The 8 Biggest Myths About Sales Success5 min read

Sales success is often misunderstood

People have misconceptions about what it takes to be successful in sales. To set the record straight, I’d like to dispel the eight most prevalent myths about selling, the sales process and sales success.

1. Sales success belongs to people born to sell.  This is simply not true. Most successful salespeople are trained in their profession just like any other professional person. Top companies in almost every industry have sales training and development programs that teach the art of selling. Top salespeople spend a lot of time developing their approach and techniques. Tom Hopkins, one of the best sales trainers in the world, professed that “no woman ever gave birth to a natural-born salesperson.” Sales success comes from training, not genetics.
2. All sales people are good talkers.  Again, this is far from the truth. Sales success in not based on your ability to talk. There’s an old saying in sales: “You have two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk.” Successful salespeople are excellent listeners. They pay careful attention to prospects in order to gain a clear understanding of their needs. I know a lot of fantastic salespeople who aren’t the best talkers in the world, but still produce exceptional results. They’re good at what they do because they have mastered the art of asking the right questions—and listening to the answers—to better understand clients’ needs.
3. Sales success is based on knowing the right techniques and tricks.  I wish this were so. But alas, there are no magic words or phrases. Sales technique is important, but tactics used by one salesperson may not work for the next. Sales success is based on work habits and mental attitudes, as well as and the nature of your products and territory. You can have all the techniques in the world, but without the right opportunity to use them, what are they worth?
4. A good salesperson can sell anything.  I don’t think so. Sales success comes down to selling for the right company, with the right product, to the right prospects. A good sales person can be successful with any number of organizations or any number of products, as long as the sales process is well developed. This one reason market research is such a valuable tool. The product must be sellable, the prospects must be interested, and the process must be in place.
5. Good sales person can sell to anyone.  Again, no. Sales success starts with identifying your target audience, people within your service area who need your solution. This means making sure you know your product and the people who will benefit most from its use. You might be the most talented salesperson, but if your product isn’t right for your prospects, you’re wasting your time.
6. Sales success comes from telling people what they want to hear.  Salespeople that do this are better known as con artists. Successful salespeople invest time identifying a prospect’s needs, and letting the prospect know how their product will satisfy those needs. A successful salesperson will also let a client know if their product is not right for them. This leads to trust and could mean a new client in the future.
7. People don’t like to buy.  This couldn’t be further from the truth. People love to buy. How many people do you know who are depressed when they buy a new car or move into their first house? I know business owners who are excited when they buy consulting or coaching services that produce a visible increase in revenues, or they invest in the operation and see a strong ROI. Sales success isn’t about convincing people to buy something they don’t want to buy, or don’t need. It’s about being able to demonstrate why buying your product or service will help them achieve goal.
8. Sales success is achieved by just working harder.  Selling is not like digging a ditch. If you need to dig the ditch faster, you can just put more people on the job. In sales, it’s about quality, not quantity. The key to sales success is to use good time management and to work smarter, not necessarily harder.

These are what I see as the eight most prevalent myths about sales success. I hope you, as a sales manager, are starting to get a picture of how important the sales process is in creating a successful sales team.

For the sales manager, sales success means developing a sales process that:

• Places your salespeople in front of the right prospects.
• Allows your salespeople to demonstrate your product’s features and benefits
• Helps them ask the right questions to identify prospects’ needs.
• Teaches them to listen for the right information in the prospects’ answers.
• Gives them the tools to tie features and benefits to those needs.
• Provides them with a system for managing their territories.
• Ensures that they treat clients with respect, using integrity and honesty.

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