To sell is not an exact science, anyone who works in the field knows that all too well. It is human work. And where people are working, mistakes are also made. Sales is a profession that relies on experience. The chance of making bloopers is therefore quite high, especially for young inexperienced sellers. We've all made stupid mistakes during a sales process. You think back to it with shame, but you can still laugh about it now. We would like to share a list of 10 sales bloopers with you. For information, but of course also for entertainment.

1.Copy paste, oops!

The most common sales blooper, without a doubt. If you have to make a lot of quotations, you often use a template. Very dangerous! Before you know it, the name of another customer/lead is still in the quotation you send. You only have one chance to make an impression, especially with a quote. Small copy-paste errors are extremely sloppy and have a very serious impact. So do not work with a Word or Excel template for quotations unless it is protected against errors. Or make sure that at least 1 other colleagues check your quote.

2. Out of breath

Every salesperson knows it. You're actually just too late, you're waiting too long at a traffic light and you can't find a parking space at the customer's door. Stress! You run the last few meters to your client's office and arrive sweating, out of breath and stressed. Do not! You immediately make a bad first impression. Although being late is of course not allowed, there is a big difference between being late a lot and being 5 minutes late. Better to walk in a few minutes later than be out of breath.

3. Appointment nearby

You are a mile-eater. The Dutch highways are not unknown territory for you, but every now and then you are lucky and you can have an interview in your own city. Ideal, nice and close. But oh so dangerous! You are often late for appointments in the area. You leave too late and are mistaken about the slowness of traffic within the city. So also allow at least a 15-30 minute margin for appointments in your own city.

4. Clothing flaw

Your clothing is an important part of the impression you leave with a lead or customer. Will you show up in a T-shirt and will everyone else be dressed in a suit? Or have you put on your three-piece suit and everyone at the company is walking around in a sweater? Then you make a clothing mistake. Check in advance on the company's website or on LinkedIn how people within the company dress. Then you reduce the chance of making this mistake.

5. Just in it for the deal!

Of course we all want to close that golden deal! The deal is sacred. A sales approach that is strongly focused on targets and lead generation harbors a major danger: neglect of customers and relationships. Selling to existing relationships is easier than looking for new relationships. In short, your involvement does not end when the deal is closed!

6. Selling to sell

Do you have hard sales targets? Do you have a chance to win a bonus? Then you are probably tempted to make deals that are not actually optimal for your company. We often sell projects, products or services that we know in the back of our minds do not actually fit our company. Don't do this, no matter how tempting it is! The rest of your organization will experience major problems from this. This is exactly why more and more companies no longer pay out a separate sales bonus, but a company bonus.

7. People pass

Selling is a profession that requires infinite patience. A sales process can take months if not years. Sometimes impatience wins! Are you unable to reach your contact person, or are you constantly being sent from pillar to post? Then you may be tempted to pass people by and approach the director or manager in question directly. By doing so, you create bad blood among the people you will probably ultimately have to work with. So not recommended.

8. Advantage over your competitor

In many cases you are not the only hijacker on the coast. Your lead has chosen a number of potential suppliers that may be of interest. All these parties make their offers. Sometimes it happens that you have an advantage over your competitors. For example, you have been a supplier for years, or you know the contact person personally. The deal is actually almost done, if you don't make any mistakes. This is a dangerous situation. It may happen that you do not have the optimal focus, because you think that the deal cannot escape you. If you have an advantage over your competitors, be extra vigilant and treat the process just as you always would.

9. Quote the price immediately

Almost every lead or customer will try to extract a price from you in the first conversation. This is always a difficult moment. If you mention a price, you can't actually go back later in the process. In short: never mention a price. Of course you can mention a price margin, or an indication, but never give an absolute number. And pay attention even to indications... they can come back to haunt you.

10. Reply to all

E-mail is the cause of many mistakes. Logical, because we handle so much email that we hardly think about it anymore. Moreover, there is a major CC virus. Various people are added to almost every email. It often happens that emails are answered with a 'reply to all', which means that messages can end up with the wrong people. And that can be very annoying. A possible solution is to never send emails directly. Finish them, but don't hit the send button. Do something else for a while, and then send the email after a second check.