Last week we had a fairly large crowd in our Conference Center for the IMPACT Selling Open Seminar – 43 salespeople – all from different industries, different areas of the country and three from the Ukraine. But after spending time with this group of salespeople and countless others over the last 13 years, I’ve noticed 3 mistakes that seem almost universal in selling…

1. Too little research and groundwork to really understand the prospect’s business BEFORE meeting with them
2. Too few probing questions to get the prospect verbalizing their needs and wants
3. And the perennial sales mistake of too much talking and too little listening

All of these problems are symptoms of a larger disease that plagues salespeople and eats away at their ability to succeed – Not focusing on the customer. If you can’t take the time to understand their business, uncover their needs and wants and listen to their concerns, why should your customers and prospects trust you or believe that you have anything valuable to offer?

So here’s my advice: Try taking just 5 more minutes…

• Spend 5 more minutes on research and investigation before meeting your prospect
• Spend 5 more minutes preparing questions that will uncover information you need to make the sale
• Spend 5 more minutes asking questions and listening to your prospect before you jump in speak again

Yes, I know that salespeople often think, “I’m not paid to sit in front of my computer and do research…I’m not paid to hang around listening to prospects yak all day…I’ve got to get in there and sell something and move on to the next one.” That’s why I’m suggesting you take just 5 more minutes in these three key areas – that’s 15 minutes more per sale – invested entirely in focusing on your customer. You’ll be amazed at how well those 15 minutes pay off.

Next Monday, I’ll give you some specific suggestions on how to use those extra 5 minutes to increase your chances of making the sale.

Submitted by: Richard Dickerson

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The Tuesday’s Sales Truths are taken from Bill Brooks’ Book Entitled: Universal Sales Truths

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Got a question for CEO and Founder of The Brooks Group, Bill Brooks?

Bill’s inviting you to challenge him with your toughest business-related questions. Whether you’re struggling with sales, sales management, hiring, training or business growth and development, Bill wants to hear from you.

Each Friday, we’ll take three of your questions straight to Bill’s desk. How will we choose which three questions Bill gets?

Simple, we’ll let you, the readers vote for your favorite questions.

• If you have a question for Bill, you can leave it below in the comments section.
• If you’d like to vote for your favorite question, click on the green thumbs up icon.
• Of course we all know there are no dumb questions…but if you see questions that don’t fit with the sales, sales management and business growth focus of this blog – you can click on the red thumbs down icon to let us know.

Bill’s door is open and he’s ready for your questions.

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Bill talks candidly about the causes of failure in selling and suggests how to avoid it. Another important podcast.

Click the green play button above to play the audio

This and other podcasts are available to download at itunes to help your selling career. If you have never used itunes and need help to download and install it click here for a tutorial.

You can click the “itunes” icon on the sidebar to take you directly to our podcast site.

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The Tuesday’s Sales Truths are taken from Bill Brooks’ Book Entitled: Universal Sales Truths

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