No one likes a pushy salesperson. Pushy salespeople don’t even like other pushy salespeople. In fact, pushy salespeople are the reason other people don’t like salespeople in general. Despite these truths, many of you push until the sale will bend, break, and bust and you set a bad example for other sales professionals. This leaves the rest of you with the only other option you can think of; timid and passive-aggressive sales tactics. Whether you are pushy or passive, the result is still the same; fewer deals. There is a middle ground between pushy and passive, and it is called persistent. Persistence is a concept that most salespeople struggle with because they cannot distinguish it from being pushy. There is a good reason for this since there is a very fine line between the two. In fact, they are like fraternal twins. They were both born on the same day, but they don’t necessarily look identical. We can agree that they are closely related which can make things confusing, but once you learn the difference between them, you can adjust your approach to get better results while maintaining the respect of your prospects and clients. The easiest way to sum it up is that pushy salespeople push the sale while persistent salespeople lead the sale. Here are the 5 signs of a pushy salesperson and what you can do to adjust to a persistent and effective salesperson.
- You don’t pick up on sales cues – Do you notice your prospect becoming uncomfortable? Do you sense your client withdrawing from the sale? Pushy salespeople like everything to fit in a nice little box. In fact, they insist on it so much to the point that they choose to ignore what their clients and prospects are telling them and reject the sales cues that they are given. Persistent salespeople seek out and identify sales cues and use them to their advantage. Pushy people will always fall back to feature & benefit selling when confronted with sales cues that they cannot or will not process. Furthermore, you cannot pick up on sales cues when you don’t listen, which brings me to my next point.
- You don’t listen – Pushy salespeople think they are good listeners, but they listen in a different way. They listen to filter out anything that doesn’t sound like something they want to hear. Quite often the pushy salesperson is the one doing most of the talking. The persistent salesperson listens more than she speaks and looks for clarity in the information that has been shared with her. Customers are always more willing to buy when they feel that they have been heard.
- You apply pressure instead of reason – Pushy salespeople are known for applying high-pressure sales tactics. They do this because they serve their own agenda; not their customers’. Persistent salespeople seek out the right fit for their customers by applying a sense of reasoning to the decision making process. Sure, you can upsell the opportunity if it makes sense for the customer, but you focus on creating a great customer experience instead of your bottom line.
- You do not manage sales objections – Pushy salespeople hate objections because it creates friction and takes them off-script. They ignore, marginalize and sometimes even downright lie to get around the objections. Persistent salespeople use sales objections to their advantage by using them as opportunities to reposition the value of themselves and what they are selling. Again, the more someone feels heard the better your chances are of closing the deal.
You won’t take ‘no’ for an answer – By the laws of economics, it is impossible for any salesperson to close every deal. It never happens. So the concept of ‘I won’t take no for an answer’ is foolish and misleading, but that is what a pushy salesperson will latch onto. You are not a good fit for everyone and not everyone is going to be a good fit for what you are selling. Deal with it. A persistent salesperson knows when it is time to walk away from the deal because it will not be mutually beneficial. Furthermore, she knows that ‘no’ always means ‘not yet’. There will be a next time, and when there is, chances are the odds of closing the deal will improve because you have been respectful and persistent. To enhance your sales persistence and avoid being pushy, consider Scorecard’s Training & Coaching to polish your sales techniques. Learn more about those here or get in touch at ajacobs@scorecardsales.com.
