Customer engagement: Have you trained your sales team not to annoy people?

In this article from SellingPower.com, the author has identified the 5 most irritating traits of some sales professionals—the kind that will just annoy the customer, not engage him or her.

1. Talking too much. Your sales team must understand a customer’s needs and, therefore, must listen, listen, listen.
2. Using “I” statements too often. If your salesperson is all about your salesperson, he or she is not going to be about the customer.  Enough said.
3. Lying. Yep, customers hate it. We all hate it. Don’t do it. Never use some of the old standbys:  “I’ve got someone else looking at this” or
4. Trying to make the sale too soon. In sales talk, that’s “closing” and you just can’t do it before the customer is ready. Attempting it means you’re not paying attention to the customer’s needs.
5. Losing touch. If you spent a lot of time with one customer who was not ready to close the deal, or you did close the deal, you may need to be in touch with that person again to make sure they don’t need anything or have questions. Acting all friendly only when the sale might happen is not cool.