Carol Parsons
Owner, Virtual Sales
Travel Educator and Sales Coach
…..
…..
…..
…..
…..
The Five Deadly Sins of Salesmanship
What I share with you here are insights derived from reviewing and critiquing hundreds of interactions between retail travel agents and potential clients. I present to you– The Five Deadly Sins of Salesmanship–committing any one of them is enough to kill a sale for you.
1. You don’t take ownership of the client. You are handling the client as a transaction & missing the big picture – the relationship! Now maybe you work for an organization that keeps your phones ringing and your door swinging- if so, that’s excellent. However, as we have all seen in the past couple of years, there are times when no marketing arm is going to do it all for you. Smart, successful agents have a book of business, a loyal clientele, a database of potential clients that they can reach out to. That’s what we mean by taking ownership of your clients. Do whatever you need to do to ensure that they are going to NO ONE ELSE to book their travel!
2. You didn’t get their contact information. Agents never got contact information from the person on the phone on average one out of every nine or 10 calls. What is this? Do you just forget? If so you have to ask yourself- why? There must be an underlying reason. Is it a “no time issue”? Are you telling them to call YOU back -Do you really not want them to call you back? Is it just a way for you to disengage and therefore not to take on any more work? If that’s the reality, OK, but remember you’re then also not allowing yourself to earn that income.
3. Information Dumping – another very common affliction of challenged salespeople – you all know what this sounds like…an unending stream of consciousness of (often irrelevant) information that can go WAY beyond selling and may actually end up un-selling! By talking too much & not asking enough or any questions –you learn nothing!
4. You don’t ask for the sale. You would be surprised how often salespeople remain mute at the key moments. Is this the fear of rejection thing? What’s the worst that could happen? You’ll always get a couple NOs on the way to yes. That’s why it’s called the sales process. Remember -they WANT to buy! They WANT to trust you & stop shopping! Give them a good reason to!
5. No Next Steps – You can’t close EVERY sale but at very least you need to get agreement on the process, what the next steps are. Sometimes the “close” is getting that agreement on the next steps to be taken. Many times, agents try to make it the customer’s job…it’s not – it’s YOUR job…so as they say, just do it! Otherwise, don’t be surprised if they just keep on walking!
Now please don’t think I’m being too critical; I have tremendous respect for the intricacies of the agent/client relationship and I’m in awe of the amount of information travel professionals need to manage with a smile on their faces – and do it every day! Sometimes we all just need a shot of reality, good old common sense and a gentle reminder. So I share this with the intent of illustrating that success is often just past your fingertips– yours for the stretching!
