Does your company have a “Sales Prevention Department”? Even if you don’t have a formal department with this name, if your organization’s actions are preventing sales, then the net effect is the same. Here are seven easy ways to sabotage your sales efforts: 

• Be rude and unprofessional. This is probably the easiest, most sure-fire way to prevent sales. Have you ever walked out of a store or hung up the phone because the sales staff was obnoxious? I have. And so will your potential customers.

• Make buying difficult. Is there anything confusing or onerous about your sales process? Do you have an online system that doesn’t make sense or a form that takes too long to fill out? Or, even worse, do prospects struggle just to figure out how to buy from you? These are all excellent sales prevention strategies.

• Avoid marketing. A successful marketing program will introduce potential customers to the benefits of doing business with you and produce a steady stream of qualified leads. If you’re not marketing, your sales pipeline will dry up.

• Waste sales leads. Once you get these precious leads, what do you do with them? I’m amazed that companies will go to trade shows, run ads, attend networking events, ask for referrals, etc. – and then drop the ball once the leads come in. What a waste of time, money and effort! All leads should be followed up as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours.

• Ignore your customers’ needs. What are your customers looking for? Better, cheaper, faster? A high-end luxury experience? Someone to hold their hand through a high-tech process? 24/7 access to your staff? Whatever it is, you’ve got to deliver. Because if you don’t, your competition will.

• Give up too quickly. I recently read that while 80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups in order to close the deal, 94% of salespeople give up before getting to follow-up number five. How many sales did they prevent by giving up too quickly?

• Focus on features instead of benefits. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You’ve got to focus on the benefits of whatever it is that you’re selling. All your prospective customer wants to know is “what’s in it for me?”

Hopefully you don’t recognize your company in this list. But if you do, now’s the time to make some changes!