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Why
Sales People Fail
Are the right people in the right positions for
sales?
Having a quality sales force
in place is essential to the success of most
businesses. As with most employees, there are
always a few employees who just don't fit the
position they are attempting to fill. And in
some cases, people who are a good fit can fail
as well depending on the circumstances. But why
do sales people fail? We believe that these are
some of the primary reasons:
• Poor job fit. The person is just not
cut out to sell. Let’s face it, not everyone can
do this kind of work. No sense trying to fit a
square peg in a round hole.
• Poor management. Since sales managers
are responsible for hiring, training and
overseeing sales people, it is logical that they
would have a significant influence on a sales
person’s career. More often than not, sales
managers do a poor job of hiring people who are
cut out to sell. Just because a person is
outgoing does not mean that person will be a
good sales person.
• Laziness. Selling requires hard work
and long hours. Some people just are not willing
to put in the time necessary to travel, complete
paper work, plan, follow up on problems and
issues and develop relationships. Field sales
people working less than, say, 60 hours per week
are probably not going to be highly effective.
Many sales people work 50, 60 and even 70 hour
weeks. Most poor sales people put in far fewer
hours. There are expectations to this, but not
many. Selling is hard work and requires long
hours to do it right.
• A short-term mentality. Sales people
who view sales as a way to put a lot of money in
their pockets in a hurry tend to have
short-lived careers in any given organization.
Why? Because they view the customer as a cash
machine that they can tap quickly and at
whatever cost is necessary. This type of
approach leads to weak or no relationships with
customers. A long-term, relationship-oriented
approach is far better. The sales person’s
income over the short-term might not be as
significant, but over the long-haul is much
better. My largest customer, whom we have the
best relationship together, took me four years
to finally get in the door and close. We are
both very happy.
• Lack of follow-up and service orientation.
Sales people who leave customers hanging when
there is a problem or a question lose
credibility with their customer base. Good sales
people are highly customer-oriented and
service-oriented. They bend over backwards to
take care of their customers even if it means
working longer hours and fighting a number of
battles to get things done.
• Focusing on customers they are most
comfortable with. Sales people sometimes are
fearful of working new or lesser relationships
to the extent they need to be worked. They often
gravitate toward customers they have a strong
relationship with. However, some of those
customers might not buy much. They just like to
chat and make the sales person feel good about
the possibility of buying something.
• Having no plan. Sales people need a
plan each and every day. This plan should be
priority-driven and should guide the sales
person as much as possible.
• Lack of organization skills. A good
sales people is organized and deals with
details. There is a school of thought that good
people are not detail-oriented. That can be true
in some cases, but if the sales person is not
detail-oriented, he must work harder to deal
with the important details.
• Inability to multi-task. Sales people
are required to deal with a number of issues at
the same time. Some people can't handle the
pressure of this type of work.
• Poor training. Sales people need
excellent product training and sales training. A
sales person needs to understand how your
business operates and how to sell your products
or services. They also need to learn basic
selling skills even if they are experienced
sales veterans. The longer you are in sales, the
more likely it is that you will forget these
basic selling skills or even take many of them
for granted. For instance, veteran sales people
can forget to listen because they have heard
nearly every problem their prospects can throw
at them, so they are anxious to jump in with a
solution before the prospect has a chance to
articulate their problem. While the solution can
be the correct one, the prospect is put off
because he may feel that the sales person didn’t
give him time to explain and felt disrespected,
or worse, that the sales person did not
appreciate the prospect’s concerns and was just
recommending something without full
understanding or consideration of the prospect’s
exact needs.
• Bad support from the company. In some
companies, the sales people do a good job, but
the company fails. Processes are slow and
inefficient. Customer service people don't
support them well. Shipments are slow and
inaccurate. The list goes on and on. Even a good
sales person can fail if the company fails them.
It is important for a sales person to know the
company's deficiencies so that he will not
over-promise and under-deliver.
There are some of the key reasons why sales
people fail. How do your sales people stack up
against this list? How well does your company
support your sales people?
Good
luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
PEAK
Sales Consulting, LLC
russ@peaksalesconsulting.com
(702)
655-5652
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