This series will help you identify which of the common Ugly 8 Sales Sins might be derailing your/your sales team’s sales effort and preventing potential clients from viewing you/your team members as the consultant, value creator, trusted advisor you so badly want to be. Be sure to download the free guide that accompanies this series from mikeweinberg.com/ugly8 In this hard-hitting episode, Mike holds up a mirror for you and explores the first two UGLY 8 Reasons WHY SELLERS GET RELEGATED TO “VENDOR” STATUS & COMMODITIZED. 1. They Arrive Late to the Party (last to a sales opportunity) Discover the perils from living in reactive mode that often result in sellers being late to the sales party/last to an opportunity where it becomes infinitely harder to to bring value or be perceived as a consultant. It’s no fun “chasing” the opportunity when your prospect has already formed their buying criteria – or worse, they’re following the lead of your more proactive competitor who wasn’t stuck in reactive mode, but instead was proactively working the prospect finding ways to create an opportunity. Being forced to play the already in-progress game is not only not fun, it often dooms you to vendor status while your competitor’s salesperson smugly sits in the consultant/advisor chair. When you’re last to the opportunity it’s very hard to stand out and get attention unless your price is much lower. LATE often = COMMODITIZED.  2.  They Lead with Product (or their service/solution) So many salespeople lead with their offering and put and their solution front and center – making it the focus of the sales conversation. While this practice is common it’s often deadly. Leading with our product/service/offering/solution instead of the customer’s issues and desired outcomes makes a loud, clear statement to customers that we care more about what we sell than addressing their issues/needs/desires. It is a surefire way to get commoditized because it’s almost as if we are telling the prospect that neither our company nor the salesperson brings any value to the equation and they should simply take our features and pricing and put them on a spreadsheet to compare to everyone else’s. Sales Friends, in this series Mike is requesting that you open your ears, eyes, and mind, and put your ego aside. Take a listen, download the Ugly 8 Guide, and determine which of these sales sins is potentially hurting your effectiveness, margins, win-rates, and results.