10 Sales Nevers. No Way. You Just Cannot.

There are a lot of sales and social selling gurus, or as I like to call them – charlatans – out there selling you the magic elixir to sales success. The honest truth is: there is no magic pill, no easy path, no snap-your-finger route to success. Truly successful salespeople are professionals who have honed their craft; that doesn’t mean that they have learned the tricks that others don’t know. It means that they have skills and standards, and those standards include clear lines in the sand. Here are the 10 Nevers – the 10 things you can never do if you are serious about being a successful sales professional.

1. Never begin a sales conversation with a lie. The foundation of your relationship and the currency you trade in is trust. Don’t tell me you’re following up on an email that you never sent. Don’t tell me that you are following up on a LinkedIn conversation I had with your boss that I know never happened.
2. Never make a promise that you do not intend to keep. Your word is your bond, and even though we live in a litigious time, no one should ever need to use a contract to enforce a promise you made.
3. Never avoid dealing with a challenge or problem now. Problems don’t age well. They only grow in complexity and require greater time and attention in the future. Besides, professionals do the work that amateurs, pretenders, and poseurs avoid.
4. Never avoid having a conversation about the investment necessary for your prospect or dream client to achieve their goals. By avoiding the discussion, you make it appear as if you’re afraid to talk about the price. That fear can make your prospective client believe you don’t believe in your product and your pricing.
5. Never get comfortable. Never be so comfortable that you avoid doing things that stretch you. Growth only occurs when you adopt a new belief, even one that scares you, and when you take a new action, especially one that scares you.
6. Never give up the pursuit. Even if you lose an opportunity, you must keep trying. Listen, if the prospective account you were pursuing was worth your time and energy when you lost, then it’s still worth your time and energy now. Regroup. Recover. Reload.
7. Never spend time with people who make you less. Never spend time with those who are negative, cynical, burnout, has-beens, or never were’s. There is truth to the idea that you become like the people with whom you spend the most time. The greatest risk to your mindset is allowing yourself to become infected with poor beliefs. Never spend time with energy vampires.
8. Never lie to win business. Don’t say that you can do something that you can’t do. And don’t commit your company to doing something your business can’t do. If what you sell will not benefit the person or people you are selling it to, then don’t sell it. Work harder at prospecting and maintain your integrity at all costs.
9. Never leave a meeting without establishing the next necessary action in gaining the commitment to take it. If I can offer you only one piece of advice to improve your sales now, this would be it.
10. Never believe that there is something that you cannot do. If you can imagine it, and if you can see yourself doing it, it is possible. This is especially true if other people are already doing what you dream of doing.