5 Ways Your Most Experienced Salespeople Are Losing You Money Every Day
"I certainly don't need sales training," the woman smirked. "I've been doing this for over twenty years! I'm sure you haven't been doing this for over 20 years!"
I smiled. As a young, sales training professional, this encounter is not unusual for me. This woman had been in the automotive industry for so long she was pretty much part of the furniture. She had spent the better part of her life coming into the same car dealership from Thursday to Monday; saying the same spiel to her customers day in and day out; getting the same, average results; and going home at 5.30pm on the dot for an early dinner and a glass of red to recover from the hectic life of a sales professional.
Most businesses have at least one of these employees, a niche breed of salesperson I will call 'Mr Experience'. Often, because of their self-proclaimed experiential wisdom, they fly under the radar when it comes to continuing professional development. It is a sad reality that, in fact, it is these employees who often pick up the negative habits that hinder the success of themselves and the business. This can be manifested in several distinct ways:
1. A Fixed Mindset
As a result of all his years in sales, Mr Experience has determined that he knows everything there is to know about selling. Consequently, logic says that also means he has achieved his 'success limit'; that is, he has all the knowledge and skills so whatever results he's getting now are the maximum that he is capable of achieving. This is what renowned motivation professional Dr. Caroline Dweck would call a ‘fixed mindset’. A fixed mindset says that we are limited by our ability – we can get to a certain point of success, and then once we are there, it is ‘fixed’. There is nothing more that we can learn, develop or try that will enhance our performance beyond the exact position it is in now.
The alternative to this mindset is a ‘growth’ mindset. This approach looks at our potential as defined only by the limitations we place on ourselves. As long as we continue to learn, to practice, and to learn some more, the opportunities are boundless. It is a growth mindset that says “if I read some more books and try some new techniques I will get better”. It is a growth mindset that understands that with persistence, conscious development and dedication we will always, always improve.
Needless to say, your business is far more likely to reach new heights of success with a team full of 'growth mindsets' than one full of 'fixed' mindsets.
2. Cutting Corners and Rigidity
Practice makes permanent, not perfect. If you have been doing the exact same thingfor 20 years, can you really call this ‘experience’? In my opinion, the only ‘experience’ one can claim from this is the ability to lock oneself into a single process, limiting their behavioural flexibility, skillset and performance. Usually, because we haven’t ever stopped to evaluate what we’re doing or how we’re doing it, it also means that we have started cutting important processes out of our ‘sell’, and complacency has driven us to perform at a minimal level of success.
If you looked at Mr Experience's sales process, would he cover every stage effectively? Would he qualify effectively and intelligently? Play with different objection handling techniques? Sometimes our most experienced salespeople skim over important parts of the sales process, with the misguided confidence and/or laziness that they're no longer needed.
3. Playing the Blame Game
Mr Experience is often the person that the world happens to, and not the other way around. He often doesn't need to be accountable for his results, because they can all be explained away - visa vie,
"The market happened."
“Customers are terrible this month.”
“No one wants to buy because of the election.”
“People aren’t listening to me today.”
“This bad weather has made sales drop.”
Sound familiar?
Where we should be analyzing what we are doing, Mr Experience analyzes just about everything else. Conveniently, it is usually those things that we cannot control that become their focus. I don’t need to emphasize how dangerous this can be for a business.
4. Prejudging
One of the fantastic skills that comes with experience is the ability to read our customers more accurately, to qualify more effectively, and to understand what is needed to ensure that you help a prospect to find a solution.
Unfortunately, it’s this ‘experience’ and ‘expertise’ that also means we jump to conclusions, sometimes far too quickly. As soon as our action changes from ‘observing’ to ‘presuming’ we start to limit ourselves. And as soon as we decide that someone is not going to buy from us, because they’re just a ‘time wasting lead’ or ‘not serious’ or ‘not buying for ages’, we pointedly stop trying to sell to them. Often we are not even conscious of the major impact this has on our overall result.
Salesland is always changing. Sure, there are inherent processes that will always be imperative to success. But without a consistent review of even these core processes, combined with new perspectives, ideas and techniques reflective of our current society, we will never be as great as we desire to be.
Mr Experience prejudges and, as a result, you may find he also cherry-picks leads, burns customers that he decides are time-wasting, or simply doesn't try as hard as he should with every single opportunity.
5. Spreading the Toxicity
Mr Experience is one of the reasons I will always advocate hiring people who have never been in the sales industry before. One of the hardest and longest processes as a sales trainer is to take someone with years and years of ‘experience’, and open their mind. This often includes ‘untraining out’ any lazy, complacent or ineffective sales techniques, and rebuilding their process so it is more flexible to appealing to consumers today. Most sales trainers and managers would much prefer to work with a blank canvas who is eager to learn, grow and implement new ideas every day.
The biggest fear then becomes the influence of Mr Experience on these new ducklings: is there going to be a spread of bad habits and negativity? Attitude is contagious, and it's true what they said about that bad apple and the bunch.
The Disclaimer
Of course, there will be experienced people in your business who bring invaluable wisdom and never-ending positivity to your business culture and bottom line. For the purposes of literary succinctness, I have taken all those negative habits that tend to creep in over years of experience and brought them together as one figure.
However, it is common that over time some or all of these bad habits will foster in an individual if there is not continued dedication to professional growth, reevaluation of the market, and your business and sales processes. If you find yourself adopting one or more of these bad habits, it's time to go back to basics and treat yourself and your team as a trainee again. Motivate yourself, pick up some sales training and spend more time evaluating your experiences with every single customer.
By the way, if you're wondering what happened to the smirking woman with all that ‘experience’...
Well, she didn’t attend my session – I think she had to go into the dealership that day to say her spiel to some customers…
Be brilliant,
Sonia
This blog post was originally posted on my training website, Statusone.com.au, on Nov 7, 2016. I have since been moving some of my favourite blog posts from there over to here, as this is now my ‘content hub’ and I want you to have access to some of the cool stuff I’ve written about before. You can still check out the Status One site if you’re interested in corporate training if you want. Also, don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter below for updates and weekly exclusive content.