Sales Pros Behaving Badly

Why does it seem that the worst sector when it comes to practicing what they preach appears to be self-proclaimed sales pros? Astonishing. I’m not talking fancy schmancy here. I’m talking about the most basic selling essentials. Makes me want to hold my head and cry.

As I tell people in my networking group … “If I observe, or even worse find myself on the short end of, less-than-stellar behavior from you … why would I use your services let alone refer you to others who might?” After all, it is my neck that is being placed directly on the chopping block. That’s fine but, I’d be stupid to hand you the ax.

Much of this is about assumptions and perceptions. As I don’t have any other data than what you provide me via your behavior, it is my perception, and I would justly assume that this is how you are with … everyone.[Tweet “There is nothing much worse than sales pros behaving badly!”]

Guaranteed buzz-killers

These are all easy to spot as they tend to be largely overt. They are based on behavioral observation …

Not doing what you say you will do
Never being on time
Not being responsive
Never saying please or thank you
Making ME look bad
Making ME look stupid

Social selling faux pas

Social selling has the potential of being an awesome new tool in your belt. However, if it stays hanging around your waist and you never pull it out to use it, or even worse use it as a hammer and look at everyone as a nail … I can’t help you. There should be, IMHO, absolutely no reason for the club-handed use of any of the following …

Asking questions that you should already have the answers to
Template messaging that is obviously … template messaging
Auto DM’s

I get that marketing uses a lot of these activities but, you are in sales and not in marketing. Here’s one that hits the mark on all three (auto DM, template, stupid questions) …

Hey Craig, thanks for the follow and connecting! Tell me about what you do? Any good Twitter tips? 🙂

I am the [sales expert title] and I work a lot with Sales Leaders, and I know that they often express concerns with:

– Hiring the wrong salespeople
– Trying to get 50-80% of their sales team to perform
– Consistently generate and convert leads to customers
– Poor engagement from their sales team.

If you are concerned with any of those, we might be able to have a productive conversation as those are the types of challenges that we help to resolve.

Let me know if you want to put a brief conversation on the calendar. I would be very interested in learning more about what you all are doing.

Look forward hearing back,

[Name] – [sales expert title]
[Phone] – Always text friendly

PS. Check out my podcast where we take experts and turn their advice into your actionable sales results – [link to sales expert podcast]

You lost me at “Tell me about what you do?” Now, I can’t say for sure that this was an auto DM (my first name was used correctly vs. my Twitter handle), however, it sure as hell was a template. I also can’t help but cringe whenever anybody calls themselves and expert, guru, or any other such title. I even cringe when someone else hangs one of those adjectives on me.

If not an auto DM, that makes this message even worse. Here is a screenshot of my Twitter bio and, without even going to my identified website … it kinda’ gives you a pretty good idea of what I do. Ya’ think?

I responded with that observation and … no response. As far as that goes, probably 90% of the 10% of DMs that I do respond to yield the same results. And … I should choose to allow you to help me … why?

Here’s another. Recently I wrote an article which featured a well-recognized individual. Shortly after publication, I received an email in my inbox from a social media management company that was, in fact, directed to that individual (see the disconnect?) asking him if he would like to be featured on another site. At least, I think that it was meant for him and not for me but, I could not be certain.

Now, I am quite familiar with who they represent and have written articles for their client, about their client’s product, and their client has even written for my site. I emailed back seeking clarification. No response. Even worse, if they did want to contact my interviewee, there were about 10 ways listed to reach him that were included in the article. Bad marketing pro! Poor behavior is not limited to salespeople.

Or, how about the social expert whose entire Twitter feed is about … how he is the social expert? I would love to say that I am making this stuff up but, alas, I am not. I would suggest that these types of activities are a waste of time (yours and mine) and that they reflect poorly on … you.

Contributing factors

Certainly, there can be many factors that can lead to these types of behaviors. They either ..

Lack the discipline to do it right
Lack the patience to do it right
Are too lazy to do it right
Are too busy and/or too fractured to do it right
Don’t really understand how to do it right
Have made the choice to act like a mass marketer rather than as a sales professional. They are hoping that enough crap will stick to the wall
All of the above

The right way

It really is not that difficult to do things the right way! Slow down. Open your eyes. Personalize your engagements. Remember that quality trumps quantity. Keep your word. Show respect. Be polite. Treat others like they actually mean something to you. End of post.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!