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Your team is the backbone of your business. When they succeed, you succeed. If you have devoted your time to building a team of strong, motivated individuals, you will reap the rewards as you watch your business steadily flourish. Because you have built a strong foundation at the core of your business, the growth of your company will not succumb to a shaky infrastructure. You can have peace of mind knowing that the most important areas of your business are stable.

Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances, not every team is as capable. You may not always be able to predict where failure could arise when putting together your team. Similarly, there may be behaviors or practices that your team implements that may not seem detrimental, but can actually affect your company’s bottom line.

These behaviors or practices often stem from salespeople trying to put into practice strategies that they have learned from other professionals. However, these strategies are often outdated and possess attributes that have since been improved upon and replaced by better tactics.

If you notice a stagnation or regression in sales, look for these 3 common sales mistakes:

1. The Avid-Caller

After the initial sales pitch, it’s important to re-open the line of communication again for a follow-up, especially if there has been silence from the client’s end. The best practice to implement would be to schedule a future call with a prospect in advance. If there is no timeline set in place and an extended period of time passes since the initial conversation, a salesperson may try to make up for lost time by constantly trying to reach the client via phone. Many clients perceive this as intrusive, especially if they lead very busy lives, and will either chose to avoid returning your call or, if they do call you back, will be more temperamental.

2. Lack Of Background Research

If you are attempting to reach out to a prospective client, you must do a little digging around before the initial phone call or in-person meeting. If they can sense that you know nothing about them or their business, they are going to interpret your intent as being extremely impersonal.

3. Talking Badly Of The Competition

Your products or services may, in fact, be better than that of your competition. But playing this card at any point during your conversation with a potential client makes you appear very desperate. Instead of calling your competition into question, research their products or services before talking to a client and strategically highlight the positives of your brand so that, subconsciously, they are choosing your business over the competition without feeling like they are being told to do so.