Nick Moreno

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Earn More Commission By Getting The Facts
Nick Moreno On A Leading Sales Blunder


I often listen to a financial news station while I’m working at my desk. Often, this station will interview stockbrokers and these so-called experts never say the words “I know”. Instead, I hear a lot of "I think", “expect”, “believe” and “project”. Those words are fine for a stockbroker but there’s no room for them in professional selling. Successful sales strategies must be based on the facts and not guesswork.

When I’m asked about the leading cause of failure in sales, “assumption based selling” always comes to mind.

The top sales reps implement sales strategies based on the facts while reps struggling to succeed operate in the darkness of guesswork. These underperforming reps fall into the trap of making assumptions and all too often their assumptions are wrong because they are guessing. Since these reps operate in a world of conjecture, what they think they know about their prospect is costing them commissions.

Too many salespeople form an opinion about where they stand with a prospect during the sales process without certainty about the facts. Here are just some of the problems these reps generate because of the conclusions they’ve arrived at by guessing…

    * Since the prospect didn’t object to it, these reps assume their pricing is competitive.

    * Since the prospect never mentioned the competition, these reps assume the competition isn’t being considered.

    * Since the prospect had no further responses, these reps assume they’ve successfully addressed the prospect’s objection.

This list of potential assumptions is endless.

Too many sales managers fall into the same trap. They incorrectly assume that what their sales rep is telling them about their prospect is true. “How did you know that?” is the question these sales managers need to be asking during their account reviews. If they did, they would greatly increase both their forecast accuracy and close rate.

Assumptions are a common sales blunder because reps gain great comfort by placing a positive spin on what they suppose is true. Reps are bombarded with positive motivation but being positive is dangerous when it leads to fantasy. I hardly ever see a rep walk away from a sale because they assumed they wouldn’t close it. It must be all that positive motivation. These reps should supplement their motivation with some sales training that further develops their probing skills.

I urge reps that operate under assumptions to seek the facts even when the facts are uncomfortable. Only then can they structure a strategy that best positions them to close the order.

Nick Moreno is a well-established sales trainer with more than 30 years of experience providing empowerment and benefits to those he trains. Offering a competitive sales advantage through education and cutting edge DVD programs, his sales training video, “The Progressive Sales Process”, is known for generating "Sales Superstars" who consistently reach much higher sales commissions. He can be contacted at The National Sales Center .