Common Sense Sales Skills are not Always Common

Doesn't every sales person know by now how important it is to ask questions and understand needs before making the sales call? Isn't that the very basic first step in sales?

I met a gal who recently hung her marketing shingle because former coworkers told her she'd be great at marketing. The thing is, she has never been in marketing. Her coworkers knew her as a recruiter, and while there are marketing elements involved in that job, it is a different job. Is it really wise to start a company in this current climate only on the basis of your friends telling you how great you would be? Not a smart move, in my opinion.

It is smart to attend functions where your target clients are, especially if you are selling yourself as a marketing expert.

A smarter move would be to get to know them and ask questions, rather than hog the entire conversation with your insistence that these targets know nothing about marketing. Believe it or not, many have marketing agencies already and others are smart marketers themselves. You are not some type of sales savior coming to save the day, as there have been dozens of marketing experts visit the same group. Sitting across from four targets over lunch, bombarding them with how much they need you, while not asking even one question, is just silly.

It was smart to attend but not knowing how to conduct yourself there showed you are an amateur in what you are trying to promote as your expertise.

Basic Sales 101 should be common sense to someone who runs a marketing firm. Ask questions! Ask questions! Ask questions! If you read one book on sales, the importance of identifying needs first would be clear to you. The fact that you spent the entire break time talking about yourself was an amateur move, it was insulting to experts at the table, and it was socially rude.

Don't listen only to your friends when setting up a new business. Don't set one up in an area for which your only expertise is a ten-year-old college degree. Don't set one up then screw up what you are trying to sell to others.

Don't try to sell yourself as an expert when it's clear you do not grasp even the very basics of what you are promoting. Figure out the basics first, then sitting with you over lunch might be interesting.