even offer a price lower than our global license to keep them as clients.  Bottom line, be honest, and act with integrity.

3. When your sales people start to sell too much cut their commission

For sales managers or senior company leaders cutting a salespersons commission because they are making more money than you or making more than you believe they should is a no no, particularly if they are working hard for it.  At one firm we worked for, an executive there was concerned that his sales people were making too much money.  They were compensated a base salary plus a 7% commission on sales (average sale of approx. $50,000).   The sales people worked on hunting and then closing new business.  We recommended they keep the incentive as is and continue to let their sales people sell, close and earn.  The executive making the ultimate decision decided to cut sales commissions in half and within 3 months, 50% of the sales people left leaving a sizeable hole in the sales team.

4. The gatekeeper is a nobody

Wrong.  The gatekeeper has a job to do and that is to ensure the person they are watching out for is not inundated with calls that are not a good use of his or her time.  Your job is to either work through the gatekeeper and try to secure a meeting via this person with the decision maker or find times when they are not working (usually early or late in the day) and try to contact your decision maker directly.  I remember one gatekeeper I was trying to get through at first brushed me off but after numerous attempts and slowly building a rapport with her over time, she booked me the meeting I needed with the decision maker.

5. Cold calling is dead

I have covered this topic numerous times.  It absolutely is not dead.  It is simply and always has been a tool to be used where needed as part of the sales process.  One prospect we were speaking with did not believe cold calling was an effective tool (this is probably because they did not try it themselves). Rather they figured that doing mass email campaigns was the only way to generate leads.  Our response was that using both tools as part of the outbound sales effort could be the most effective solution.  You cold call your Tier 1 accounts directly specifically targeting key individuals and you use the mass email campaign to bring in leads in other Tier 2 and Tier 3 target companies.  To this day, some of largest wins for clients have been from cold calling.

6. Just stop by their office and knock on some doors

Really – does this work when someone stops by your house trying to sell you VoIP services or a new furnace?  Do you let them in to your kitchen table for a talk?  No.  Same goes for your target customer.  Do not stop in uninvited.  Rather book a meeting so you have some dedicated time from your prospect where they can listen and focus on the value your solution brings.

7.You don’t really need a sales CRM, an excel sheet is more than sufficient

So let me ask you, when you have hundreds of prospects all at different stages of the funnel after making thousands of outbound calls and emails with associated historical notes and activity per account and per contact how does excel manage this well.  The answer, it doesn’t.  To properly manage the sales process, if you are serious about selling, you need a sales CRM 

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