Sales can be one of the most exciting careers available to most people right now but it can be one of the most challenging professions around. Not everyone can handle a career in sales. In fact, sales people are pretty gifted because of their ability to convince others to try their products and services.

If you engage in sales you should be vocal and knowledgeable about the products or services you sell. Or else, you will be at a loss when your clients ask you about what you have to offer. The secret to becoming a very successful sales person is mastery of the product or service.

While sales people are trained and are constantly undergoing training for the products and services they offer, they are not perfect and they sometimes commit mistakes along the way. Most people may not be aware of these little mistakes that are killing their sales.

Here are 4 little known mistakes that are killing your sales:

1. Lack of knowledge about the product or services being sold.

Don't go into sales without getting to know the products or the services you are selling. You should always have a mastery of the products or services being offered to your clients. Most clients will challenge your knowledge by asking questions that may seem very simple but are really very tricky. If you fail to answer these questions, you're giving the client a chance to say no to what you're offering.

Most of your clients will be impressed with your knowledge about the product. Sometimes, this is the main factor that closes the deal. If you can give tips and the pros and cons of the product or services being offered, it will sound more sincere to the client as compared to a sales person who will only delve about the advantages of the product or services being offered.

2. Failure to know your competition.

You should take the extra time to get to know the products or services of your competitors so you can point out the advantages that your client can get out of your product as compared to that of your competitors. You are better off if you're aware of the different competing products or services so you can prepare for any argument raised by the client against the product or services you're offering them.

3. Arguing with the client.

One of the easiest ways to turn off a prospective client is to argue with them. Don't commit this simple mistake because you are giving your client an opportunity to not like you as well as the products or services you are selling. While you may not agree with every word your client says, avoid arguing with them at all costs.

If your client rants and you want to correct them, you're better off to acknowledge their ideas first. Tell your client you agree with them. However, present an option to them which may be better than the present products or services they are using. Acknowledging that your client is right will help develop a relationship between the two of you and there is a chance you can turn them to your side later on.

4. Failure to target your market.

A lot of people will settle for any person to whom they can present their sales spiel. This would be ideal if the product or services is for the general market. But, if the product or services is for a specific market, it would be a bad idea to approach just about anybody.

Approaching clients who specifically need the products or the services will help to give you an expert status. You can actually impress your clients by telling them that the product or service is available only for them and it is not being sold to the general market. This does limit your client base, but it gives you more chance to achieve a higher sales percentage because you are sure that the prospective clients really have a need or a demand for the product or service your selling.

There are other simple mistakes that you can commit as a sales person. So, you must be watchful and careful about your sales strategy as you may already be committing these mistakes.

Source: Jason Oickle link