Are your sales results not up to your expectations? There are five basic reasons

There are many reasons why sales effort, lots of time, allocating lots of resources, planning and much more can lead to slow or even poor sales results. Having been observing and teaching sales strategies and practices around the world for over thirty-five years and witnessing numerous stupid and genius tactics used by individuals and organizations, I believe there are five basic reasons why sales decline or drop. they collapse, regardless of the situation. economy, industry, consumer desires and competitive philosophies, etc.

Many sales educators and sales experts may suggest that it is simply poor execution of Sales 101: prospecting skills, poor presentation skills, or an inability to effectively disarm objections and close sales. While all of these traditional sales methodologies are important, I believe that even if you have all of these and lack the following five, you will never achieve a sustained increase in sales results and revenue. I’ll keep this simple.

Here are the five reasons:

-The lack of consistent execution of a proven process.
-Reliance on a single marketing approach.
-Poor messages about products/services.
-Over or underuse of specific communication techniques.
-The lack of integrity in the execution.

-The lack of consistent execution of a proven process.

To achieve sustained and lasting success requires a process. It doesn’t matter if it is cooking in the kitchen, operating in the hospital or building in a construction site. Whenever you see success, I guarantee there is a process that is consistently followed to ensure positive results.

The sales process is no different. If one minute you’re selling this way and the next minute you’re selling differently, I guarantee you’ll get inconsistent results. Let me give you a quick example.

Let’s say you have a prospect who needs and wants your product or service and has been trained to sell it in a certain way. But you have decided because this person seems more available or similar to you. He decides to adjust his approach and become a bit friendlier than normal, open or whatever. As a result, you create a different sales environment that deviates from your standard approach. – one that you are not familiar with and one that the prospect may feel is a bit forward. You have abandoned your process. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t tailor your sales message to each prospect’s style or interests, what I’m saying is if and when you abandoned proven sales techniques, strategies and approaches. for something new or different, you’ll get fewer historically proven positive results.
I am not implying that any or all of the processes are successful or the best approach or that any process should not be open to changes, improvements and updates. And I don’t want my heart surgeon to stick to process when it’s his instinct to adjust or adapt, but I do want him to stick to protocols when situations or circumstances warrant it.

If you don’t have and stick to a proven sales process, I guarantee you’ll live with a great deal of frustration, uncertainty, unknowns, disappointment, and even regret from time to time.

-Reliance on a single marketing approach.

Yes, you need a website if you want to be successful and compete. Yes, you need to do PR from time to time. Yes, advertising can help your sales efforts. Yes, emails are necessary from time to time and yes, you should also pick up the phone from time to time. Get It: You need a successful matchmaking process when it comes to marketing and their support and approval of your sales efforts.

When sales efforts are based on a single marketing approach, they will get fewer positive responses. When sales activity is not planned with any market exposure or is not supported by follow-up activity, you are relying solely on sales efforts. To get better and more consistent positive results from any sales action, it’s a smart move to have pre-sales and post-sales activity that reinforces the core sales message and benefits to the customer. Think about it: If Salesperson A shows up for an appointment to sell, whatever, and the prospect has never heard of your organization, product, or service, they have a lot of work to do. When Salesperson B shows up for his appointment and the prospect saw a billboard, heard a radio ad, and read an ad on a website that he was looking for before the sales meeting, which of the two appointments do you think will tend to to have a better chance? of success?

-Poor messages about products/services.

Have you ever seen a commercial for a product or service and when it was over you were shaking your head thinking, “What was that all about?” Well, I have – almost every day. I’m not sure how some of these stupid ads manage to get past management, but someone needs to wake them up – they’re stupid and don’t do the product or service justice. No, I’m not going to give site-specific examples, as I’m sure you’ve seen, read, or heard them. I just want to point out that if your message is confusing, contradictory, or can be perceived or interpreted as negative or derogatory in any way, it will in no way contribute to your sales success.

-Over or underuse of specific communication techniques.

Technology wants us to believe that the only way to sell to people today is through social media, email, or the latest Techno Whiz. Yes, these are important and can often be an integral part of today’s lifestyle, but let me assure you that word of mouth hasn’t lost its impact on the audience or the buying process. When the average customer has a negative experience with a product or service, research tells us, they will tell, on average, 9 people. And, those 9 people on average will tell five people and this process continues over and over again, so let me ask you how many people do you think will get that negative message over time and how much money do you need to spend on promotion and advertising to counteract this negative exposure? ?

Just ask any organization that has lost customers, market share and even gone bankrupt due to negative press and I’m not talking “fake news” and in retrospect they will admit that they could not anticipate the negative consequences because of this. negative experience

If you think you’re going to hit a home run every time with a campaign for a new product or service based solely on your investment in tech exposure, you’re living in “fantasy land.” I can hear from some of you now, “NO Tim, you’re living in the ‘Land of Denial’ and you just don’t get it, how people are shopping today.” It’s okay, you’re not listening. I didn’t say you don’t need to use these media sources to improve sales, I said you shouldn’t rely ONLY on them.

-The lack of integrity in the execution.

Talk is cheap today. People seem to throw commitments, promises, and so many other things at clients, friends, and even family members that they somehow hope will happen, but are never 100% sure that they will. Have you ever left a message for a provider who said they would get back to you within 24 hours, and after a week, you still hadn’t heard from them? Has someone ever told you that he will meet you to; lunch, a meeting, a coffee at a certain time and twenty minutes later they finally showed up? Have you ever been promised a refund by a provider who said it would only take 24 hours and after a few days you are still waiting? Enough examples, I could give you thousands. The common thread in all of them is a lack of integrity. There are far too many reasons and factors contributing to this problem in today’s sales (and relationship-building) environment, so let me cover one simple concept: In your opinion, does this lack of consistency, integrity, or commitment contribute to; bad customer loyalty, bad customer relations, bad repeat business, bad referrals and/or referrals, poor word of mouth and just an overall bad reputation?

If you want to avoid any of these “poor” issues (results, results, consequences), it’s simple, here are five things to consider (yes, there are many more): 1) start saying what you say and saying what you mean . 2) Stop making excuses, just do it. 3) If you can’t do it or you’re not sure if it will happen, don’t promise. 4) If circumstances beyond your control cause a promise or commitment to go unfulfilled, fix it quickly. And 5) Learn from your communication mistakes. Stop repeating the same stupid behaviors that do nothing to improve your image and sales results, either as an individual or organization!