Why Are Sales Sinking?

General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations.  

How many times have you thought, "Man we need to try something different?" It's tough to leave the old standbys. But struggling companies often share the same problems.  Not enough sales.

Signs trouble is on the way in your sales department

1.) How often do you hear, "The customer just doesn't get it." Blaming customers is a tell-tale sign of a struggling sales team.

2.) Who attended meetings in December on strategy and long-term vision but now everyone is back scrambling to hit month-end targets.

When things get tough, the natural inclination is work harder. This is the beginning of the death-spiral. Like a drowning sailor wasting all his energy, working harder is not the answer to survival.

If you feel like your ship is sinking, ask yourself:

1.) Have you admitted there's a problem?

2.) Are you ready to make a change?

3.) What would it look like if it was easy?

Quitting is a decision. But failure is often a key ingredient to success.

As Winston Churchill said,

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” 

In Alcoholics Anonymous, the first step to recovery is admitting there's a problem. Sometimes in business, the captain will go down with the ship, before admitting a problem on his watch. But until you admit there's a problem in your sales department, you can not begin the process of improving.

Andrew Compton is founder and principal consultant of Andrew Compton Consulting. He's been teaching companies how to grow sales since helping his first automotive SaaS client scale to over 2,500 dealers. With nearly 2 decades of sales experience and over a decade in automotive, he helps firms grow predictable revenues with his engineered sales process. To schedule a call directly with Andrew Compton, click here.

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