Sales Maven Everybody Fails In The Sales Process Including Me
Do you feel you are failing when it comes to making sales? Listen, as Nikki shares, some of her most significant sales fail, and lessons she has learned over the years. Isn't it interesting how it makes us feel better when we find out others are making mistakes too? Keeping yourself calm and composed no matter what happens, be the swan.
Nikki speaks about a time when she didn't have a good understanding of who was in a meeting and lost a significant customer because she took control of the meeting, assuming she already had the sale. Her lesson was that even when you lose a deal, the most important thing is always to keep that relationship going because you never know where you will be in a year or two.
Nikki also shares a time when she called a contact she knew with a company she wanted to get a product into, and because she was given the wrong information and handled the contacts anger wrong, she lost the relationship with him. Her lesson was as a salesperson; you have to build relationships that are outside of the company.
This is just a taste of what Nikki is sharing with us today. If you have been in the sales business for a while, I am sure you can relate to the examples she gives. Nikki is making herself vulnerable and sharing these lessons so that maybe you will laugh and say if Nikki can laugh about her sales fails, so can I and move on to the next opportunity.
In This Episode:
- [00:43] Welcome to the show!
- [02:26] Shout out my inspirations Elizabeth Hartke of The Scaling Up Podcast and Natalie Eckdahl of the Biz Chix Podcast.
- [03:51] Nikki says she is a lifelong learner, and she sometimes makes mistakes repeatedly.
- [04:41] Nikki shares one of her most significant sales failures as a sales professional.
- [07:41] She tells us why she considers this one of her biggest failures.
- [09:49] Nikki discusses a huge lesson she learned while selling projectors to a school district.
- [13:38] Nikki speaks about a meeting she had with the end buyer.
- [15:45] Nikki shares that she took charge of the meeting, and she shouldn't have, and she should have a better understanding of who was in the meeting.
- [18:13] Even when you lose a deal the most important thing is to always keep that relationship going.
- [19:59] Nikki speaks about another lesson and sales fail she had around a revolutionary technology product.
- [21:35] She sold the product and as soon as it was installed they had issues and it all had to be removed.
- [25:01] Nikki says she lost the trust and relationship with her contact at the company.
- [25:53] As a salesperson you have to build relationships that are outside the company.
- [28:06] Nikki reveals another fail at a conference where she was speaking.
- [31:16] She shares the three lessons she learned from this experience.
- [34:11] Nikki talks about a live workshop she put on with a mixed crowd of women and men.
- [35:40] She was teaching a concept called psychogeography, she used a man from the group as an example and he hired her later as a VIP client.
- [36:25] Nikki found a post from him on social media, saying that I had manipulated him into giving her thousands of dollars that he couldn't afford.
- [38:05] She spoke with him and sent him a full refund even though she had done some coaching with him.
- [40:21] The lesson she learned was when you see red flags, turn the business down.
- [42:15] The last one she is sharing is from a year ago involving an offer of private coaching.
- [43:55] Nikki shares that she doesn't always have people sign up for the offers she puts out.
- [45:02] She loves to test things out, sometimes it's okay to just put something out there and see what happens.
- [46:04] Nikki hopes by hearing these sales fail, it gives you laugh and to make a few of your own or to let go of the ones you are beating yourself up about.
- [47:23] Thank you for listening!
Find Nikki:
@yoursalesmaven
To download free Resources from Nikki: www.yoursalesmaven.com/maven
Scaling Up Podcast with Elizabeth Hartke - Episode 53 with Nikki
Biz Chix Podcast with Natalie Eckdahl - Episode 320, Episode 312 with Nikki, Episode 386 with Nikki