What’s one of the costliest ways to grow your business?  Hiring sales people to go out and knock on doors.  Even if those sales people are commission only.

Recently I had the…  ahem… not sure how to say this exactly… misfortune of observing a fantastic example of what not to do.

So let me set the stage a little.  This particular business is selling an information based service costing upwards of $15,000 initially with additional costs over a 5 year contract.  A profitable service to sell but not necessarily an easy service to sell especially from a door-to-door cold call.

When I read how Jonathan Morrow described the 7 types of people he’d like to tell to shut the ****up I had to laugh out loud because he hit pretty close to this sales person.  Here are the 7 types he referenced:

1. People who are too big for their britches
2. Snobs who look down their noses at everyone
3. Cold fish
4. Anyone who talks the talk but can’t walk the walk
5. People who beat around the bush
6. Morons talking out the wrong end
7. Long-winded gasbags

Whether you’re hiring sales people or making the sales yourself there are several things to consider in your behaviors and theirs.  The problem is sometimes the things considered admirable in sales people… when just a little off the mark… become very unattractive… and it reflects directly on you… your business… and what you’re selling.  Here’s how I would adapt that list to better fit Mr. Salesperson:

1. Crossing over the line of confidence and coming off arrogant
2. Talking down to the very people you want to buy your stuff
3. Being a cold fish is rarely a problem with sales people BUT presuming an overly friendly relationship is
4. Making unbelievable claims and telling preposterous stories
5. Failing to get to the point… it took this guy 3 sales calls to get a “no” that he should have gotten the first day… that is if anyone could make any sense what-so-ever about what the heck he was selling
6. Feigning knowledge and understanding you don’t have
7. Talking too much and too loud

On top of these 7 unattractive traits this person also…

• Pitched rather than discussed
• Never uncovered the motivation to buy because he was too busy braying about feature after feature after feature
• Used every technique and tactic from the handbook for selling low value junk

I was so embarrassed for this person it physically hurt.  I felt even worse for the owner.  With sales people like that running around… business development is going to be a tough go.

Morale of the story…

• make sure anyone trying to sell your stuff can clearly communicate what they’re selling
• don’t expose your potential buyers to behaviors that would embarrass you
• prepare your sales people to sell solutions not features