Salespeople 'must spring clean their approach to selling'

It is important that salespeople step back and analyse how they interact with prospects, identify strategies and selling techniques which are not working and spring clean their approach in order to survive in the new economy.

Colleen Francis, writing on the Engage Selling Solutions blog, calls this "taking out the trash" and claims it can help sales professionals avoid making mistakes which have hindered their success in the past.

These errors include holding on to poor quality leads in the belief that "there's safety to be gained with padded numbers", using a badly written script for sales calls and dropping the price as soon as a prospect asks, which are areas where the expertise of a sales consultancy could make a difference.

"Make a decision right now to trash what is not working for you. You can't afford to be trapped any longer by a litter of sales strategies and business habits that prevent prospects from becoming customers ... and new customers becoming repeat ones," Ms Francis says.

John Gorman, writing on the Beyond the Boardroom blog, made a similar point recently with regard to adopting new sales strategies, stating that buying processes have changed and therefore selling techniques must also evolve, something which a sales consultancy could help with.