The Three Reasons Your Sales Stink
Is your organization currently meeting its sales goals?
Besides your market’s leaders, who continually meet and
surpass their sales goals, a good majority of those in your
industry are failing to meet their productivity, sales and
revenue expectations.
Although they give many excuses for this (the economy, too
much competition, seasonal business, the sun and the moon
aren’t in alignment, etc.), there really are only three
reasons for poor sales. Here they are:
1. No Demand for Your Product or Service
The first reason is nobody wants your product or service.
This is rarely the case.
There is a simple test to figure out if this is the reason
for your stagnant sales.
- Have you been able to sell your product or service in the
past?
- Is another salesperson successful in selling your product
or service?
- Is another organization successful in selling your
product or service?
If the answer to any of these questions was “yes,” there is
a market for your goods. Therefore, it must be one of the
other two reasons.
2. Ineffective Marketing and Advertising
The second reason for poor sales is your ads and marketing
are ineffective. The goal of your advertising is to get
your phone to ring, hits on your website or walk-in
customers.
The only way you’ll accomplish this goal is to distinguish
your organization as the one to do business with in your
industry. By tracking and measuring all of your ads, you
should know which ones are working and which ones you
should modify or cancel immediately.
3. Your Salespeople Don’t Fit their Jobs
The third and most common reason for poor sales is the
80/20 Dilemma. Unlike your Market’s Leaders, you haven’t
beaten the 80/20 Dilemma; where 80 percent of your sales
come from just 20 percent of your salespeople. The dilemma
robs your managers of their time and energy and is the most
costly issue in sales.
To improve your sales, your number one goal this year is to
beat the 80/20 Dilemma. Let me reword that: Not only beat
it, but conquer it.
To do so, you must first understand why it has seized your
sales force. Here’s the hones truth: You simply have
hired the wrong people to sell your product or service.
Perhaps not all of them, but 80 percent of them.
A recent study of salespeople found that half of the people
in sales should have never been hired in the first place.
I’m sure you’d agree that the sales profession requires
natural qualities that not everybody has.
Of the remaining 50 percent, only half of them will achieve
their potential. There are two reasons for this. One,
they are trying to sell the wrong product or service. Two,
their skills are never properly developed.
That leaves the 20 to 30 percent who are in jobs they fit.
They are the people who sell 80 percent of your products
and services.
You must realize, your TOP Performing sales people don’t
meet their goals because they have a great product or
service to sell. They don’t meet their goals because your
advertising and marketing distinguishes you as the one to
do business with in your industry.
It still comes down to salesmanship. If quality products
and services, and great ads and marketing were their reason
for goal accomplishment, wouldn’t all of your sales people
be exceeding their expectations? If they are, you have
succeeded in “Job Fit.”
If not, you need to make hiring, developing and retaining
only TOP Performing sales stars your number one priority.
It is the quickest and easiest way to insure you meet your
sales goals in the future.
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Grant D. Robinson is the President of People Values and the
Author of the Market Leadership System. To learn more
about Job Matching to improve your “Hiring Success Rate†of
TOP Performing Employees, watch a free, 5-minute, on-line
video at: http://www.peoplevalues.com
