I can’t help it. I read some bad sales advice today and gotta say something. I’ll try to keep it positive, but my tongue is already bleeding from biting it.

The title read: When sales calls stall. Every salesperson has experienced that barrier in one form or another, so I wondered what this “expert” had to say.

It started with the usual sales dialogue: You have a meeting with a prospective customer. They’re hot, hot, hot for your product or service. They ask for a proposal. You quickly oblige. A week later, you call the hot customer. They have evaporated and won’t return your calls or e-mails.

What to do?

Get ready – here comes this guy’s expert advice:

He recommends every manipulative “sales technique” from implying urgency to using intrigue. He advises to be prepared like a Boy Scout, appeal to a higher authority, assume all is well and they are just busy, and a bunch of sales talk mumbo-jumbo that any seasoned executive would smell like a skunk that hasn’t bathed.

Here is why that approach will NEVER work:

FIRST: The prospect is not returning your calls for a reason. Wouldn’t it be important to find out why? If you could discover that, it would help your next 1,000 sales calls.

SECOND: Why did you ever offer a proposal without making a firm face-to-face follow-up sales appointment in the first place? This is one of the most powerful – yet mostly lost – elements of the sales cycle.

THIRD: Stop trying to sell. Stop trying to be cute.

FOURTH: Stop trying to butter up the assistant. Assistants are loyal to their employers, not you.

FIFTH: The salesperson did a lousy job in the presentation, left some holes, never discovered the prospect’s motive to purchase, was subjected to a proposal/bidding process, never followed relationship-based strategies and was too hungry for the sale to uncover what would build a relationship. Why are you blaming the prospect for not calling you? Why don’t you take responsibility for doing a poor job?

FIVE POINT FIVE: Their daddy decides, and you never met Daddy, let alone know who he is. Someone else higher up told your prospect NO, and your prospect is embarrassed or doesn’t care to tell you.

SALES REALITY CHECK: In sales, you have ONE CHANCE. One chance to engage, build rapport, connect, be believable, be trustworthy, and one chance to meet with the real decision maker. You have one chance to differentiate yourself, one chance to prove your value, and one chance to ask for (or better, confirm) the sale.

BAD NEWS: If you miss your chance or blow your chance, recovery chances are slim. OK, none.

Not being able to reconnect with a prospect is not a problem. It’s a symptom.

GOOD NEWS: Lost sales and sales gone wrong are the BEST places to learn.

BETTER NEWS: If you make a firm commitment to meet a few days later face-to-face, you have a better chance of discovering the truth.

BEST NEWS: Once you get to TRUTH, you have a chance at SALE. You will have created the atmosphere where someone wants to BUY.

Sales techniques are increasingly becoming passé. So are the people who stress using them.

I grew up selling, and I grew out of it.

If you have lost a connection, or if a hot prospect evaporates or refuses to call you back or respond to you, the WORST thing you can do is try a sales technique.

Want more on how to connect instead of how to sell? Go to <a href="http://www.gitomer.com" target="_blank http://www.gitomer.com , register if you’re a first-time visitor, and enter the word CONNECT in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by  phone at (704) 333-1112 or by  e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.  © 2007 Jeffrey H. Gitomer