10. The Biggest Mistake I Made in Sales

The biggest mistake that I made in sales was selling from my pockets instead of the customers. I’m frugal and often don’t buy things unless its a must. I ask myself before making most of my purchases, “Do I really need this?”, “Am I purchasing this out of emotion or logic?” And often times I talk myself out of buying most things. In sales, I often made the mistake of doing this with customers. When working with a customer I often showed them things that I thought they would be interested in because I found them interesting myself. After closing a sale I used to never upsell or sell add-ons because that’s not something I would buy myself, because of this I was leaving money on the table. I had customers ask me, “Why didn’t you sell me that?” or “Why didn’t you tell me I could also buy that?” The worst feeling was when I would see another salesperson sell what I thought the customer wouldn’t buy to that exact same customer I had dealt with before. I realized my mistake and I stopped selling based on what I thought the customer would want. I now instead focus on selling based on their needs and personal interests.