Why do fmcg salesmen torture to kill themself with all bad habits

May 16, 2022October 25, 2022 Team DigitalGumma 19 Comments bad habits of salespeople, bad sales experience examples, differentiate the traits of good and bad salesperson., How do you spot a bad salesman?, the salesman should not force the customer to buy something, unprofessional salesperson, What are the bad habits which a salesman should give up?

As every salesperson knows, it’s not always easy to convince people to buy things–especially things they don’t want. You can easily come off as too sleazy or too eager, too pushy or too uninterested.

Striking the perfect balance can be difficult, but it’s something that’s completely necessary to do if you don’t want to come across as unprofessional to potential customers.

Here are seven bad habits that make salespeople look particularly unprofessional.

1. Lack of product knowledge

There’s nothing worse than being caught off guard when someone asks you about something you’re supposed to know about–especially when you’re attempting to convince the other person to purchase it. Read up on what you’re selling before you make any sales call, so that you can answer all but the most personal of questions.

2. Talking more than you listen

While it’s important to market what you want to give your buyer, not listening–or responding–to his or her questions and concerns is a huge turn-off for any potential buyer. Make sure to pay attention to what your customer says–selling is a two-way street.

3. Inability to turn product features into benefits

The main obstacle people have when grappling with whether or not to purchase something is how the product will benefit them. Selling the product’s features as potential future benefits is something that will persuade them to buy.

4. Divulging the price too early

Withholding a final price makes you appear less pushy and more empathetic to the customer’s needs. Hold onto the price until you have a firmer grasp on the situation and the potential outcome.

5. Not customizing the presentation

Nothing ticks off potential buyers more than receiving a canned presentation for a product that has nothing to do with their own unique needs. Making the buyer into just another person to sell to reeks of unprofessionalism.

6. Lack of eloquence or articulation

Even though it’s not necessary to be the best speaker or writer who ever lived, it’s definitely important to demonstrate good speech and impeccable grammar and spelling in your dealings with customers. Otherwise, you’ll give the impression that you don’t care much about the product you’re selling–and if you don’t, why should anyone else?

7. Leading a sales call with your product instead of your customer

Although you’re selling a product or service, it’s really the buyer that ultimately matters at the end of the day. Begin every sales call with an understanding of your buyer’s attitude and inclinations, not what you’re trying to get them to buy.

Words not to use during a sales call.

Say Investment Instead of Cost. People hate to spend

You’re Probably A Bad Salesperson If You Possess Any Of These Qualities

Characteristics of a Bad Salesperson You’re not really into sales.

You fear rejection and can’t roll with the punches.

You find yourself as clueless about the product as your customer.

You love talking so much you forgot to listen.

You’re unable to ask the right questions.

You have a sense of entitlement for being so good at what you do.

Everyone is a prospect.

You lack genuine social empathy.

If push comes to shove, you’ll push until the client pushes back.

You go by gut feel since you distrust science and haven’t embraced technology.

You focus on products instead of people

1. You’re not really into sales. You’re just doing it because it’s a “job” You found yourself performing a sales role by chance and you often wonder whether to describe it as pure luck or a cruel stroke of misfortune.

The phrase, “there weren’t any better alternatives at the time” often resurfaces every time you explain why you became a sales professional. Wake up. To be successful in sales, you have to love selling and be proud of your role. Without a passion for sales, you won’t make it very far.

Incidentally, if you only care about the money a sales job brings, then people can tell because the value you offer is neither optimal nor genuine, and can only be half-hearted at best. If you think selling is a negative thing, then it is absolutely not for you.

2. You fear rejection and can’t roll with the punches.

Even the top-performing sales professionals experience tons of rejection. It is what you do after being rejected that counts.

If your motivation and energy level always take a nosedive after a failed pitch, ask, or close attempt, then you do not have what it takes to succeed.

People don’t part with money easily. It takes time, strategy and patience to make them see the value in whatever you’re selling.

Without grit and calibrated persistence, you won’t close enough deals to make your performance metrics even worth studying.

Quit selling if pressure is not your middle name.

3. You find yourself as clueless about your product as the customer. This is beyond sad.

Nothing can be more embarrassing than being asked a basic question about your product and having no correct answer to give readily.

Success in sales requires a lot of preparation, training, and practice.

If you are unwilling to continuously learn new things and prepare for each client engagement, then your failure rate will be higher than the norm.

You can’t rely solely on charm or glibness to close a deal, especially not in the B2B market.

Being an excellent sales professional means a lifetime of motivated and active learning.

Lack of appetite for self-improvement is a one-way ticket out of sales.

4. You love talking so much you forgot to listen. Sales is a communicative process. You need to articulate the value of whatever you are selling.

In fact, being a good speaker, presenter, explainer, or communicator is a very big deal in selling. But sales is also a conversation. And it’s a conversation where customers should do most of the talking! If you monopolize meetings and grab much of the talk-time, you are preventing customers from fully describing where they are coming from, which specific challenges cause them migraines, and which solutions they actually need.

While clients do this, your job is to LISTEN. Obviously, you can force-feed prospects with all the specs in your product line but they won’t thank you for it, much less part with their money.

Forget the Sales coach . Visit a Mental Doctor if you love the sound of your voice too much.

5. You’re unable to ask the right questions. You think asking questions makes you come off as intrusive.

While selling is not exactly a road trip, asking clients the right questions not only gets you closer to your destination (i.,e, making a sale), but also opens up other sweet spots (e.g., upsells, cross-sells, referrals, etc.) just waiting to be revealed down the line.

Asking the right questions is a methodical art that takes time and effort to master.

Bad salespeople are unwilling to spend both.

6. You have a sense of entitlement for being so good at what you do. Businesses depend on sales to survive, grow, and make a positive impact.

But you’re one titanic negative if you think just making the numbers gives you the license to become a showboat and ceaselessly remind people they owe you a lot.

Too much confidence in your charisma, experience, or skills can seed the notion that you don’t need further training or that nothing else can improve your already “peak condition.”

A humble pie now and then can heal delusions of grandeur.

7. Everyone is a prospect. You tend to think that every name on the CRM is a good prospect to engage. So you head out and cast a wide net, hoping to catch something big … eventually … maybe.

Here are three memos you missed:

There’s such a thing as lead qualification. Spending too much time on bad prospects means losing precious moments for engaging qualified leads instead.

Engaging only the relevant decision-makers and influencers in a prospect organization works a lot better .

There’s nothing wrong with being a seller at heart and seeing everyone as a potential customer.

That shows you’re a salesperson at the core but it also indicates a gross lack of focus. After all, you are selling a specific product that offers value only to a specific type of customer.

Learn as much as you can about your target audience and never make any groundless assumptions.

8. You lack genuine social empathy. Selling is a people-centric business and having above-par social skills will help you go further.

If you exhibit even borderline antisocial behavior, then sales is not a world you want to be in.

Honestly ask yourself these questions:

Do you resent negative feedback?

Do you think everyone in the company is your competition?

Do you have to “do better” than your colleagues to prove your self-worth?

Would you rather work alone so you can have a larger share of the pie?

Do you always find the need to shift employers well before staying a year with a company?

If you find building non-sales relationships difficult, then establishing an authentic connection with clients will not be easy.

9. If push comes to shove, you’ll still push until the client pushes back.

We get it.

You’re one passionate seller. So you bombard the client with everything you have as soon as you make contact.

Your energy is impressive but there’s a time and place for everything, as the old saying goes. In many instances, you just need to replace “persistence” (i.e., being pushy) with patience (i.e., strategic downtime) to truly understand the client and steadily, convincingly make the case for your product.

10. Sales is an art and it ultimately deals with human emotions.

But sales is also a science, a world where metrics and method matter. Gone are the days when instinct and “street experience” alone will help you close deals.

The influence of technology on tomorrow’s business landscape will be far more extensive than it already is today.

More importantly, fresh critical insights on how consumers and markets behave will be discovered and clarified by technological tools.

Knowing how to analyze performance metrics, use sales enablement tools, and harness the entire technology stack will be a competitive advantage for your brand as a sales professional.

11. You focus on products instead of people.

Newsflash – prospects don’t care about raw product features. They care about how those features can solve their problems, and it’s up to you to demonstrate that.

You love your product and have spent hours studying its features, probing its specifications, and memorizing its benefits. You’ve even role-played scenarios where you’ve built custom solutions using the product’s modular elements.

Good thing for you, but selling is also about people. In fact, if you have spent tremendous effort in building your product knowledge, you should spend even more on learning about the specific persons you intend to sell your product to. In case you haven’t noticed, “customer” and “customize” share the same root word.

Take that as a cue. Never meet clients without “customizing” your pitch or presentation for their specific context, challenges, or needs.

The writing is on the wall. Business has become more customer-centric over the years that many organizations now have Chief Customer Officers (CCO), customer experience specialists, customer happiness managers, and customer success directors. In sales, the move towards account-based selling (ABS) reflects this paradigm shift.

So go ahead.

Love your product. But love the people it will end up with even more.

To be or not to be a bad salesperson.

If you found yourself having any of the characteristics outlined above, then you’ve reached a decision box.

You can

a) remain on a path to being a “bad” salesperson;

b) make radical changes in your behavior; or

c) take a different career track.

Sales is tough and not everyone can succeed in it.

If you find it difficult to love sales or be proud off a sales role, then your career obviously needs an overhaul.

Otherwise, behavioral modification, sales training, and mentorship can help address whatever you lack in skill or outlook.

Nobody’s perfect. But that shouldn’t stop you from getting better and better at what you do.

Big bad sales habits That Salesmen should know

The most common bad and indifferent habits:

1. Lack of Planning

A clear set of ideas and plan of action is so vital in a sales manager’s daily routine. Don’t let the circumstances dictate how you behave on given a day, rather set your own priorities and act accordingly to accomplish them.

As a golden rule, before you leave work on a particular day you must already have an idea as to what you’ll be doing the next day in the office. Similarly, you must have a plan of action for the entire week, month and the quarter.

Although plans aren’t a rule of thumb and must be changed according to the prevailing demands of the market, yet having no plan at all can be detrimental to your firm’s heath.

2. DE-valuing your time

This is a very commonly found and absolutely necessary to rectify sales habit that need be addressed especially by those in the selling profession. You must know beforehand what is to be done first hand on a day.

Do you know which tasks have to be addressed as a priority without wasting too much of your time on frequent social media breaks? Are you able to afford for yourself periodic breaks so as to stay refreshed and have the amount of focus that is required?

3. Becoming a slave of technology

These days there has been an over-reliance on technology by most sales reps that as observed has caused more harm than good to them.

In our opinion, a good sales professional would just use a basic phone and work hard to achieve his desired targets rather than relying heavily on technology and gadgets.

An efficient sales rep does rely more on his selling skills and focuses more on the overall goals than becoming a slave of modern technological routines.

4. Not responding to positive criticism

All of us have certain flaws, whether we know it or not. Beings an efficient sales professional, you must be sensitive to all positive criticism that comes along and need to change yourself accordingly.

Most of the successful businessmen in our generation have all been coached by some inspirational coaches or their mentors. Remember, such positive criticism would only make you better as a sales rep.

5. Not giving due importance to reading and learning

Almost all successful and effective businessmen are all voracious readers and learners. We know, some of the sales professionals consider reading to be a hobby or a pastime but let us assure you that the more you read and learn from other’s experiences, the better you get and more so in the profession of selling. Learning and reading make your time on work far more valuable and effective.

6. Not being able to re calibrate and adjust

A sales professional’s life is not a steady one or has a fixed routine. Thus, flexibility is the need of the hour. As effective sales professional, you must be open to small adjustments or recalibration in your professional as well as private life.

This certainly does not mean that you won’t find sufficient time for your daily activities and leisure but it means that you need to be on your toes at all times in this profession.

7. Not following up effectively

Following up on your daily calls and appointments is an absolutely vital activity in the profession of selling. We come across so many sales reps that are talented and hard-working yet do not fulfill the sales targets and almost lose their job just because they don’t like to follow up on a lead.

Without proper follow-ups, sales professionals are unable to engage the long-term leads and thus can’t provide the necessary touches that are required in order to close the final deals. Believe us, following up on a sales appointment or call is the nicest habit you can develop as a sales person.

8. Focusing more on quantity than quality

If you arrive early in the office and are the last one to leave, and send the maximum no. of emails in a day to clients and think you are the most efficient employee, think again!

Yes, it has been widely observed that in the profession of selling quality matters over quantity immensely. So, in our advice be in the habit of delivering value to your prospects and give priority to interactions and activities with your clients than just fulfilling an arbitrary quantity number.

Apart from the above mentioned common most bad sales habits found in sales professionals around the world, here are a few more in the same regard that need be taken care of in order to increase your success chances:

9. Don’t bark the wrong tree

Every salesperson must realize that each and every prospect has a limited capacity to buy their products or avail their service. This means that, if you are selling an enterprise product then it’s pointless to persuade a local mom and pop shop for buying it.

These retail shops neither have the resources to buy your product nor do they have interest in them. The time a sales professional wastes on unwanted leads does takes away his opportunity to really make a sale on a good prospect. Thus, it’s best to have and work only on those leads which suit the company’s profile of prospects and dump the rest.

10. Don’t put off Prospecting

Prospecting is a vital activity in the daily work routines of every sales person. Some of us are in the habit of taking an extended layoff time or spend our vacation just after completion of a significant deal.

However, this is very wrong. Ideally, it’s just apt to get back onto your pipeline and begin working on the future deals or the leads.

No matter how big or successful was your last deal you must allot certain amount of time each week on prospecting. This should be a rule of thumb. And, you mustn’t allow anything to come in the way of prospecting.

11. Do not present too early

If you are a sales professional and a new lead comes suddenly to you, what will you do? Of course, latch on to the opportunity and present yourself to it ASAP, right! Well, you’re totally wrong on this.

Yes, according to many a sales experts such as Anthony Lanario, a salesperson’s opportunity could only be properly availed when he duly completes all the stages in the selling process. By skipping stages or jumping the gun too early, no substantial results can be achieved.

It isn’t said for nothing – “Slow and steady wins the race.”

12. Don’t skimp on research

It is a normal and best practice to research about your prospect before visiting him on a call.

The more pertinent you can make a cold call or an email to your prospect, the greater your chances of conversion.

However, avoid mailing absolute generic messages to them since they most often get mass mailed.

Nowadays, with the advent of technology and the Internet, there are vast options to do research on your buyers even before paying them a visit.

Google search, social media accounts, LinkedIn search, and company’s official website.

13. Fill in the blanks

An experienced and knowledgeable sales person would always know or at least try to know what exactly his prospect wants and how. That is to say, he would always anticipate in advance what will be his prospect’s answer to a particular question or the manner in which he would react when approached.

This is very essential in today’s marketing scenario as there is cut-throat competition in the market and there are a plethora of options available to every buyer. Thus, to stay ahead in this mad-rush competition it is best to be sensitive to the buyers’ needs and wants and do your all to fulfil those.

14. Always prepare for objections

Each and every prospect at some point or another does posts an objection or another to a particular product or service.

This is quite normal in the selling process and skilled and experienced sales reps already are aware of it. They think ahead and try to counter the objections raised by the prospect in a friendly and polite tone.

What we are trying to say here is that if you are really serious about sales as a career and wish to be successful at that then, always do a little pre-work before visiting your prospect on a call. Hesitant and ill-informed sales persons are likely to be dumped away in this day and age of stern competition.

15. Do not indulge into unnecessary administrative work

Replying to your daily emails and doing data entry work is a good habit but shouldn’t be done at the expense of actual sales/field work. Yes, you are a decent administrator, agreed!

But, always remember that these activities are only to support the primary task of sales and can never be prioritized atop of sales activity. And, those sales reps that do their emailing and data entry to shy away from sales activity due to fear of failure should get away from this field. Sales, is not for them!

16. Never give up!

Let me share a secret. Do you know that the biggest virtue in the profession of sales, is the act of persistence.

We have come across so many, actually thousands of sales reps who give up on a lead if their second or third call is not responded.

This is absolutely absurd!

Matt Heinz of Heinz Marketing is of the view that to successfully reach out to a lead, a sales person has to attempt to reach out to him at least six to eight times.

In reality, this figure may even be higher!

The moral of the story is that don’t give up on a sales lead just because repeated attempts to approach him have been wasted.

Once he actually acknowledges the call, your hard work is very likely to be paid off, believe us!

Only consider omitting a lead if the prospect tells you to stop.

Beginning not a Conclusion

For all the valuable activities salespeople employ in, there are a few bad sales habits that unintentionally chip away at sales rep’s success.

Drinking Among Salespeople

Working in sales is a high pressure and highly competitive job. There is no question that alcohol has become infused within the culture of sales, and for many in the sales force this can cause problems. But why exactly do people working in sales turn to drinking in the first place?

Salespeople drink for different reasons. Some may drink due to the overwhelming anxiety associated with meeting clients. For these individuals, drinking before meetings is a way to loosen up and be more sociable. For others, just the constant presence of alcohol can persuade them to drink. In any job where social interaction outside of the workplace is part of the job, such as is the case with sales, there is a good chance that these meetings will involve alcohol.

Salespeople often meet with customers over dinner, and this will frequently include the “social” drink before or during the meal. And maybe another one to celebrate closing a deal. And maybe another one for a nightcap before bed…As you can imagine, this repeated pattern of abusive drinking can be dangerous, and over time this can lead to addiction.

Findings from one study examining the abusive drinking behaviors of marketing and business students indicate that abusive drinkers may be attracted to sales careers.¹ While there is still a need for greater analysis into what exactly causes alcoholism within the sales force, the results from this study show that some individuals may have an alcohol abuse problem prior to actually starting their careers in sales.

Smoking Kills A Salesman Faster

Habits such as Smoking Cigarette, chewing Gutka or tobacco and the smell can be a put off to customers specially in the food industry.

Avoid Gambling on Company Funds collected.

Telford salesman stole £14,000 from employers to fund gambling habit.

Fmcg salesmen sometimes utilise or rotate funds collected from the maket in funding their gambling habits endangering their jobs, career and family members.

Every salesmans behaviour represents a brand. Fmcg salesmen are ambassadors of the company.

The Psychology of the Salesperson

There’s something about sales that fascinates us. We have to admire the salesperson’s endless resilience in the face of constant rejection, his certainty that things will work out in the end. At the same time, we’re repelled by the job because of what it does to the people in it.

Sexual harassment is the result of abuse of power by one person over another.In selling, the customer often has power which can be exerted in illegal ways over the salesperson.

Salespeople are essentially the same whatever culture you are in, although there are obviously some local variations. They are “Happy Losers,” people who actually relish rejection and look for jobs that provide them with opportunities to be rejected.

Well, the smart reps realize that they’ve fallen into one of the devious potholes mentioned above and they try to find a way or another to restraint and possibly inverse it soon enough.

Shoppers are more likely to buy something and would pay more for an item if it is sold by an attractive salesperson …

Fmcg-salesmen-need-to-unlock-the-mental-chains.

The Top 10 worst retail sales habits

#10 – Low self-confidence

Problem:
Good salespeople are confident, and confidence is contagious. If a salesperson isn’t confident in his product or in the act of selling, consumers won’t be confident about a purchase.

Solution:
Knowledge is power. Know your products and the confidence of both you and your customers will grow (and so will your sales). Practice roleplaying to rehearse pitches and overcome objections, and it will translate into success.

#9 – Leading with price

Problem:
Once price is established, it has to be overcome with value. This can often be difficult because customers may have already been turned off by the cost.

Solution:
Always lead with value. Using knowledge of your customer’s specific needs, build a mountain of benefits that will easily tower over the cost you present later.

#8 – Failing to close

Problem:
Sales reps who present the value of a product without a closing statement result in an awkward silence. The natural reaction is to fill the silence with a data dump, a communication breakdown that can kill a sale.

Solution:
At the end of the benefit presentation, employing soft closing statements such as ‘How does that sound?’ or ‘We will set that up for you today as well, sound good?’ can take the customer to the finish line. You’ll either receive a ‘yes’ from your prospect, a clarifying question you can answer to close the sale, or an objection you can overcome. Avoid the awkward silence and guide the customer to the close.

#7 – Failing to connect

Problem:
When sales representatives don’t learn anything about their customers, it’s very difficult to inform them of how products and services can truly enhance their lives.

Solution:
Take time to learn about customer needs, and link those needs to the right product or service solution. There’s no need for a “hard close” if a customer trusts you. Connect and they will take your recommendations.

#6 – Too much terminology

Problem:
Slinging around fancy-schmancy adjectives about your products doesn’t necessarily help you sell more. While certain terminology may be well known internally, it is likely foreign to the customer.

Solution:
Know your audience. Talk about products using vocabulary the customer is accustomed to. However, you should still be sure to use the correct legal or compliance language laid out for you.

#5 – Believing you’re short on time; and
#4 – Believing the store is too busy

Problem:
These two habits go hand in hand. Look, we’re all busy. Still, you have a job to do. Take a breath and proceed.

Solution:
Always provide customers with the best experience possible. This includes making them aware of any potential products and services that could benefit them (No. 10) and treating them like they’re the only person in the store (No. 7).

#3 – Overwhelming customers with everything at once

Problem:
Sometimes knowing the product isn’t the issue, but learning how and when to use it is. Just because a sales rep knows everything doesn’t mean the customer needs to hear it.

Solution:
If a connection with the customer has been made, deciding what information to share, and when, becomes easy. Demonstrate that you’ve listened by presenting only what will resonate with the customer, instead of hurling value props until one sticks.

#2 – Clerking

Problem:
There’s a difference between clerking and selling. Clerking is simply exchanging money and asking if they’d “like fries with that.” Don’t be a clerk or a cashier, be a salesperson.

Solution:
Sell! Sell! Sell! Don’t let the customer steer the conversation. Establish a sales process that builds value before you get to the register. Doing this will help you become a bona fide salesperson who can improve your customers’ lives.

#1 – Not selling to everyone

Problem:
Why, why, why would every customer not be offered products or services? Who knows? But it happens. (Insert excuse here.)

Solution:
No more excuses. No more making decisions for the customer. Present to everyone. Remember, you lose 100 percent of the sales you don’t offer.

Sales people often get a bad reputation but they are an integral part of any business, so what can you do to avoid picking up bad habits?

Sales are an incredibly important part of business but the word can fill consumers with dread. From cold calling to refusing to accept no as an answer, certain methods have meant this sector has garnered a pretty bad reputation.

Poor sales techniques don’t just annoy customers but can actually reduce productivity in your business and demoralize staff.

The whole world is my market

Following up any lead that comes your way isn’t how modern sales works. Consumers expect you to know what matters to them and offer realistic solutions for them. Focus on your key personas and build your pitch around them and their pain points.

Misunderstanding your audience

If you get key facts wrong about your leads, they are going to lose trust in your ability to deliver on what you’re promising. You need to do research to understand what your personas want from your company and how your product or service can solve this.

Making assumptions

If you go into a call assuming that a customer will react in a certain way or want specific things, you’re making a huge error.

Keeping good ideas to yourself

Sales departments can be incredibly competitive but holding onto good ideas or techniques is a mistake. The most effective teams work together to achieve their goals and salespeople are no different. Share the knowledge; it helps you become a better professional and a nicer colleague.

Tail Piece:

The-battle-ground-called-fmcg-business-and-its-soldiers.

Friend or Foe every one has his day.

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