The 7 Deadly Sins of Successful Sales Teams

Selling is hard work, but it’s even harder when sales teams fall into bad habits.  When these deadly sins take hold, the team can end up alienating customers, peers, and co-workers alike.

If your team remains unrepentant and refuses to change, the end result can easily be the failure of your current sales campaign and even the collapse of your entire company’s sales.

Be forewarned.  You must, must, must take these 7 deadly sins seriously, and make sure that they don’t take hold, either on you, or on your team-members.

DEADLY SIN #1: STUFFING

• Definition: Pushing more products on the customer or the channel than they want or need.
• Why It Happens: This is often done with the best of intentions, under the “customer is always right” maxim.  Customers and channels are not always on top of their needs and requirements, and thus order (or agree to buy) too much product.
• What Results: When the customer or channel figures out that they’ve been “stuffed” with product, they assume (probably rightly) that you were more interested in making your numbers than in making them successful.
• How to Prevent It: Before closing, always make certain that the customer really needs your offering and that it will assist them in building their own business.  If not, volunteer an adjustment that will put the order in line with their real needs.

DEADLY SIN #2: GRANDIOSITY

• Definition: You’ve got a product that’s so wonderful that you’re convinced that it’s the solution to every customer’s problem.
• Why It Happens: Most of the time, this happens because you’ve let the marketing group convince you that you’ve got a product that can “change the world.”  However, no matter how fabulous you offering might be, it’s not a panacea and there are going to be customers for whom a competitor’s product is a better fit.
• What Results: Grandiosity results in customers who aren’t well served.  They end up with features and functions that they don’t use, can’t use, and don’t want.  Worst case, they begin to see you, the sales rep, as something of a religious fanatic rather than a trusted adviser.
• How to Prevent it: Remember that the point of selling is to help the customer become more successful.  Rather than trying to converting them to your “product” religion, dedicate yourself to making sure that your offering gets into the hands of the people who need it most.

DEADLY SIN #3: NOSTALGIA

• Definition: Sales teams often look back to the glory days, when their product was selling like hotcakes.
• Why It Happens: Sales professionals always know what worked in the past, but the memory of past success blind the team to changing customer requirements and major shifts in the marketplace.
• What Results: Gradually, your firm becomes unable to develop new accounts, or take advantage of existing ones.  Revenue from your cash-cows take-over and you find yourself consistently being outbid and outsold by the competition.
• How to Prevent It: Whenever you lose a deal (or don’t get included in an opportunity), take the time to find out exactly why.  As the market changes, adjust your sales approach so that it better fits the way that the customer wants to buy.

DEADLY SIN #4: OVERWHELM

• Definition: Sales teams keep taking on more work, insisting that they can close more business than the last quarter, quarter after quarter.
• Why It Happens: Sales teams enjoy being successful and so they’re sure that they’ve got the ability to be even more successful in the future.  As such, they commit to more growth without having a strategy to accomplish it.
• What Results: It works for a brief period of time, but then productivity begins to quickly decline.  Top performers become frustrated and leave the team.  The company begins to lose business, creating even more pressure to perform.
• How to Prevent It: Come up with plans that are achievable given your current resources.  Then figure out how make the team gradually more productive.

DEADLY SIN #5: FECKLESSNESS

• Definition: When results are good, many sales teams start to relax and celebrate their wins, rather than develop new business.
• Why It Happens: Let’s face it: selling is hard work.  It’s natural to want to take a bit of a rest on your laurels, especially after a big sales campaign has paid off big.
• What Results: This is the great disaster of many successful sales teams.  Their pipeline dries up and the numbers start to decline.  This is then followed by frantic effort to build to another peak and lo! the cycle repeats.
• How to Prevent it: During the good times, make the effort to continue doing all the things that caused the good times: relentless prospecting, cold calls, building out your network.  Make the pipeline a constant priority.

DEADLY SIN #6: OVERCONFIDENCE

• Definition: Sales teams assume that the buying process is moving forward because they’ve presented the deal to all the key decision makers.
• Why It Happens: When you’ve put a lot of work into building up an opportunity, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor (without getting the sale) by simply assuming that it will take place.
• What Results: While you’ll sometimes get the sale, it’s also more than possible that something will go awry and the buying process will stall.  You lose momentum and, eventually, the sale.
• How to Prevent It: Assume nothing.  Stay on top of each major deal.  Continue to ask questions, listen carefully, and make sure all the bases are covered.

DEADLY SIN #7: SANDBAGGING

• Definition: The sales team becomes (or pretends to become) overoptimistic about sales that will take place in a quarter.
• Why It Happens: Sometimes it’s because they’re upbeat and optimistic people and sometimes it’s because they’re telling management what they want to hear.
• What Results: When the sales don’t take place, everyone ends up looking stupid.  Or worse, you end up antagonizing customers trying to get them to buy, simply because you need to make the numbers that you foolishly promised.
• How to Prevent It: Stay focused on reality and make sure that you are putting effort into maintaining a realistic pipeline.  Tell management what they need to know, not what you think they want to hear.