The Biggest Mistake Salespeople Make

Not long ago, I published a blog post asking, “Who is the best salesperson you’ve ever met?”

In the post, I basically said it was a meaningless question—the answer depends on a huge number of factors. One person’s opinion of that “best” salesperson would be completely different from someone else’s.

Yet an amazing number of people, whether on LinkedIn or via email, sent me the names of the best salesperson they ever met. Clearly, they hadn’t taken the time to read the article. They were responding to what they thought the article was about—a search for the best salesperson. In the process, they made themselves look a little silly. This is probably the single biggest mistake I see salespeople make: They don’t answer the right question. They aren’t really listening to what the customer is saying, instead responding to what they think the customer is saying—or worse, what they want to say as salespeople.

We know the latter case very well. It usually comes from some salesperson deftly poising questions, trying to provoke a specific word or phrase. Once they hear the word, they leap into a monologue in which they talk about what they wanted to talk about—their products—rather than what the customer wanted to talk about.

It’s no wonder customers are frustrated. It’s no wonder customer surveys come back with responses like: They don’t understand my needs. They don’t listen. They don’t take the time to understand what we are trying to do. They don’t care about what I want.

Questions have tremendous power. They enable the customer to consider different things. They get the customer to think about things they may have never considered before—to shift their beliefs, attitudes and opinions. They open minds and conversations.

Gaining a deep understanding of the customer is the most powerful tool we have as salespeople. It aligns us and helps us build a bond with customers. If we properly use questions, the customer tells us exactly what they want to do and why, what they think of us and the competition and what it takes to win his or her business.

We don’t take the time to discover this. Instead we rush, guess and answer what we want to answer. We don’t connect with the customer, missing the opportunity to address what they want and need.

Are you asking the right questions?

Dave Brock speaks frequently on a wide range of business, sales, leadership and related topics. His consulting clients include companies in the semiconductor, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, computer, telecommunications, retailing, software, professional and financial services industries.