Leaders often fall prey to and mistakenly share myths about sales with their team. Believing these misconceptions can hurt their ability to sell.
Ten professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council debunk common sales myths and provide the truth on how to be successful in sales. Beware of these myths trying to pass as sage wisdom from salespeople of the past.
YEC members share their expert insights.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. The Customer Is Always Right
One of the biggest myths that people in sales and customer service hear is that the customer is always right. It’s originally meant to encourage employees to focus on making customers happy and prioritizing their needs. In sales, this myth can lead to salespeople thinking that they have to agree to anything a customer wants, or it becomes so that customers are told what they want to hear despite the fact that a brand’s solution is not right for them. The truth is that not all people are a good fit for your business, and you need to be willing to reach out but also move on to other more suitable customers when a specific market doesn’t work for you. – Blair Williams, MemberPress
2. Selling Is Dirty And Undignified
I think the biggest myth is that selling is somehow dirty and undignified. Physician residents are never taught about money, and they graduate thinking selling is for used car salesmen. However, when you are selling something that helps people, that is a blessing. By selling, you are blessing people — and that is nothing to be ashamed of. – Sheila Nazarian, Nazarian Plastic Surgery
3. If You Build It, They Will Come
A common myth comes in the form of the saying, “If you build it, they will come.” Today’s consumers are looking for the value you or your service brings to them before they decide to buy. So, you should think like this, “If you provide value, they will buy.” Start by thinking about the top questions people have about your product or service, then answer those questions with content and deliver it to your customers. Building the relationship and trust is the foundation. Sales will happen afterward. People want to buy from people they know and like and from services that have helped them. If you help them, humans feel obligated to help you back. So, they will buy your product or service and refer you to others. Once you’ve provided enough value, you can then ask for the sale or for their business. Focus on being the most valuable! – Kyle Clayton, Team Clayton of RE/MAX Professionals
4. Sales Can Be Fully Automated
A big myth I see these days is that most of the selling process can be scientifically defined and automated. While it’s true that a lot of the communication and scheduling can be accelerated using tools, customers desire a human connection. Whether it’s a smile from the barista who delivers you your favorite mid-morning drink or the text message from a salesperson proposing to overhaul your customer experience process, the human connection allows us to believe and invest in the purchase along with another human. The truth about sales is that it’s happening all the time; we’re selling each other on ideas, ways of being and whether or not we’re trustworthy. Just because we can hide behind our screens and focus on our devices to communicate doesn’t mean that we should. – Robi Ganguly, Apptentive
5. A Great Product Sells Itself
A big myth is that if you have a great product or service, customers are going to get this and continue buying it. Although such revolutionary ideas do come about, they are rare and businesses still need to reach customers. Most businesses work in strongly competitive environments with many products or services satisfying similar needs. So, the real difference is how well customer orientation is understood and executed by the business. The client’s perception of genuine care and effort invested in the relationship will determine the long-term success of most products or services, not the products or services themselves. In professional services, this is clearly even more significant and pronounced. Customer orientation is the future of sales, no matter how virtual things are getting. – Bogdan Gecic, Gecic Law
6. Always Close The Sale
One dangerous myth in sales is “always be closing.” It’s a well-known mantra in the sales world, but as your sales pipeline grows, you may find your top staff overpromising just to hit their sales quota. People in charge of sales are directly responsible for bringing new business, regardless of the implications of closing new customers. At scale, this inevitably means that you’ll end up increasing your support time, potentially promising the world to clients who don’t end up receiving enough value and crashing your brand reputation in the long run. Create stellar sales guidelines that don’t put you in a position of selling more than what you can offer. Instead, focus on underpromising and overdelivering for best results. – Mario Peshev, DevriX
7. The Product Needs To Be The Best
One myth about sales is that your product needs to be the best of the best. In fact, people are more likely to buy something that makes them feel the way they want to feel than they are to purchase the lowest-cost or best-made product. For instance, people often buy based on what other people are buying. If a celebrity uses a new product that just came to market or the product is perceived to be “popular” among people the consumer looks up to, the newcomer will win the sale. The key insight is to pay attention to how your product or service makes the prospective customer feel. If you can deliver the vibe your customer wants, they will buy. However, if you just focus on the functionality of the product and not the perception, you may miss out on a huge opportunity. – Kristopher Brian Jones, LSEO.com
8. Salespeople Are Fast-Talking And Aggressive
The biggest myth about selling to your customers is that great salespeople are high-energy, fast-talking and aggressive. This myth is born out of old cliches where salespeople were told to “always be closing” in order to be effective. In today’s modern world of social media and hyper-connectivity, the best salespeople are not the ones talking the most during a sales conversation. The best salespeople are the ones who are asking the most questions and diagnosing the customer’s real problems, desires and blockers before selling the customer on a particular solution. This “diagnose before you prescribe” approach helps your customer feel heard and understood instead of being “talked at” and counter-intuitively allows great salespeople to close more sales as a result. – Joe Stolte, The Tractionology Group
9. ‘Boiler Room’ Sales Are Still Effective
In 2021, serving is the new selling. The age of boiler room sales is long gone, and with more informed and educated customers, all you really need to do is properly service clients once they connect with you. Companies that have stellar customer service will be more successful. Nowadays, customers google companies, research them and even check references before connecting. So, how is your digital twin business showing up? Simply by managing your or your or your company’s reputation online and getting enough testimonies you can generate business and ales. – Saana Azzam, MENA Speakers
10. Have A Sales Script
For me, the biggest myth about selling is having to use age-old ‘sales techniques’ to get the sale. When I started my business, I believed that in order to close sales calls, you needed to have a sales script. Once I focused on building social proof and connecting with my ideal client on an emotional level through my content and communication, selling became easy. People believe that you need sales training to sell, but what you need is an offer that solves your ideal client’s problems, social proof that sells for you and credibility that you have built through all of your communication with them. People buy from people they know, like and trust so if you start your business on building that know, like and trust, selling becomes easy. – Leanne Lopez Mosley, GROW Coaching Solutions
