Most of us feel we are pretty tolerant and not bigoted. However, you many have a few prejudices that are costing you a fortune and hurting your performance as a sales manager or business owner. Here are some assumptions that you should look at and honestly ask if you are losing money because of your beliefs.

Do You Like Salespeople?

Many sales managers I work with do not like salespeople and that's a problem. Of my 4,000 customers, I can say that the ones who don't like salespeople are in the lowest group in terms of sales. Every customer of mine that sells has top producing sales team likes and respects salespeople.

Are You Prejudiced Against Yourself?

Some sales managers believe they can only hire low earning salespeople. They hire 1099 contractors on straight commission who earned very little at their previous jobs. Many sales managers believe that no one who earns $60,000 or more in sales would work for them. This prejudice against your own company is a self fulfilling prophesy that leads to a weak sales force. Weak salespeople are more tempted to be unethical in order to survive.

Salesman Are Unethical

Some sales managers feel salespeople are unethical. This is a generalization that is just as offensive as any judgment based on race or age. The truth is that some salespeople are unethical. But there are unethical people in every profession. Just because some clergy have been unethical, we should not stop going to church. There are probably about the same number of unethical salesman as there are unethical doctors or unethical teachers. Ethics comes from the top in any business. If you are ethical and you have a good system of supervision and inspection, your sales force will be ethical.

Salesmen Are Pushy

It's a shock to me that many in our profession that relies on selling to make a living, some sales managers are worried about pushy salespeople and "high pressure sales". Most sales forces . are suffering from "low pressure sales", that is salespeople who cannot get enough presentation appointments or cannot close enough when they do get in. You can stop high pressure by inspecting your staff's presentations and by watching the numbers. High pressure leads to high cancellation rates. Low pressure sales leads to low cancellation rates, because low pressure salespeople only sell people who jump up and yell. "Where do I sign". Check you rate of sales that cancel after they are closed. If it is low (20% or lower) you may be suffering from low pressure sales.

People Don't Like To Be Sold

If you ever hear yourself saying this, you need a "check up from the neck up". It is true that people don't like to be sold things they don't need or want but they cannot wait to get things they see as a solution. We are helping our customers by showing them how to save money and have a better life. With this approach, you will offend almost no one. Train your staff to interest their prospects and to show them that your systems are a solution to their challenges.

Take an honest look at your prejudices. And you may find that you are costing your company a lot of money.