The Secret Reasons You're Losing the Sale

Salespeople have a difficult job, with success often relying on being able to adapt your pitch to your audience. Of course, preparation is everything but the most effective sales professionals are able to tweak their proposal to respond to queries or issues that may arise during a meeting.

If you're finding that you’re on a bit of a losing streak or that your pitches aren't really hitting the mark, you may be experiencing one of these common mistakes:

Your sales pitch is too hard

If you have each element of your sales pitch fine-tuned and are still failing to convince buyers, it may be that you are selling too hard. Research shows that most people respond well to a conversational-style presentation, rather than the traditional sales pitch that you may be used to.

When you have a strict sales deck to go through with a prospective client, you can easily be shaken if someone asks a question that isn't covered. This can cause buyers to lose confidence in your pitch and switch off, as well as knocking you off track. To avoid this, plan a Q&A element to your proposal and make it clear that questions are welcomed throughout the pitch.

Buyers are more likely to respond positively if you are able to find a solution to a problem they've raised, rather than telling them what their issue is and how you could fix it. Empathy is an incredibly powerful emotion and if you are able to show your audience that you understand their situation, you'll have a much better chance of getting them to convert.

You're not asking the right questions

You may think the focus is on the buyer to ask the questions, but you need to determine where people are in the sales cycle and what their pain points are. In order to do this, you need to find the right questions that will start a conversation to give you the answers.

It's important that you treat each opportunity as an individual prospect, rather than taking the same sales deck to every meeting. Listen to what they actually say to you and respond accordingly. The people you are talking to may not even be looking to buy and acting as if they are will only waste time for both of you.

You're not negotiating

The buyer cycle is more of a journey than ever before, with clients carefully weighing up each potential business and seeing whether they offer more than their competitors. If you shut the door after closing a pitch and think they'll get in touch if they want to, you could be losing a lot of potential sales.

Although sales emails can be some of the most tedious spam businesses receive, this is only because they are generic and offer nothing to the buyer. Don't let this put you off following up after a pitch or meeting; you just need to make sure you are writing an email that reaches out to your buyer by building on the key points covered during your proposal.

Learning how to do a successful follow-up could instantly change your sales rate and allow you to make more long-lasting deals.