The Best Mistake Salespeople Can Make

Why mistakes make salespeople more human, and drive more sales

Good morning and Happy National Handshake Day! Before DocuSign, a firm grip and steady eye contact were the original deal-sealers. Just ask Ray Kroc, whose handshake ‘agreement’ with the McDonald brothers kicked off one of the craziest business deals in history. Maybe contracts aren't such a bad idea after all... 🤝 

In today’s Follow Up:

  • The best sales mistake 🙃 

  • The all-in-one cold outreach tool 👀 

  • Sales pitch tip of the day 🧠 

  • Sales news around the internet 🖥️ 

  • Sales jobs, job market & a meme 😂 

If You Want More Sales, Make More Mistakes

If you’ve never been kept up at night thinking about a cringy mistake you made at work, you haven’t been in sales long enough. 

Mistakes are a part of the game.

They make us human. And might even make you stand out (in a good way).

Let me demonstrate with a quick story: 

I once worked with a rep named Jamie. He was a great guy, but an average sales rep at best. 

Jamie followed the cold call scripts to a T and always managed to bring in just enough deals to keep himself out of the hot seat. He was reliable, but never someone you’d see at the top of the leaderboard. 

Anyway, as time went on, not much changed for Jamie, and it seemed like he was content with that. 

But one day, out of nowhere, Jamie booked three meetings in a single day. This was abnormal. 3 meetings in a day was basically unheard of. It was out of character for Jamie.

But hey, it’s sales and lucky things happen, right? 

Well… that’s what I thought, until the following day, when Jamie booked another 2 meetings. And again I thought, ‘must be a lucky week for him’.  

That is, until…. you guessed it. Jamie booked another 2 meetings the following day. At this point, I knew something was up. It was like he was fishing with dynamite, and I wanted some of it for myself. 

So I walked over to his desk, tapped him on the shoulder, and asked ‘Dude, what the heck are you doing to get these meetings?’

It turns out, Jamie read about an email trick on some online forum, and started testing out the “typo trick”. 

Jamie set up an automated email campaign that looked something like this:

Email 1 (8:00 AM): Hey Sosan, {insert cold email script}

Email 2 (8:04 AM): I’m sorry Susan! I was in a rush to send that email to you this morning and realized I accidentally hit the wrong key when typing your name. My apologies!”

Jamie was automating a typo. And it was working like a charm. 

In a sales world where everything feels automated, showing a human mistake acts as a pattern interrupt and grabs attention. 

Here’s a few things to remember:

When Mistakes Happen, Embrace Them. 

By now, I’m sure you’ve sent a typo in an email, called someone by the wrong name, or totally botched a cold call. 

The good news is… you can use them to your advantage. 

When you make a mistake, own up to it, and explain what happened like a human. After all, prospects want to talk to other humans, not ‘salespeople’.

Make Mistakes, But Be Smart

A group of physiologists conducted a study to measure if making mistakes had an effect on someone’s likability.

They found that when someone was seen as competent, making a mistake made them more likable.

But when someone was seen as incompetent or unprepared, making a mistake made them less likable.

TLDR: Make mistakes, but be smart about it.

Have you ever made a big mistake and still closed the deal?

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The Only Cold Outreach Tool That Helps You Reach Inboxes and Get Replies

Cold outreach won’t help you acquire customers if you:

  • Have no idea if your list of email addresses is reliable

  • Spend hours manually personalizing your emails

  • Wonder if your emails are getting delivered

Join lemlist, the only sales automation tool that ensures your emails are delivered and get a response.

lemlist helps 20,000 business owners, sales teams, and agencies:

  • Build the perfect lead list with verified email addresses (450M contacts database)

  • Personalize their emails at scale

  • And stay out of the spam folder with lemwarm, our warm-up tool

“We had massive success using lemlist” — Gabriel Frasconi, VP @ Zendesk ➝ +40% reply rates, 200+ meetings booked, $750K revenue generated.

Sales Tip of The Day 💡 

At the end of your sales pitch, ask the prospect for their pros and cons.

🗣️ “Now that we’ve walked through everything, what would you say are the pros and cons of our solution?”

This allows you to surface any objections they may have and understand where they’re at in their buying cycle.

Sales Around The Web 🗞️ 

👀 In an attempt to cut down on the costs of a sales force, companies are looking for ‘full cycle salespeople’ who can prospect and close deals.

🏠️ 62% of real estate agents aren’t happy with the National Association of Realtors and how they handled the sales commission lawsuits this year.

✍️ Writing cold emails that people actually want to respond to.

🥶 20 of the best ‘cold contact’ strategies to create more opportunities and deals.

🗣️ Sales reps on Reddit ask: Do LinkedIn Sales Influencers even sell anymore

Wild Sales Stories 👀 
(We want to hear from you!)

Do you have a crazy sales story?

A time when you:

  • Failed miserably

  • Landed a big deal

  • Or did something so outlandish, you can’t believe you’re still employed?

We want to hear about it!

Give the people what they want, and submit your story to be featured in The Follow Up.

*Note, sales stories will be published in The Follow Up anonymously unless otherwise agreed upon.*

Cool Sales Jobs 💼 

Checking In On The Job Market

If you see these questions on a job application, is it a red flag or green flag?

Sales Meme of the Day

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