Bush Leaguers: The TOP 10 Sales Mistakes

Minor league baseball pitcher John Odom was recently involved in one of the craziest baseball trades of all time. He was traded from the Calgary Vipers to the Laredo Broncos for 10 baseball bats!!! The 26-year-old right-hander said of the trade, “I’m still in shock from this phenomenon, I guess. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s mind-boggling.”

Professional baseball players who continually make mistakes are demoted to teams in the minor leagues. These obscure teams play in small towns across America. In the slang of baseball, the players are called “bush leaguers.” Sales also has its share of bush leaguers, who make the following common mistakes:

   

 

1.    They talk too much on a sales call and don’t listen to the customer enough.

2.  They present the same pitch in the same way to every customer.

3.  They don’t know their customer or product well enough to drive account strategy. 

4.  They assume information they don’t know, thereby taking the wrong action.

5.  They fidget with many accounts and don’t focus on the winnable ones.

6.  They don’t put themselves in the position of being their own customer.

7.  They don’t take the time to continuously analyze their performance.

8.  They don’t understand how to marshal their resources or use their manager.

9.  They set unrealistic customer expectations or make commitments that their product or company can’t fulfill.

10. They expect to win the deal without a coach (internal champion inside the account) or think they have a coach when they don’t.

   

Most importantly, bush leaguers don’t consistently close business. Compared to Heavy Hitters (truly great salespeople), their wins take longer, require more resources, and are less predictable. In order to become successful, Bush leaguers should model the methods and behaviors of Heavy Hitters. Click here if you would like to learn more about some “Heavy Hitter” role models.

Comments

[Bruce Rasmussen]

Steve - great list - can I add some from my firm's experience?

11. They wait for the prospect to request a quote from the market - they don't realise they have to get to the prospect BEFORE this happens.
12. They don't sell to decision makers.
13. They ONLY sell to decision makers (and upset everyone else!)
14. They ignore the "personal wins" the buying influencers must feel related to dealing with them.
15. They say they are "better" than their competitors - they don't realise they have to be different.
16. They don't actively and continually measure whether or not the prospect is "coming along for the ride" (ie qualifying).
17. They actually believe they lose deals because they were too expensive.

There's many more - hope this is a constructive addition!

[Jim Klein]

Steve great list.

Most sales people are only interested in making the sale in the easiest way possible. They don't focus on the client and how they can be of service to them. They don't evaluate their own performance and how they can improve it to be of better service.

Jim Klein
www.fromtheheartsalestraining.com

[Rob Towns]

The sales process is a window of opportunity to construct a viable strategy, and implement this strategy with the goal of achieving the sale. Steve and Jim, I appreciate your commentary and believe you are both absolutely correct. I think a big key to sales success starts with the fundamentals. Before you can construct a sales strategy, you need to be focussed on the most important characteristics of your position which lead to success - this means focusing on the "critical few" as opposed to the "trivial many." If you are scatter brained and multi-tasking up the wazooo, you work efficiency and productivity drops enormously. I'd suggest you guys take a look at John Assaraf's new book "The Answer"... very relevant to our conversation. Great commentary everybody. Everybody needs an inspiration in the form of a coach, or multiple coaches. By "coach" I mean somebody that you trust and are comfortable with that will give the positive and constructive feedback. Self-development comes through rewiring your brain to accomplish things that force you to "change" or exit your comfort zone.... www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2

[Greg Woodley]

Hi,
good stuff, both in the post and in the comments. One of the things that sticks in my mind about going on joint calls with other reps is how often they wold MISS buying signals. Maybe, it's "not listening" like point 1, maybe it's because I was not as active in the dialogue and was able to spot it more easily (I don't think so). I totally agree with point 5 too, a good salesman can smell a sale and then like a bulldog wont let go until the deal is made. Also the best memories I have in my sales career are of the people I had helped NOT the money I made. And that's one of the reasons I sold so much.
Greg

[Greg Woodley]

Hi,
good stuff, both in the post and in the comments. One of the things that sticks in my mind about going on joint calls with other reps is how often they wold MISS buying signals. Maybe, it's "not listening" like point 1, maybe it's because I was not as active in the dialogue and was able to spot it more easily (I don't think so). I totally agree with point 5 too, a good salesman can smell a sale and then like a bulldog wont let go until the deal is made. Also the best memories I have in my sales career are of the people I had helped NOT the money I made. And that's one of the reasons I sold so much.
Greg

[Greg Woodley]

Hi,
good stuff, both in the post and in the comments. One of the things that sticks in my mind about going on joint calls with other reps is how often they wold MISS buying signals. Maybe, it's "not listening" like point 1, maybe it's because I was not as active in the dialogue and was able to spot it more easily (I don't think so). I totally agree with point 5 too, a good salesman can smell a sale and then like a bulldog wont let go until the deal is made. Also the best memories I have in my sales career are of the people I had helped NOT the money I made. And that's one of the reasons I sold so much.
Greg

[Jeremy]

They biggest mistake is talking too much. As much as possible, all your words should be selected strategically while you are on the phone, as to create value for your product, etc. I'd suggest reading "The Answer" to learn how the above mentioned mistakes can also be seen in running a business, and how to fix them. www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2