Todd Duncan - Killing the Sale: The 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them

PRAISE FROM THE EXPERTS FOR KILLING THE SALE

Selling is an art, a science and a game. Todd Duncans book, Killing The Sale, gives you valuable strategies to creatively fine-tune your sales performance and win the game more often by learning what not to do!

TOM HOPKINS,
The Builder of Sales Champions,
Author of How to Master the Art of Selling

Todd Duncan has the unique ability to turn defeat into victory. In Killing The Sale he reveals how to transform your career and personal life by confronting specific mindsets and habits that limit your potential. By applying Todds strategies, youll take your profession to the next level.

JOHN C. MAXWELL,
Founder, The INJOY Group

This powerful, practical book will show you how to plough through the obstacles to sales success and turbo-charge your sales career.

BRIAN TRACY,
Brian Tracy International

Why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from others? Todd Duncans book, Killing The Sale, helps sales professionals eliminate the mental blocks and change patterns of action that are keeping them from succeeding. As usual, Todd takes his real-world experience in directions that can turn careers around 180 degrees.

ANDY ANDREWS,
Author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Travelers Gift

Todd Duncans latest book, Killing The Sale, is a real-world look at why sales professionals fail and what it takes to succeed. I wish I had read it at the beginning of my sales career. If I had, I would have sold more and had more fun.

MARK SANBORN, PRESIDENT,
Sanborn & Associates, Inc.,
Author of The Fred Factor: How to Make Every Moment Extraordinary

Todd Duncan is the master sales trainer. Killing The Sale outlines the sabotage thinking that prevents most of us from reaching our potential and shows us how to conquer it. The book is incredibly valuable for anyone selling anything.

BOB KRIEGEL PH.D.
Author of How to Succeed in Business Without Working so Damn Hard!
and If It Aint BrokeBREAK IT!

This book is a powerful wake-up call for the salesperson who cant figure out why more customers arent buying from him or her. Its also a valuable, cautionary guide for the alert sales professional who wants to avoid these fatal mistakes.

DANNY COX,
Author of Leadership When the Heats On

Todd Duncans Killing The Sale is loaded with nuggets of wisdom that every salesperson should know. Its brilliant and destined to become a sales classic!

MAC ANDERSON,
Founder, Successories

This is a must read for anyone serious about their career in successful selling. Killing The Sale not only helps avoid crucial errors; it enables you to take your mistakes and turn them into winning relationships. A very powerful tool!

BARRY HABIB,
Contributing Editor, CNBC

Words of praise for Todd Duncan from just a
few of the thousands who have experienced unprecedented
sales success and transformed lives

Its hard to express the gratitude for the impact you have had on my life professionally and personally. You have shown me how to take my business and my life to the next level time and time again.

LINDA,
Scottsdale, Arizona

I have read your book and am experiencing the best time of my life! Everything in my sales efforts exploded. My family is happy, my friends enjoy my free time, and this week I was unknowingly asked in the sales meeting to tell the rest of the sales team what and how I am doing this! I FEEL GREAT!

LEON,
South Africa

Thank you for challenging my futurefor opening up my mind to what I can achieve. High Trust Selling has changed my life.

MARILYN,
Langhorne, Pennsylvania

Mr. Duncan, I bought your book and Ive got to tell you that I could not put it down. It was really helpful to me. I am a dentist with a highly successful dental practice and your book has really helped me see my business goals in the context of my patients values and needs.

VIRGINIA,
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina

I just wanted to let you know, Todd, that you are simply the very best! High Trust Selling is a book that I am highly recommending to hundreds of people in my organization.

KEVIN,
Atlanta, Georgia

Todd, thanks to the High Trust Selling Academy, I finally have it all. A business that is thriving, a happy family life, a steady flow of business, a sense of where I want to go in my life, and a plan that will take me there. Thank you.

PATRICK,
Oak Lawn, Illinois

I have made a commitment to myself. A commitment so strong that as I type these words the goose bumps are causing the hair to stand up on my arms. I cant find any other words to explain the commitment I have. Todd, this is all because of you and I thank you again for following your dreams.

BRIAN,
Englewood, Colorado

I have read your books and put to use what you talk about for both my personal and professional life. Things have never been better and I just wanted to say thank you. I just had to let you know what an inspiration you have been in my personal, spiritual, and professional life.

DAVID,
Naperville, IL

KILLING
THE SALE

THE 10 FATAL MISTAKES
SALESPEOPLE MAKE
AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

TODD M. DUNCAN

Copyright 2004 by Todd M. Duncan

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Duncan, Todd, 1957
Killing the sale : the 10 fatal mistakes salespeople make & how you can avoid them / Todd M. Duncan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7852-6322-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN 0-7852-6073-0 (IE)
1. Selling. 2. Sales personnel. I. Title.
HF5438.25.D864 2004
658.85dc22 2003019723

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 BVG 06 05 04 03

To all the excellent salespeople who
have shared with me the mistakes they
have made and how they now avoid them.
Thanks for making this book possible.

And to all the great people who want to
be successful salespeoplemay your lessons be
learned in these pages and not in the midst
of your next sale.

Contents

A ccording to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, there are approximately 45.6 million sales professionals in the world today. And of that number, 12.2 million sell their wares in the United States. That means more than one-quarter of all the selling professionals in the world live here in our own backyardin your city and mine, next door, down the street, and just around the corner. But lets put into perspective just how many salespeople that really is.

The Census Bureau reports that there are approximately 291 million people currently residing in the U.S. Are you doing the math? What that amounts to is that in the United States, incredibly, 1 in every 23 people is a salesperson. Mind you, thats not just 1 in every 23 working adults. Thats 1 in every 23 people living in the United Statesyoung and old, babies, children, teens, adults, and retirees. In other words, salespeople are literally everywhere you look. In your neighborhood, at the mall, in the movie theater, at your favorite restaurant, and at the gas station. On the bus, in your taxi, at your church... and in your mirror. And salespeople are selling everything imaginable. Stocks, bonds, homes, loans, copiers, and clothing. Cotton candy, peanuts, and ice-cold Coca-Cola. The latest technology. The greatest tip. The loudest stereo and the lightest phone. The funniest book and the fastest burger. Jobs, Jaguars, and fancy jets. In fact, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted more than 3 million patents in its history.And what do you suppose happens to all those creations? The vast majority are soldby you and by me.