The Top 5 Sales Stereotypes and How to Overcome Them

We’ve all heard of “silver-tongued” sellers with a “gift for gab” or a “knack for persuasion.” Today, most salespeople would bristle at these characterizations. But we continue to see their representation. Even Glengarry Glen Ross, a film popular with sellers, gave rise to “Always be closing.” Catchy, but it solidifies the idea of selfish, disingenuous product pushers.

However, an interesting thing about stereotypes is how easily they’re overcome. Often, they are dispersed with personal interactions. For sellers, this starts with awareness. It’s also changing negatives into positives, a sometimes subtle but valuable skill. Here, let’s examine five sales stereotypes, where they come from, and how to overcome them.

Before this, we must first understand how a changing sales environment affected sellers. For that, let’s briefly look at the shift from transactional to consultative selling.

Transactional Selling

In many ways, the rise of sales stereotypes can be attributed to transactional selling. This approach placed products at the center of the sales process. It gave sellers the power in zero-sum relationships of winners and losers.

When buyers had limited options, slick-talking sellers could easily close deals. Of course, being a jerk was never an effective sales strategy. However, the environment encouraged behaviors that, at the time, worked for sellers. For example, transactional selling was defined by:

• Singular interactions
• Shorter sales cycles
• A one-and-done mentality

As sales were the only goal, sellers were often characterized as:

• Arrogant
• Garrulous
• Greedy
• Pushy
• Cunning

Today, most sellers employ a different and, in some ways, opposite approach.

Consultative Selling

Consultative selling is characterized by developing trust and providing greater value. It’s based on building relationships and exploring customer needs before presenting solutions.

With the internet, buyers are more knowledgeable. They know what’s available, so they can be more discerning. In fact, according to Forbes, today’s buyers typically complete as much of 70 percent of their research before they engage a seller.

Also, according to Gartner, B2B buyers spend only 17 percent of the total purchase journey with sales reps. As the average deal involves multiple suppliers, individual reps get roughly five percent of a customer’s purchase time. Therefore, sales professionals must maximize their time.

Today, sellers not only sell products. To differentiate, they must also sell their organizations and even themselves. Consultative selling is characterized by:

• Deeper research
• Probing questions
• Genuine concern

Of course, this extends the sales cycle. However, it produces more meaningful interactions and longer-term rewards. Also, note how the traits and skills required to be successful are easily shifted. For example:

• Confidence replaces arrogance
• Active listening replaces garrulousness
• Empathy replaces selfishness and greed
• Perseverance replaces pushiness
• Resourcefulness replaces cunningness

Confidence

Like surgeons and pilots, we want sellers with an air of authority. However, rather than a know-it-all attitude, real confidence is not arrogance. This implies superiority. However, when buyers didn’t know their options, uber-confident sellers could tell them what they needed.

Real confidence is self-assurance. It’s knowing your strengths and weaknesses. It’s admitting you don’t know an answer—and it’s following up with the answer you need. It derives from understanding the following:

• Products and services
• Competition
• Differentiation

Today’s sellers must be experts in their products and services and how these meet a variety of client needs. They cannot just read specs off a product sheet. Their confidence comes from experience. They have followed their products through R&D, manufacturing, and marketing.

They must know the benefits and limitations of competing offers. As buyers know this before they even connect, sellers must offer more.

They must learn what buyers have tried or considered. And they must demonstrate how their solutions work better, last longer, and provide greater long-term value.

Active Listening

Many inexperienced salespeople fear silence. They think that if the buyer isn’t talking, they’re disengaged. Often, however, the opposite is true. Rather than salesplaining what buyers need, top sellers use active listening to achieve the following:

• Understand problems
• Find appropriate solutions
• Create a positive perception

Active listening is hearing the content, meaning, and feeling behind the customer’s words. It’s interpreting body language and other nonverbal indicators, such as tone, inflection, and movement. These can reveal conscious and unconscious issues, needs, and pain points.

Buyers typically know their general needs. They don’t always know their real problems. When sellers actively listen, they understand these problems on a deeper level. They then craft solutions that get beyond the surface.

This dedication and insight turn sellers into trusted partners. Buyers do not only call when they need a product, service, or refill. Instead, they trust you with their decision making. They seek your experience and expertise over the internet and “typical” sellers.

Empathy

When salespeople focused on the sale, they placed their needs above the customer’s. In this, they were selfish and greedy. More sales meant more money, whether customers needed the products/services or not. Today, empathy is critical for a customer-centric sales approach.

Empathy is not sympathy, which is feeling badly about another’s situation. Buyers don’t need you to feel bad for them. They need understanding and sellers who see them as more than a means to an end. Here are the benefits of empathy:

• Form connections
• Build relationships
• Inspire trust

Personal connections take selling beyond products and services. It’s understanding vulnerability and sharing a personal story. This isn’t the winning move that closed a deal. It’s that time you too were vulnerable, and how you overcame that situation and feeling.

When buyers and sellers connect, they build relationships. This isn’t hanging out and hitting the links. That’s nice, and it certainly helps. But professional relationships mean the seller is the buyer’s first call in a time of need or crisis.

Through empathy, buyers and sellers form trust. Sellers earn credibility. Buyers know you’re not presenting a solution that benefits you. This cuts down on objections and speeds up the sales process.

Perseverance

Pushiness is one of the most persistent sales stereotypes. Of course, sellers need buyers to buy. However, where sellers once pushed, prodded, and persuaded buyers, they now teach value in relation to need. Their goal is providing such great value buyers want to buy.

Rather than pushing for sales, top sellers are characterized by perseverance. For some, this means continuing despite difficulty. While this is true, persistence is but a part of perseverance. For today’s sellers, consider the following:

• Patience
• Diligence
• Maintaining the sales process

Today’s sellers know their environment. Deals are more complex. There are more decision makers. The competition is greater. You’re not going to close the deal in a day. Successful sellers must be patient.

Diligence is one’s devotion to their work. In prospecting, it’s knowing it takes eight touches to secure a meeting—and six more to close. Of course, these are averages. We’ve all had prospects, clients, and deals that required more.

Your sales process provides consistency for both sellers and their clients. Of course, all buyers are unique, and sellers should adjust to the buyer. But always maintain your sales process.

Resourcefulness

We all know the stereotype of sellers as tricky, crafty, and cunning. These imply duplicity. They make sellers seem disingenuous, if not deceitful.

However, top sellers do have their bags of tricks. But despite the moniker, these are their tried-and-true methods that have proven successful. It’s what they have learned through experience. This makes them resourceful, characterized by:

• Innovative solutions
• Overcoming objections
• Generating urgency
• Gaining commitment

Off-the-shelf products may provide limited or short-term relief. But complex problems often require multifaceted solutions. This may mean tailoring something new. Sure, it extends the sales process. But connecting with a customer’s issues means placing their needs first.

Top sellers expect and prepare for objections. Indeed, some welcome them because they help confirm agreement and build consensus. Of course, complex deals mean more decision makers. This brings more objections.

Price is always the biggest objection. Sellers must increase value, so buyers understand what they receive for the price. In addition, timing, budget, and prior relationships are also common. Sellers must counter each and align the needs of multiple decision makers.

Today, top sellers cannot force solutions onto buyers. They can, however, speed the process by generating urgency. Though this feels like a sales stereotype, it isn’t employing fear tactics. It’s illustrating the benefits of solving a problem now rather than later.

To gain commitment, sellers must recognize when buyers are ready to close. Too soon risks the pushy sales stereotype. Too late and you miss an opportunity. Sellers must perfect their timing.

It’s said stereotypes derive from ignorance. People form impressions based on limited or faulty logic. These are then reinforced by the media and pop culture. And let’s face it, there’s something funny about sales stereotypes. We have all met sellers who personify negative traits.

However, for today’s salespeople, stereotypes are no laughing matter. They can influence a buyer’s perception and impede trust. And with quotas, targets, and goals, they are an easy trap. We hope this helps you turn negative sales stereotypes into positive perceptions to build stronger relationships with clients.