Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #9: Skimming

Duncan includes skimming, "focusing on surface profitability instead of client satisfaction [p. 159]". See: Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), pp. 159-179.

Duncan argues that to avoid this mistake, you have to move your business from relying on prospecting to reliance on partnering. He calls that moving "from solo to symphony."

On pp. 173-9, Duncan gives five rules for "transitioning your existing clients into productive partners." [p. 173]:

1. Take inventory. "Determine your current clients' value. Who are your lead players--your clients who can give you loads of their own business and lots of referral business."

2. Determine your investment level. "Once you know which clients can be lead players and which can provide consistent accompaniment to your sales business, you must then determine how much time and money you will invest in each of them in order to sustaining their business and tap their resources."

3. Cast your vision to your clients. "On an individual basis, schedule meeting with each of your clients who made the cut in the first step."

4. Orchestrate what parts they will play. "Obviously you will want your best clients playing the biggest part in helping you succeed."

5. Strike up the band.Literally. "The greatest partnership arrangement isn't going to make a bit of difference in your selling career until you put your wand in motion.

I've argued elsewhere in this blog that your business does not operate in isolation. Your business and it's context is your business. That includes competitor and collaborators. You should pay attention to this.

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of gambling? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #5: Begging

P. 142 of Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), gives his eighth selling mistake as "Begging," or "Seeking your customers' business before earning your customers' trust."

Duncan gives five rules for ensuring your prospects buy into you before you ask them for their business:

1. Say something new.

2. Be the first to add value.

3. Be the first to say think you.

4. Respect your prospect's time.

5. Don't stop once the sale seems imminent.

You should pay attention to this. It's good stuff.

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of gambling? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #7: Gambling

Todd Duncan, on p.123 of Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), as "Making unplanned calls on unknown customers."

Duncan gives these rules for prospecting (see p. 133)

1. Never make a call on prospects who don't know you're going to call on them.

2. When you make the call, make sure they're excited to have you call on them.

3. Never leave a call without adding more value than you received.

Duncan lists four "fundamentals" of productive prospecting (see pp. 135-140):

1. Consistently sew a common thread, that is, "by far the best method is via a referral call from someone whom both you and the prospect know."

2. Regularly stretch client satisfaction.

3. Get out more.

4. Take your focus off selling.

Check out his book. These are good rules to go by.

Duncan doesn't mention the Internet anywhere in his book. That's because the principles of salesmanship persist regardless of technology. The Internet makes it easier to follow these goals, if people would just do that.

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of gambling? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #6: Arguing

Todd Duncan says that "arguing," which he defines on page 103 as "Selling your product before knowing your customer," is a mistake. See Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004).

He means trying to sell something to people before you have gotten their trust. Duncan, on pp. 117-120, points to 5 practices which help to establish trust:

1. Forget about the sale. Put the sale on the back burner and listen to your customer so you can focus on what he or she really needs.

2. Ask, don't argue. Concentrate on asking the right questions.

3. Listen with your fingers. Take notes.

4. Seek to understand. Verify what people tell you. Ask second or third questions until you understand.

5. Listen again. Review your notes and think again what people are telling you as you go along.

He says forget about trying to impose an agenda and genuinely listen to what is really needed and wanted in a situation. (p. 117)

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of arguing? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #3: Tinkering

Duncan defines Tinkering as "Treating the symptoms but not the sickness of poor selling efforts." See Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople make and how to avoid them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), p 39.

Duncan claims tinkering is the most common mistake sales professionals make. Some examples from pp. 45-7:

>Trying to recover clients after sales fall through rather than trying to understand why clients are leaving.

>Trying to develop more scripts to overcome objectives rather than identifying prospects needs up front to prevent objections in the first place.

>Trying to overcome low sales by making more calls.

>Trying to work harder instead of smarter.

The solution: "Setting your standard and sticking to it....The more time you spend tinkering around," he says, "the more time you will have to produce successful sales." (p. 56)

There is no substitute for doing the hard work to understand how something should be done, then tracking outcomes and evaluating results and feeding that back into your understanding efforts. You should always be evaluating your proceedures, linking them to outcomes and goals.

He outlines how to really fix sales problems.

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of posing? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #1: Hyping.

Hyping, "relying on 'you can do it' propaganda to maintain your sales motivation." )p. 1) It's relying on external stimulation to gain energy and maintain your enthusiasm for selling. He would say you have to put yourself into the equation, find your true motive. Only then will you be successful and feel satisfied.

I agree with Duncan on all these points. You should get a copy of the book and read it. And if you feel like you've been guilty on this count, go through the exercise he suggests on pp. 12-14.

This comes from Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople make and how to avoid them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004).

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of it? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's 10 Fatal Selling Errors

Todd Duncan, in Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), lays out 10 basic selling errors. Entrepreneurs should recognize them so they don't do them.

Here they are:

1. Hyping: "Relying on 'You can do it' propaganda to maintain your sales motivation.' (p.1)

2. Posing: "Trying to sell before training to sell." (p. 17)

3. Tinkering: "Treating the symptoms but not the sickness of poor selling efforts." (p. 39)

4. Moonlighting: Buliding a business-based life instead of a life-based busines. (p. 61)

5. Muscling: Taking Lone Ranger actions instead of using team-connected strategies. (p. 83)

6. Arguing: Selling your product before knowing your customer. (p. 103)

7. Gambling: Making unplanned calls on unknown customers. (p. 123)

8. Begging: Seeking your customers' business before earning your customers' trust. (p. 141)

9. Skimming: Focusing of surface profitability instead of client satisfaction. (p. 159)

10. Stagnating: Losing your sales edge by neglecting your growth curve. (p. 181)

There's not one salesman who hasn't been guilty of none of these. All of us have done every one of them at one point in time.

The key is to keep them in your mind and recognize them when you're either doing them or contemplating on doing them.

But if you recognize your core values and act according to them as often as possible, you'll maximize your chances of never doing any of them.

I'm going to go over each one in subsequent posts. Entrepreneurship is a sales business. Need I say more?

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of it? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This material comes from This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.