You will hardly find a sales rep who doesn’t yearn to be a top performer. Everyone wants applauds, praises, and incentives. However, due to some shortcomings, sales rep fail.
”67% of all sales people miss their quota. — TAS Group”
This is because they don’t put their cent percent efforts in achieving their sales goals.
Just a desire to be the best cannot help you outshine. Success can only be achieved by the sweat of the brow. As per a study, 12% of salespeople are excellent, 23% good, 38% average, and 27% poor.
Why is the percentage of average and poor performers always high in an organization?
Why do salespeople fail?
Finding answers to these questions are essential for an organization, sales manager as well as a sales rep. Till you don’t know the causes of the failure, you cannot work on improvements.
Here are the six reasons why salespeople are unable to succeed:
Reason 1: Not having a sales plan
Traveling without an itinerary leads to waste of time and money; similarly, working without a sales plan results in loss of deals. Some sales reps fail in sales because they don’t bother about planning their sales plan.
When you have a systematic plan, the game of sales becomes easier. You will know what needs to be done to close a deal quickly. Having a roadmap can lead you to success.
“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” — Zig Ziglar
For creating an effective sales plan you can refer the blog “ Sales plan template for expanding your profit margins”
Once you create a sales plan you need to follow it sincerely to ensure you are on the right track.
Reason 2: Being too negative
Most of the sales rep minds are filled with negative thoughts. Some of them give up saying it’s pointless pursuing this deal as the prospect is very reluctant.
“Though it may be difficult, refuse to attach a negative meaning to the word ‘no’. View it as feedback. ‘No’ tells you to change your approach. Create more value, or try again later. ‘No’ is not a failure. It is information” — Anthony Iannarino
Being negative in sales can be dangerous; as you will have to face frequent failures and rejections. However, that doesn’t mean you stop trying. You need to be self-motivated and look at the difficult situations through a positive lens.
“ The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself” — Tony Robbins.
So, instead of retaliating to a prospect’s criticism or abandoning a deal due to a negative response, be positive and try again with a different approach.
Reason 3: Not knowing the product and competition
One of the main reasons why salespeople fail is that they don’t know their product and competition. Product knowledge is a must, to succeed in any industry.
How will you set an impact on the prospect without knowing the USP of your product?
As per a research, “only 54% of salespeople could clearly explain how their solution positively impacted their business.”
Besides knowing your product, you even need to know your competitors for demonstrating the competitive advantage to the prospects.
“When you know both yourself as well as your competition, you are never in danger. To know yourself and not others, gives you half chance of winning. Knowing neither yourself nor your competition puts you in a position to lose” — Sun Tzu
Reason 4: Being unorganized
Sales reps tend to miss opportunities when they don’t keep themselves organized.
“No business can succeed any great degree without being properly organized”- James Cash Penney
Isn’t it difficult to find the contact information of a high potential prospect when your contacts are scattered all over the places? Moreover, how will you know it is the time to follow-up a client without keeping track of the deal’s status?
A CRM can be a very helpful tool in getting organized but most of the salespeople refuse to use it. They ignore this advanced sales tool that can strengthen customer relationship and boost their sales.
Sales reps can effortlessly streamline their contact information and follow-up on time with timely notifications. There is less clutter and more clarity. All the data related to the customer is systematically structured to spot opportunities and close more deals easily.
Reason 5: Fail to add value
Isn’t adding value to customers’ business the best way to gain their trust and loyalty?
This is where most of the sales reps fail; they don’t know how to add value. Instead of understanding and confronting the customers business problems, they just focus on making a sale.
Example: People don’t like using a complex technology that they don’t understand. The tech giant Apple transformed the entire world of computers by making them easy-to-use for the unsophisticated person and increased the value of its product.
Most of the time there is a disconnect between what customers want and what sales rep think they want.
“The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectation” Roy H Williams
To succeed in sales, you need to understand the gap between what your potential prospect is achieving now and what he seeks to achieve. Fill the gap by presenting your product as a solution and help them overcome their business challenge.
Reason 6: Waiting for huge clients
Most of the sales reps are waiting for the great leap forward. They ignore the small prospects and try to pursue big deals. Unfortunately, their wait doesn’t end, and they are unable to succeed. Such sales reps are experts in covering their failures with excuses.
“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them” — William Arthur Ward
For winning in sales, it is necessary to give importance to every deal in the sales pipeline. As Jeffery Gitomer rightly said,
“There’s no lotion or potion that will make sales faster and easier for you-unless your potion is hard work”.
So, put in efforts to convert every prospect into a paying customer no matter how big their company is.
Wrapping up
“Sales is an experiment- there’s no right or wrong. Just varying degrees of effectiveness. Our job is to constantly seek ways we can increase our effectiveness” — Jill Konrath
You need to walk that extra mile to succeed in sales. There are no shortcuts to win. Some salespeople fail because they don’t give a second chance to themselves. Sales is tough, but still, we have seen many exceptional sales performers exceeding their sales targets. Therefore, sales reps need to always try, as nothing is impossible.
Explore new tactics and embrace the right technology. There are many sales tools and mobile apps designed for sales reps. Leverage the benefits of these technologies and use it sincerely. Smart tools like Salesmate sales CRM are tailor-made for sales reps.
Using Salesmate, you can keep a track on your deals as well as your sales performance. Reflect on historical sales record through insightful reports and check what’s working as well as what needs your attention. Forecasts sales and automate most of the repetitive tasks. Streamline your sales, follow-up in real-time and gain access to important data from anywhere with this best-in-class sales tool.
You can try this Salesmate for free and see how will it be beneficial for your organization. If you need to know more about its exclusive features, you can connect with our team, and they will happily guide you.
🆕 Salesmate CRM is now coming up with the built-in calling 📲 and bulk SMS features. Which means, no more integrations, no add on hardware cost. Just make and receive more sales calls from your CRM system. You can also make use of your smartphone for this feature. Try now!!
