how to annoy decision makers... guaranteed!

How to ANNOY Decision Makers... Guaranteed!

Thought Leader Publications Inc.An excerpt from the book "Winning Sales Advice."

3How to ANNOY Decision Makers...Guaranteed!

Canon

In the world of corporate sales, the difference between winning and losing a sale can come down to the smallest of details. A salesperson can be doing everything right— feeling confident they’re going to win the deal—until they do that one little thing that annoys the decision maker...and then the sale is lost.

Yet if a salesperson is not aware of their annoying behaviors, they may keep losing sales, because it’s unlikely that the prospect is going to tell them what they did wrong.

This white paper offers a solution to this problem by identifying some of the sales behaviors that an-noy decision makers the most. This information is based on research conducted for the book “Winning Sales Advice: Sales Secrets from the Decision Maker’s Side of the Desk.” (© 2008 Thought Leader Publications Inc.).

The Research

Decision makers from a wide variety of companies were interviewed, from smaller firms with 50 to 100 employees to major corporations from the Fortune 500.

ManufacturingTelecommunicationsEducationFinancial ServicesRetailSoftwareP

AdvertisingInsuranceHealthHospitalityCorporate Recruiting Printing S

Office ManagerExecutive Vice PresidentGeneral ManagerSenior Marketing ManagerIT DirectorDirector of Marketing

Executive AssistantMedia BuyerHuman Resources Manager Vice President of SalesVice President of Supplier DiversityChairman & CEO

HOW TO ANNOY DECISION MAKERS…GUARANTEED!

While it’s vital that a salesperson know what to do right, knowing what not to do is just as important. And the decision makers interviewed couldn’t agree more. Consider the following observation from Suzette Ramcharan, Investor Relations and Office Manager with Gold Eagle Mines Ltd.:

“It’s important to avoid being annoying, because once you’re annoying, no one cares what you’re sell-ing!”

Before your next interaction with a decision maker, take a look at the sales behaviors that annoy them the most:

The decision makers’ titles include:

Industries include:

4 How to ANNOY Decision Makers...Guaranteed!

Being Late:

“Punctuality is critical, so when a rep is too late or too early to a meeting, that’s annoying.”

Bringing In Too Many People:

“For example, a rep says they will bring one additional person to our meeting, and they end up bringing two people.”

Manager Check Ups:

“I don’t feel it’s good etiquette when I’ve met with a rep and theirboss calls afterward to see how they performed.”

Bashing the Competition:

“I’ve met with reps who continuously bash their competition instead of spending time building up their own value. Based on my experience, about 60 percent of reps I meet with tend to do this.”

Leaving Vague Messages:

“I’m primarily responsible for buying advertising on behalf of ourresort properties. It’s a bad start to a potential business relationshipwhen a salesperson leaves me a message and just gives his nameand doesn’t tell me what company he is calling from. Since I have noidea who they are, I call back because it might be a customer, butwhen I discover it’s a salesperson, I’m annoyed. It’s not professional;it’s a misleading approach.”

Making Assumptions:

“I feel an advertising sales rep is off to a bad start when they call upout of the blue and inform me they have the perfect audience forour business. A better approach would be to inquire if they can askme a few questions to see if there is a potential fit.”

Andre SingerGeneral ManagerStrongco Engineered Systems:

Jill SmillieDirector of MarketingOak Bay Marine Group:


Small Talk:

“If it’s a first-time meeting, I don’t feel a rep should begin with small talk. Once we’ve done business or had several meetings, then a bit of small talk is more a propriate, as our relationship has developed to the point where it’s more sin-cere.”

One Sided Cold Calls:

“These are the type of calls where the vendor takes no time to listen to your needs at all; they just work their way through a script. The message this aproach sends to me is I never want to do business with that vendor!”

Vendors Not Willing to Put in the Necessary Time:

“I can recall meeting with a very experienced salesperson who justwasn’t willing to put the time in to learn about our company and ourspecific needs. He was just trying to push his product on me.”

Trying to Sell Without Doing Any Research First:

“I had a sales rep call me once trying to sell me fitness equipment; heactually thought we were a fitness club. Our company, PerformancePersonnel, is a recruiting services company!”

Non-Stop Yammering:

“I once received a cold call and the salesperson never asked me anyquestions or gave me a chance to speak. So, I put the phone down,put a few files away, and when I picked up the phone, he was stilltalking; he never knew that I’d been gone!”

Acting Desperate:

“The ‘I’ll give you a discount if you buy now,’ and the ‘I need to makemy month-end quota’ closes don’t do it for me. Is the rep working formy company’s best interests or theirs?”

Erin OwensIT DirectorEquity Bank:

Cathy LimPresidentPerformance Personnel Inc.:


Making Assumptions:

“Too many times salespeople are presenting a solution to a problem they expect me to have and never listen to what my problem really is.”

Excessive Follow-Up: “Stop calling me every week or every month when you need more sales. Once you are in the door, back off and stay in the background. I am okay with you call-ing me on a regular basis to check in, but don’t keep calling me to sell me and push your latest big commission item down my throat.”

Poor Post-Sale Follow-Up:

“Make sure you’re willing to be held accountable after the sale. I can’t stand those people that once they sell you something, you can never get hold of them, especially when there is a problem. Worse yet, if you do reach them with a problem, they dump you off to another department without giving you any assis-tance.”

Putting Down the Competition:

“Some reps get defensive and tell me all the negative reasons I shouldn’t go with their competition, which is a complete turnoff. I’d rather they focus on the benefits of their product.”

Being Pushy:

“It’s annoying when a rep gets pushy, even though I’ve explained we have timing or budget constraints. They try to close the sale without having enough under-standing of our situation because they haven’t asked enough questions.”

Not Doing Enough Research:

“Too many reps make cold calls without having a real understanding as to what our company does. They haven’t done the necessary homework. About 75 per-cent of the reps who have made cold calls to me fit into this category.”

John A. GrabowskiDirector, Information & TechnologyCanon Business Solutions, Inc.:

Claire MacdonaldMedia Buyer Copeland Communications:

Gary HubbardSenior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Liberty Northwest Insurance Corp.:


Not Asking Permission on a Cold Call:

“It’s annoying when a rep calls up and tries to take my time without asking if I have a minute, or asking if they could schedule a few minutes at a more conve-nient time.”

Using a Spiel:

“[It’s annoying] when the rep comes in with a set spiel and doesn’t ask questions to truly understand my needs.”

Overly Aggressive Follow-up:

“When I tell you it will be four months before I’m prepared to talk again, don’t call me a month later.”

Not Honoring Promises:

“If a rep agrees to do something per my request and they don’t follow through, they don’t need to call me again. We’re done. Who wants to buy something from someone you can’t depend on?”

Lack of Patience:

“Pushy salespeople do not motivate me to engage with them. Salespeople need to either have a strong active sales funnel—or at least appear to have one—so each prospect can be approached with a long-term view versus a pushy ‘I do not care if you see the value-closing style.’ ”

False Pretenses on a Cold Call:

“Such as pretending they actually know me by referring to items they read on my bio.”

Ted W. BiggsSenior Vice President and Western Region Sales Manager U.S. Bank:

Peter CallaghanChief Sales OfficerMaximizer Software, The CRM Company:


Complaining:

“It’s annoying when a salesperson who I’ve never spoken with, but who has left me one or more voicemails, connects with me and complains by letting me know how difficult it was for them to get hold of me.”

A Pushy Approach:

“When a sales rep who I’ve not spoken to before calls to try to connect with an executive, and they’re pushy and condescending, it puts me off. No ‘good morn-ing’ or ‘good afternoon.’ And then when I say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m unable to forward you on to the executive without knowing who you are and the purpose of your call,’ they say something like ‘What do you mean you can’t forward me?’ If you want to get through, this forceful steamroller approach is never going to work.”

No Follow-up:

“If we ask for more information or more follow-up, and the rep doesn’t do it, we’re pretty much done. We simply don’t have the time to deal with undepend-able people.”

Lack of Preparation:

“Do your homework before you call us. Based on my experience, I can say that only about 20 percent of salespeople approach us in an informed manner.”

Lying:

“[It’s a deal breaker] when they say they’re going to do something and they don’t.”

Not Understanding My Business:

“About 50 percent of the reps I engage with are clearly not prepared.”

Kathie HartExecutive Assistant U.S. Bank:

J.P. LavoieVice President of National Training and Product DevelopmentCanaccord Capital Corporation:


Unexpected People at Meetings:

“I don’t like being surprised by having an army of people coming in to my office when I was expecting just one person. When a rep comes in with all his backup support people without alerting me in advance, I am instantly put off. This hap-pens frequently, especially when it’s a technical sale.”

Being Evasive:

“A lot of reps who make cold calls try to dodge the screening process by not stating the purpose of their call, but that doesn’t work. It’s a better approach to explain why they’re calling since my role requires me to be a screen for the executive.”

Not Doing Your Homework:

“Too many reps call us and it’s abundantly clear: They have not done their homework. This is not the way to make a cold call to a large organization.”

Lack of People Skills:

“When a salesperson disregards things like common courtesy, honesty, and sincerity, it makes for a challenging start to a business relationship.”

Arrogance:

“Some salespeople come across as if their offering is the only thing in the mar-ketplace, as if they’re superior and you obviously have to use them.”

Laziness:

“Sometimes a salesperson will tell me about their offering and assume I can make and then position all the matches between the benefits of their potential solution and our specific needs. It’s like they don’t feel they need to be involved in the process.”

Gerald StefanProject Analyst and Executive AssistantU.S. Bank:

Bryan DaggettHuman Resources Manager, Enterprise Process Management Office DuPont:


Not Following-Up on Promises:

“This happens fairly often. In particular, I’ve noticed when a salesperson brings their boss to a meeting with me, they often make all kinds of statements about things they will do for us, but they don’t make proper notes, or they get too busy with something else and they don’t follow through.”

Manipulative Techniques:

“For example, I got a voicemail saying, ‘this is Harry, give me a call back; my number is…’ yet he didn’t include a last name or company name. This is a hor-rible approach.”

Lengthy Correspondence:

“Long e-mails introducing a salesperson’s company and long-winded voicemails are not effective. Also, I don’t feel I should be expected to look up someone’s website when it’s left on my voicemail by someone I don’t even know.”

Not Doing Your Homework:

“I had a salesperson call me and say; ‘I know RR Donnelley is a huge compa-ny…’ So I asked him, ‘How big are we?’ All I got back was silence.”

Tardiness, Interruptions, No Understand of My Business:

“Especially when they make assumptions.”

Lack of Awareness:

“It’s annoying when a salesperson continues to talk about something that isn’t relevant to me without observing that I’m not interested, which should be easy to discern by reading my body language. When they go on and on and I have to explain I’ve no interest in that area, it lessens my desire to work with them.”

Jim GrahamFormer Vice President, Training and DevelopmentRR Donnelley:

Blake KneedlerDirector of HP Business SalesCompUSA:

Craig SimpsonSolution Provider, Sales and DevelopmentBusinessObjects:


Not Cutting to the Chase:

“Some salespeople give me a long-winded background story without getting to the point quick enough. When this happens, I usually ask, ‘What is your ultimate question?’ As soon as I do that, they get focused and make their point.”

Not Being Concise:

“Salespeople who don’t focus on ‘what’s in it for me’ and who send long-winded e-mails and unnecessarily long quotes are wasting my time.”

Poor Listening Skills:

“It’s annoying when a salesperson interrupts, has poor eye contact, or asks a question about information I’ve just supplied them.”

Bringing Unexpected People to the Meeting:

“Some salespeople set an appointment with me but walk in with a team of col-leagues. Unexpected surprises like this are not the way to win me over.”

Gimmicks, Gifts, Etcetera:

“Some salespeople offer free tickets or gifts, but I’m not going to feel obligated because of it. If you can’t sell me based on who you are, what you know, and what you have to offer, don’t waste your time buying me gifts.”

Talking Too Much. No Relevance:

“They go on about their product or service without understanding whether it’s relevant to my situation.”

Poor Voicemails:

“It’s annoying when I get a voicemail from a salesperson and they don’t leave a company name or identify a purpose for their call. This is not an effective way to get a call returned.”

Doug Hilton.Senior Director, Human ResourcesADP, Inc.:

Frank BernieriDivision Vice President of SalesADP, Inc.:


Doing More Talking than Listening:

“This is easily my top annoyance. In a sales call, I think a good balance is to have your prospect or client talk 70 percent of the time.”

Being Late:

“It’s been a point of fascination with me that so many salespeople are late for meetings. Over the years, over half of the salespeople I’ve met with have been late for meetings they’ve scheduled with me.”

Typos:

“Too many salespeople don’t take the time to be professional, and brief, in their business correspondence.”

Talking Too Much about Yourself:

“[It’s annoying if they] talk all about their company and offerings without under-standing what my needs are.”

Asking What My Budget Is. Not Keeping to a Schedule:

“Arriving late, not following the agenda, dragging the meeting past the agreed upon stop time.”

Being Too Familiar:

“[I hate] cold calls from salespeople saying ‘Hey Steve, how’s it going?’ There’s familiarity, but we haven’t even met.”

No Follow-up:

“[I find it annoying] when a salesperson says, ‘I’ll get back to you,’ but they never do. Or when they say, ‘I thought I gave that to you already.’ ”

Ted MoorhouseChairman & CEO Serebra Learning Corporation:

Bill MaddoxFormer Executive Vice President of Business Sales CompUSA:

Stephen SharpSenior Director, IT InfrastructureCanon U.S.A., Inc.:


Questioning Me:

“[It bugs me] when a salesperson says, ‘Nobody else does it that way,’ when they’re talking about how we use a particular product.”

Being Late for Meetings. Being ill-prepared:

“When they’re not well-prepared, they waste my time.”

Calling the Wrong Person:

“Like when they call me for a small-ticket decision that a company president would never make.”

Bringing Unexpected People to a Meeting:

“I find it annoying when I set an appointment with a salesperson and they come in with a gang of people with no prior warning.”

Overcomplicating Things:

“Some reps try to impress me with their advanced knowledge. I need a salesper-son to simplify things, not complicate them.”

Inexperienced Reps:

“It’s a waste of time to meet with salespeople who don’t know what they’re talk-ing about and can’t answer reasonable questions.”

Constant Pestering:

“I have no problem with follow-up, but if I ask someone to follow-up in two weeks and they call back in a week, that’s more annoying than effective.”

Carole HolmesPresidentinSite Housing, Hospitality & Health Services Inc.:

Brian SawdonControllerConsbec Inc.:

Michael Leskovec, C.A. Controller Gold Eagle Mines Ltd.:


Having a Limited Understanding of the Competition:

“This affects a salesperson’s ability to give me the best advice possible.”

Lack of Concern for my Needs:

“Such as when a sales rep is clearly more concerned with closing the deal rather than gaining a genuine understanding of and appreciation for my situation.”

Being Too Pushy on a Cold Call:

“When a rep I’ve never spoken with tries to book a meeting with me over the phone, I make it clear that I want information beforehand. Some people get way too aggressive in trying to book a meeting.”

Poor Communication Skills:

“A surprising number of salespeople I’ve met with sound like they’ve just gradu-ated from grade five. Good communication skills are important to me when I deal with salespeople.”

Overly Aggressive Follow-Up:

“When I’ve already said, ‘I’ll get back to you if I’m interested,’ it’s annoying when reps continue to call without offering anything new or valuable.”

Lack of Preparation:

“It’s important to be prepared before interacting with a decision maker. When someone cold calls me or comes to a meeting and it’s clear they haven’t done any homework to identify a potential fit, it’s usually pretty obvious. This sends a message about their commitment to earning our business.”

Suzette RamcharanInvestor Relations and Office ManagerGold Eagle Mines Ltd.:

Kathy BennVice President of Supplier DiversityCardinal Health:


Over-Zealous Follow-Up:

“Salespeople need to be reasonable about how soon an e-mail or call can be returned. Calling me five times in a week and saying ‘I hate to be a pest,’ is not the way to get heard. When buyers are working on a RFP, or traveling to visit with suppliers, it may take a while to return a phone call or e-mail.”

Being Late for Meetings:

“It’s hard to believe how many people are late for meetings and don’t even call to say they’re running late. I’d put this number as high as 50 percent.”

One-Sided Cold Calls:

“Too often, salespeople will call and it’s clear they have no sense of whether their offering is relevant to me; they don’t ask, they just steamroll their way through the call to deliver their pitch.”

Not Doing Research Before a Meeting. Not Asking Permission for My Time Before Barging In On a Cold Call.

Not Being Genuine:

“Some reps try to build rapport by using small talk to open a meeting, but it often comes across as being forced. It’s as if they’re following a process; it’s not genu-ine.”

- Not Doing Research Before a Meeting:

“This happens often; salespeople ask me questions which are clearly addressed on our website. When a company and their salespeople don’t properly prepare before the sale, it doesn’t give me confidence in their ability to perform after the sale.”

Not Giving Me Time to Make a Decision:

“I prefer to have time to consider my options versus being ‘closed’ on the spot. Some salespeople are overly aggressive in trying to close the sale right there and then. This type of approach doesn’t demonstrate confidence in the product or the company you are representing.”

Vic TysonVice PresidentMajor Canadian Bank

Roberta AhrbeckOffice ManagerAlamos Gold Inc.:

Thought Leader Publications Inc.

1-877-870-0009 www.TLP1.com

how to annoy decision makers... guaranteed!

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