Finding the decision maker and getting them to respond can be one of the hardest things a sales rep faces during the sales cycle.  Sales intelligence data can give you insights on who the decision maker might be, what questions to ask, and how to respond to his or her questions. However, you can’t expect to [...]

While faux pas in the world of sales may not be as material as mismatching socks or flood pants, the implications of committing a sales faux pas are arguably more devastating. Committing these five “no-nos” will almost assuredly cost you the sale, or at the very least, will lengthen your sales cycle and hinder your ability to hit your quota.

While you may not be able to gain insight into what the company’s buying cycle is from and earnings call transcript, at the very least you can formulate an idea of what their budget might be (based on if they state that they are attempting cost reductions or will be investing more) and also what kinds of business problems they are trying to solve within the company. Being sensitive to these issues and approaching a potential sale in a new account can only benefit from empathy and a pitch that is custom tailored toward easing their woes.

Understanding an account does not only mean knowing who the decision makers are and the company’s organizational structure; one of the worst things you can do is to go into a sales call and not fully-understand and be attempting to solve one of their business problems. Coming in to relieve a pain within a company is a much more effective approach to selling than pitching your product blindly to an exec that you have pegged as the exec with the money burning a hole in his pocket.