The document lists 16 common mistakes made by salespeople and advises focusing on understanding the customer's needs, demonstrating value, taking responsibility for results, and differentiating your offering rather than making excuses. Key mistakes include asking generic questions, criticizing competitors, not knowing your customer's true motivations, making excuses, and believing price is the main concern rather than perceived value. The overall message is for salespeople to accept responsibility for their performance and learn from any mistakes.

1. 1. Asking the same questions everyone asks. Why are you asking questions you could have
found the answers to online? Why aren’t you seizing the opportunity to engage more
intellectually and emotionally?
2. Comparing yourself to, rather than differentiating yourself from, the competition. No
memorability anywhere.
3. Criticizing the competition. Makes you look bad, and suspect.
4. Trying to go over someone’s head to the “real” decision-maker. Too late, you should have
started higher in the first place.
5. Talking about your prejudices. Not good, ever.
6. Blaming the prospect for your issues. Issues like: wouldn’t make an appointment, didn’t
respond to an email, didn’t return my call, blah, blah.
7. Not knowing the difference between things like “you’re and your”, “their and there”.
Misspelled words and poor grammar make you look stupid and lazy.
8. Delivering your sales message, not their buying message. Why are you making a “sales
presentation” without understanding why the prospect may want to buy?
9. Making excuses for what went wrong. Not taking responsibility for what you could have
done to change it.
10. Offering no perceived value. When value is missing, all that’s left is price.
11. Believing price is the issue. Price is in your mind way more than it is their mind. Price is
only the issue 30% of the time or less. Where’s the value?
13. Making dumb – even worse – insincere, follow-ups. Trying to disguise the fact you’re just
asking for the money.
14. Thinking you’re smarter than the customer. Don’t flatter yourself.
15. Failure to provide proof that you are what you say you are. Testimonials are the only
proof you’ve got. Why aren’t you using them to make sales?
16. The opposite of blame is responsibility. The more you blame price, circumstances, and
other people for your inability to make a sale, the more your income will suffer. The first step to
mastering salesmanship is to accept responsibility for what happens, learn from it, and make sure
it doesn’t happen again.
How many of these mistakes are you making?