Solve the 3 Factors That Cause Salespeople to Fail
In 2016-2017, we interviewed 150 leading sales executives that collectively had over 180,000 salespeople in their organizations. Companies like American Funds, Google, Facebook, Merrill Lynch, Electronic Arts, ADP, PIMCO, American Express, Charles Schwab, IBM and many others all agreed there are a few key factors that cause salespeople to fail, but more importantly there are 3 simple steps you can take to do something about it.
Factor #1: Inability to Ask Great Questions
72% of sales executives interviewed told us they don’t think their sales teams ask enough of the right questions on sales calls.
They expressed frustration that upon observing sales calls, even with experienced sales team members, questions asked were too obvious or, at times, not relevant. The specific mistakes they mentioned were:
Too much talking and not enough questions and listening
Not asking the right follow-up questions when an opportunity surfaced
Focusing questions too much on product and not on the prospects needs
Interestingly, when we asked the executives if their company had a sample list of the best questions to ask on sales calls, 80% said they were not aware of one.
When asked if they had an effective way of identifying what top performers were doing differently and more importantly, transferring those approaches to everyone else on the team, they were, generally speaking, not sure of the answer.
Simple Actions Steps to Take
Study what top performers in your company are doing. Document it & find ways to share that knowledge to the rest of the team
Build simple simulations that can demonstrate to your sales team how different questions can be used to identify product, solution and big picture selling opportunities. You have to SHOW the team not just talk about it
Create demonstrations of good and bad sales calls that show opportunities being found and missed
Build a master list of great questions to ask on calls and continue to add to it. Get this list in the hands of the Sales Team and insist they review it as part of their pre-call planning routine
Factor #2: Not Getting Through to Enough High Potential Decision Makers
Throughout the interviews we conducted, we heard over and over how frustrated sales executives were that their sales teams were not spending enough time with the highest potential decision makers. Too often, their sales teams were spending most of their time with the customers they were most comfortable with, even when they were limited opportunities. This is something we’ve noticed on many sales consulting projects. It takes strong sales management and front-line coaching skills to insure the sales team spends their time on the biggest opportunities. We all have comfort zone attraction issues to deal with and salespeople will often avoid the more challenging work of getting through to bigger buyers if they’re not managed effectively.
Simple Actions Steps to Take
Sales managers must become more active in understanding who the top opportunities in their territory are and learn to coach their salespeople to schedule those meetings. This needs to be rigorously reported and followed-up on. Sales team members need to feel positive pressure to spend time with new high potential prospects
Work hard on coming up with fresh ideas to generate new meetings with high potential buyers and customers. Often, salespeople just need a new, fresh hook or idea to call customers on. Great selling comes down to coming up with clever and enticing offers to increase activity levels
Report and celebrate progress. Consider new appointments with high potential prospects or customers as a key metric to report and celebrate progress on. Remember, we get more of what we recognize and celebrate
Factor #3: Can’t Sell Big Picture Solutions
During the interviews, salespeople’s inability to sell pig picture solutions seemed to generate some of the most animated responses. Executives feel, in general, Salespeople just don’t see the big picture of what their companies can do, and instead settle on selling single products, not the bigger solutions that could lead to much bigger sales.
When asked if their company has an ongoing selling practice system used by sales managers and their sales teams to show the entire team how to sell bigger, higher value solutions, 78% responded no.
It’s easier for salespeople to focus on individual products that seem, at least to them, to be easier to sell. This is a problem virtually all sales organizations struggle with and often it’s because salespeople don’t know what it looks like to actually sell solutions at a higher level because they NEVER see it being done. Managers often talk about it and emphasize it but it isn’t being demonstrated in a way salespeople can learn from and replicate.
Simple Actions Steps to Take
Develop strong and credible Sales Trainers or find an outside resource (like the SalesGym!) that can develop a more rigorous practice system to break bad habits and build productive ones
Focus more training on “Sales Fluency”, how to communicate bigger, broader value propositions and competitive advantages. When salespeople can’t do this effectively, they nearly always default to talking about products and services
Improve your pre-call planning process to ensure good questions about solutions with emphasis on value are put right into the agenda. Every salesperson should know 3-5 great questions to ask on calls and should also prepare answers to the 3-5 questions they would LIKE to be asked on calls
In Summary…
Your top performers and your understanding of what they do differently is the roadmap to accelerating the progress of the rest of the team. Much of what they do is probably personality-based and not easily transferred, but if you observe them and talk to them about what they’re doing on sales calls you will find what is transferable. Your top performers will show you the way.
More training needs to be focused on selling simulations that challenge average performers to break the habits that cause them to miss bigger opportunities. If you’d like information on how to build a fantastic simulation-based practice system that trains salespeople the same way elite athletes are trained, contact us at SalesGym.com.
