etailinsights eCommerce Data and Sales Blog
5 Ways Salespeople Lose Buyer Interest
posted by Darren Pierce
Few things are worse than realizing mid-way through a sales presentation that half the people in the boardroom are checking email on their phone and the other half are thinking about their next meeting.
What went wrong? You ask yourself.
Chances are, you made one of these five mistakes below. These are the most common ways salespeople lose the interest of their buyers.
1) Disqualifying Yourself
Being humble is never a bad thing, but you should always avoid phrases like, “I’ve just started digging into this subject” or “I’m not exactly an expert at this subject.” Phrases like that strip you of all credibility, giving the audience every reason to let their attention shift to something else.
2) Making Things Complicated
Having clear, logical points are important. Avoid including slides with heavy text or graphs with a ton of data. If anything is overly complicated or confusing, prospects aren’t going to put the effort into figuring it out. Simple is good.
3) Repeating Points Unnecessarily
Don’t insult the intelligence of your audience. Repeating something once or twice is okay and sometimes necessary. Although, if you stick with point number two above, you shouldn’t have to repeat anything. By the time your audience notices you’ve repeated yourself five times, you’ve already lost them.
4) Having A Rigid Agenda
The point is not to put on the greatest presentation of all time. The point is to build a connection with your audience, so if you’re hitting important points--even though you're straying from the agenda--go with it. Don’t hesitate to take questions right in the middle of your presentation. In fact, I’d encourage it. The more of a conversation you can create the better.
5) Going Over Time
It doesn’t matter how interesting your product is, 99.9% of CMOs won’t take ten minutes out of their next meeting to hear about it. Taking more time than you’re promised is a surefire way to lose a buyer’s interest.
If you want to keep a prospect’s interest, avoid the five common mistakes above.
