“Do or do not. There is no try.”
-Yoda, Jedi Master
How do you react when you are unsuccessful in your attempt to make a sale? Do you blame external factors or do you accept personal responsibility for your lack of success? In selling you can either make sales or you can make excuses but you can’t make both. Here are the top 25 excuses sales people make for poor performance. How many of them are you guilty of?
1. My quota is too high.
2. My territory is too small.
3. My company doesn’t advertise enough.
4. Our marketing material is out of date.
5. Our price is too high.
6. We don’t get enough leads.
7. I got undercut on price..
8. The gatekeeper won’t let me through.
9. Money is tight.
10. The economy is slow.
11. Businesses are not spending money.
12. My prospects lie to me.
13. We have a long sales cycle.
14. Prospects need time to think about it.
15. I don’t like making cold calls.
16. They are happy with their current supplier.
17. Rejection wipes me out.
18. We’re not competitive.
19. They’re comparing us to the competition.
20. They just signed a new contract.
21. I can’t get through voice mail.
22. They won’t return my call.
23. They have to take it to the committee.
24. They were just shopping price.
25. They used my proposal to get competitive pricing.
In this modern era of increased competitive pressure, globalization and technology old school selling methods and processes are not good enough. If you want to join the ranks of the sales elite quit making excuses for poor performance and accept the fact that your sales skills are not good enough; not nearly good enough. When you accept this truth you can begin to make real progress.