Five mistakes kill deals in a sales meeting, and the trouble is that each one feels right while you make it. The sales book the booklet relies on collects them in a single paragraph, as the price of closing efficiently and without trouble. No arguing with the customer. No opinions about them and no criticism. No running down competitors. No selling them more than they need. And never giving in to any of these because this one time surely does no harm.
The fifth is the door to the other four
The fifth mistake is the interesting one. According to the booklet it is the way people begin making the first four, which makes it different from them. An owner does not get up in the morning and decide to argue with a client. He decides, in the moment, that this client is a special case.
Suppose an owner who tells himself that this time he must explain to the client that he is wrong, because the client really is wrong. He was right, and did not sell. Or a designer who decides that just this once she will add another service for a client, because the client has the budget. The total frightened him, and he did not close even on the small piece.
In both cases the excuse sounds completely reasonable. That is what makes the fifth mistake dangerous. It looks like good judgement, so it is hard to spot as a mistake.
Correcting a client loses the client
The first on the list is also the most common. According to the source, nobody likes being told they are wrong, even when it is said gently, and what we dislike more than anything is being shown that we were wrong.
The source tells a story with a sharp ending. The seller told the customer he was wrong, and the customer was angry and used the only weapon he had to even the score. He refused to buy.
In a small business this matters even more, because there you are usually also the expert. The more you know, the harder it is to hold back from correcting.
Suppose a fitter who corrects a client's technical error while the client's wife is listening. He is completely right, and the job goes to somebody else. Another time, the same fitter shows the client two ways, his own and the client's. The client chose his own, and chose it freely.
Running down a competitor hurts you twice
According to the source, you are there to sell your product, and running down the competition is no part of that. Stressing a competitor's shortcomings again and again achieves two things, and both harm you. It focuses attention on that competitor's product, and it says nothing good about yours.
A third result follows. People naturally take the side of whoever is being put down, and a competitor becomes exactly that once you criticise them in their absence, when they cannot defend themselves.
Suppose an owner who explains in detail why a competitor is cheap: because the competitor is poor. The client leaves with the name of a competitor he did not know about, and phones him. Compare an owner who says the competitors are good at what they do, then spends two lines on what he does. He sounds more credible and sells more.
An oversized sale is no success
The fourth mistake turns up precisely when a sale is easy. According to the source, an easy sale leads many salespeople into a serious mistake. They oversell, because the customer is trusting and easy to persuade.
The source leaves no doubt about it. The seller has a duty to match the product or service to the customer, and a big sale to someone with no need for it is a liability, an achievement in appearance only. It also ties straight back to the chapter on conditions of exchange. Such a sale creates a partial exchange, the second of the four conditions, where only part of the value reaches the client, and the result of that is known in advance.
Suppose a consultant who sells a year of support to a client who needed three meetings in total. The client pays, does not use it, and does not come back. The same consultant in another case tells the client he does not need what he was weighing up, and points to what he does need. From that client he got three referrals within two years.
Two mistakes from people who try hard
The management material the booklet rests on lists two more errors, and both happen precisely to people who try very hard. The first is a discount nobody requested. The source describes a seller who put forward credit, or a token payment, with the customer sitting there holding the full price, ready to pay. According to the booklet, that comes from fear, and generosity has nothing to do with it.
The second is not believing in what you sell. Some sellers have no reality on their own product, or do not believe in it, and some simply cannot take money. Both problems show in the meeting, even when nobody says a word about them.
Suppose an owner who names a price and immediately adds that payments can be spread out. The client had not asked, and now knows there is room. Compare a designer who says the price and stays quiet. The client says that is fine.
The booklet gives this chapter two exercises, one for spotting and one for analysis, and a self-check.
All five mistakes arrive with a decision that this case is special, and at the moment you make them they feel right. That is why it pays to know them before the meeting starts.