销售最容易犯的五个错误

    本文与《创业者》杂志（Entrepreneur）合作。下文最初发表于Entrepreneur.com。

    罗伯特•赫贾维奇将上门推销比作邀请别人约会。对于许多销售人员而言，尤其是新手，一旦对失败的恐惧占据上风，销售必然以失败告终。“不”这个令人畏惧的单音节词，会打垮一个人的自信，粉碎一个人的自尊。但我们不应该被别人的拒绝击败，尤其是销售从业者。他认为，如果你无法应对拒绝，那只能证明你选错了职业。

    赫贾维奇在《赢的意志：领先，竞争，成功》（The Will to Win: Leading, Competing, Succeeding，加拿大哈珀柯林斯出版集团（HarperCollins）出版，2013年）一书中写道：“对拒绝太过敏感，会变成一种毁灭性的病毒。”他表示，为了从失败中振作起来，你必须甩掉它，对自己说“下一个！”，然后继续斗志昂扬地为下一个机会而努力。

    赫贾维奇最初在多伦多创建互联网安全初创公司赫贾维奇集团（The Herjavec Group）时，公司仅有3名员工，但他却梦想为加拿大最复杂的网络提供安全保护。11年后，这家公司已经成为业内领先的IT安全提供商，现拥有275名员工，营收额有望在年底前达到 2亿美元。

    但公司的发展历程也并非一帆风顺。一路走来，赫贾维奇亲眼目睹销售人员犯下种种错误，而对拒绝的过度敏感，远远算不上是最严重的问题。

    以下是他提出的五大销售错误，以及如何避免这些错误的建议：

    1. 没有针对受众量身设计销售说辞。

    赫贾维奇表示，向正确的客户传达错误信息，或者将正确的信息传达给错误的客户，是如今销售界普遍存在的问题。他说道：“销售人员并没有根据客户量身设计销售说辞，以至于最后都不知道自己为什么会失败。你的首要目标，应该是保证自己要传达的信息，适合正确的受众。比如在向CEO销售与向董事销售时，需要传达的信息肯定有所不同。”

    要提高交易成功的机会，赫贾维奇建议，销售人员需要对客户的具体需求和快乐点（而不是痛苦点，因为“痛苦并不好玩，不论是你自己的还是别人的痛苦”）进行一番调研，然后对症下药，对你的销售说辞进行个性化设计。

    “甚至在你还没有打算去某个地方推销之前，你就必须确定那里存在一种明确界定的需求。”

    2. 向非决策者者推销

    不要浪费时间，去游说没有购买权力的客户。相反，赫贾维奇建议，在微笑着按门铃之前，应该提前核对等会开门那个人是否拥有购买决策权。

    他在《赢的意志》一书中写道：“一般而言，最好的做法是与决策层的某个人预约一次销售会议，对方的职位越高越好。”他警告说，如果不行，你就必须得重新拜访最初联系人的上司。此外，越级联系“或许会让对方反感，进而有可能危及未来你们之间良好的合作关系。”所以，要提前进行尽职调查，并要记住，一点小疏漏便可能让销售泡汤。

    This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at Entrepreneur.com.

    By Kim LachanceSandrow, Entrepreneur.com

    Robert Herjavec equates making a sales call to asking someone out on a date. For many salespeople, especially newbies, once the fear of striking out takes hold, it’s over. In a single syllable, the dreaded “no” saps confidence and shatters egos. But it shouldn’t, particularly not if you’re in sales. He says if you can’t handle rejection, you’re in the wrong business.

    “Being overly sensitive to rejection can become a destructive virus,” Herjavec writes in his book The Will to Win: Leading, Competing, Succeeding (HarperCollins Canada, 2013). To bounce back from a missed sale, he says you have to shake it off, say “Next!” and steamroll on to the next opportunity.

    Herjavec launched his Toronto-based Internet security startup, The Herjavec Group, with only three employees and a dream of securing some of Canada’s most complex networks. Almost 11 years later, the firm is now one of the country’s leading IT security providers, 275 workers strong and on track to rack up $200 million in sales before year’s end.

    It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, though. Along the way, Herjavec has seen salespeople commit a tangle of sales sins — and being thin-skinned about rejection is far from the worst.

    Here’s his view of the top five sales mistakes and his advice on how to avoid them:

    1. Not tailoring your sales pitch to your audience.

    Delivering the wrong message to the right customer, or the right message to the wrong customer is a problem that’s rife in sales today, Herjavec says. “People fail to customize their sales pitch to the customer and then they wonder why they lose the sale,” he says. “Your Goal No. 1 should be making sure your message fits the right audience. If I’m selling to a CEO, I have a different message than if I’m selling to a director.”

    To optimize your chances of sealing a deal, Herjavec suggests you research and understand your customer’s specific needs and pleasure points (not pain points because “Misery isn’t fun, whether it’s yours or someone else’s.”), then personalize your pitch accordingly.

    “There needs to be a clearly defined need identified before you even think about going in there to sell.”

    2. Selling to someone who isn’t a decision maker.

    Don’t waste your time pitching to a customer who doesn’t wield buying power. Instead, thoroughly qualify the person you’re selling to in advance, Herjavec advises, before you smile and dial.

    “Generally, it’s best to book a [sales] meeting with someone as high up the decision-making chain as possible,” he writes in The Will To Win. If you don’t, he warns, you’ll likely have to schedule a do-over call with your initial contact’s superior. And, going above his or her head “can create ill feelings that may jeopardize a good future working relationship.” So do your due diligence ahead of time and remember, it doesn’t take much for a sale to go sour.