The Worst Sales Advice Ever

This weekend, my family and I had a few dinners together. Both nights, the food was great. But why was the second meal so much better than the first?

The personal component.

On night one, the waiter dominated our table. He interrupted our conversations, tried to impress us with random knowledge, and didn’t answer our questions. He was delivering a pre-rehearsed monologue; we actually heard him giving the same schtick to the table next to us. At meal’s end, he gave us a strong guilt trip about giving the place a 5 star Google review.

We really liked the food. But guess what? I haven’t done it yet. 

And I’m not sure I will.

On night two? We had the sweetest waitress. She asked questions, she brought us extra water on a hot night, and checked on us multiple times, but also gave us our space. Most of all? She was genuine. She wasn’t playing a part - she was just doing her best.

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There’s nothing worse than a bad sales or service experience.

Because of the financial opportunities that success in sales offers, unfortunately, the field is crowded with a lot of self-professed experts. 

In a 2023 Gallup poll, guess what percentage of Americans shared that they had a high opinion of salespeople?

6%. 

That ranked below members of Congress who landed at 9%. 

I believe there’s a reason salespeople are trusted below politicians. My take? The industry is cluttered with too many people giving horrendous advice. 

As a former teacher and coach, I am all for improvement and learning. But I’ve also learned that in the search for building knowledge and enhancing skills, it’s really important to assess everything you learn before implementing it.  

Here are the five worst pieces of sales advice I have ever been given.

BAD ADVICE NUMBER ONE: Fake it ‘til you make it!

I despise this one with all fibers of my being. 

So many people in the sales-o-sphere love the idea of building your personal brand. In doing so, the advice is to present yourself as bigger than you are.

Been in sales for two months? Act like it has been two decades!

Had two successful sales? Use language that exaggerates your client list such as “All of my clients have found…”

Brand new to the industry? Use word choices such as “In my experience working with this industry…”  

I have had moments where I have chosen not to share certain pieces of information such as my relative inexperience in a conversation. But to me, it is entirely different making it your mission to inflate yourself as though it is part of the job. That’s inauthentic. 

What do you think the customer will think of you - and the company - when they find out you’re a fake? 

How hard is it to look on LinkedIn and see that you are brand new in the industry - or new in sales?

I’m not saying this strategy isn’t successful. People have made careers out of a house of cards. I’m just not sure how you generate genuine confidence when you have to build a facade around every prospect interaction. 

It’s a lot of energy spent on creating an image when you could actually be spending your time on something else - like learning your craft, perhaps.

BAD ADVICE NUMBER TWO: Never take no for an answer!

I find this one to also be truly idiotic. 

In order for there to be a sale, there needs to be an exchange. One party offers value through a product or service, and the other party offers compensation. 

When one party isn’t ready to say yes, it’s usually because the person doing the selling hasn’t overcome the fears and concerns the buyer is having. Being thorough and openly addressing those reservations is a crucial step. 

That said, even after speaking to all the concerns, there are some people who just need the extra day - or week. Of course, whenever there is a delay, it can open the door to a change of heart or some other factor that can sink a deal. But if you feel the need to strongarm someone into a decision, how likely is it that you are building a true partnership with them? 

I find techniques to make the prospect feel as though they are missing out if they don’t buy that day to be manipulative. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a sense of urgency, or that incentives to make a quick decision can’t honor speed.

But if you have to really twist someone’s arm…is that something to feel good about? 

Feel free to debate me on this - but I’m in the “no” camp. Take no for answer as an opportunity to get to a better place - today, or on some other day.  

BAD ADVICE NUMBER THREE: Wow them with your “Can’t Miss” opening lines!

I find this advice to be particularly tone deaf.

When “experts” tout their “can’t miss” openers on calls and emails, it is basically providing proof that they are full of s___t. 

Sales experts guaranteeing results on an opener is preying on the exact problem with a lot of salespeople: lack of confidence. 

Sadly, most salespeople would much rather believe that all that is holding them back from being amazing on Outbound phone calls or getting massive opens on emails is the sure-fire one-liner. If they just buy the book or register for the course that reveals the ideal opener, they will achieve their sales breakthroughs. 

Sales is hard. It’s humbling. I am completely in favor of learning from multiple teachers who have gotten results. Once I believe I know everything, that’s when I know I will start to fail.

But the thing that the snake-oil salesmen know and the new or struggling salesperson doesn’t is the hard truth they may not be ready to digest:

To improve, you need repetition, guided practice, consistent coaching, and targeted self-reflection over a period of several weeks before seeing better results. 

Instead, the new or struggling salesperson is wide open to swallow that spoonful of sugar disguised as the “unicorn of opening lines” because it doesn’t require any work ethic or struggle to get there.

There is no “can’t miss” in sales. It’s “will miss” - and miss often sport - before you get better.

BAD ADVICE NUMBER FOUR: Just Tell them what they Want to Hear!

I think this one is a potential career ender.

In sales, we sometimes like to think of ourselves as these heroic cowboys in the Old West. There is a romanticized vision of the stoic, lone survivor, riding their horse into the sunset, facing the brave dangers of life on the frontier.

What’s dangerous about this mentality is that unless you are a solopreneur, there is a major problem with that approach: you don’t own the company!

Yes, you may have to hunt and scrap each day to win. But although it may be your name on the back of the jersey, you represent the company. Not yourself.

When you choose to go lone wolf and tell a prospect whatever it is they want to hear, you are not only jeopardizing the deal - you’re jeopardizing the company’s reputation. Down the line, when that deal closes and you’ve promised something that can’t be delivered, you’ve placed your customer success team in an untenable spot. 

A concrete example that would fall into this category is evading a direct question about an offering to assuage a prospect. The first time when I was on the buyer side of a software deal and I heard “It’s on our product roadmap!” I felt understood and optimistic that the upgrade would be produced in short order. 

I came to learn quickly that language such as that was designed to fool less educated buyers - like me -  into thinking a product improvement was imminent. All that phrase really means - especially when delivered with assurance, is “We’ve thought about it.”

It’s possible that the requested improvement could be just a quarter away; more than likely, when that response is used, it’s more likely going to be years before it is in your hands.

If you want to build a career with some integrity, get in the habit of being transparent with prospects. It’s acceptable to say you don’t know the answer when you truly don’t. If you get in the habit of telling people what they want to hear, then get ready for the boomerang effect. 

BAD ADVICE NUMBER FIVE: If You Ain’t Cheatin’ You Ain’t Tryin’!

This should go in the Hall of Fame for bad sales advice.

Building on point number one, choosing to lie in sales is a slippery slope. It’s easy to start with a white lie and convince yourself “that’s just sales.” I've heard too many people say it.

Especially in more advanced software sales, prospects will have specific questions about your offering. As a result, a more mature product is going to be accompanied by a more complex buying process that may require several months and multiple stakeholders to get to yes. 

But regardless of the size of the potential deal, just because the price tag might be high, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the prospects know how to buy software.

I remember being on the buying side of a particularly frustrating software search with a reputable vendor. You know, the kind of vendor that has a building named after them. Through four discovery meetings and a month invested, our team had barely scratched the surface of what the software could do. We may not have been experts in buying software, but we were sure of one thing: we weren’t getting straight answers.

Finally, in meeting number five, we pressed the vendor on cost. What became crystal clear was the company couldn’t give us clarity. Their aim was to talk us into an annual agreement, but not a fixed one; it would be an agreement that would automatically elevate the price as soon as we crossed certain usage thresholds. 

A usage model is perfectly understandable - there is nothing wrong with a “pay as you use it” structure. What was amazing about this particular company was that they were unable to give us a straight answer on what the model or pricing actually was.

Their answer? “Well, we will have to discuss it with you based on your usage when the time comes.”

From our side of the table, that was code for, “We have no idea what we will charge you -  but let’s lock you into a contract and then you’ll have no choice but to accept it later!” 

We walked away right after that meeting.

That company still owns a big building, and I am sure there are a lot of commas and zeroes in their employees’ paychecks.

Personally, I will continue to advise people to steer clear when they ask me about that company. 

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Having been around the block for almost a decade in sales now, I’ve seen and heard a lot. I’m thankful for the phenomenal mentors who steered me right. I’m also equally grateful for having heard the bad advice. Sometimes, the wrong input is necessary to remind you about your process, your strategy, and your values as you sell.

If you’re newer in sales, my advice is this. Listen, process, and evaluate. There’s a distinct difference between doing something uncomfortable and doing something unethical or immoral. You need the discipline and rigor to do the analysis and know the difference.

If you begin with a strong compass of knowing what you stand for, then you’ll be able to discern techniques you may need to incorporate - and the techniques you should run away from, and run away from fast.  

I can’t do much about Congress; that’s outside my current scope.

But my hope is that if more people begin to sell the right way, it will be a career more people will be proud to call their own. 

Good luck out there on the streets to those in the field doing it the right way!

#integrity