The Problem with Sales and How Your Businesses Can Fix It

The Symptoms

The way business is done has evolved so much over the last few decades and that rate of change has continued to accelerate. Marketing looked very different 20 years ago compared to how it’s done now and yet the sales function in most businesses continue to be ‘stuck in 1970’.

I’ve spoken to, analysed and supported countless of businesses and more than 99% of them have not properly evolved their sales function. In fact, a lot of them assume and expect that by selling as ‘they have always known’, and doing what they do (developing and delivering their product or service), sales naturally happen.

Shockingly, most of them also set higher targets every year without investing in their sales effectiveness.

And very often, I witness these symptoms that occur, even in businesses that are growing:

-??????? Competing in a price war

-??????? Not achieving the desired (or potential) profit margin

-??????? Not converting prospects effectively and consistently,

-??????? Using the same methodology but expecting better conversion and results

-??????? Serving ‘less-than-ideal’ clients

-??????? Not being able to forecast accurately

-??????? Relying on expensive BDMs and having to regularly replace them (or manage them)

Key skill for business success

Sales is the business function of bringing in revenue. Irrespective of whether you refer to this as “business development”, “client liaison”, or “account management”, on the most fundamental level, this is “sales”.

Many businesses owners start their businesses because they are excellent ‘technicians’ but are often not trained or experienced ‘salespeople’.

However, one of the KEY functions of a business is sales – if you can’t sell your service or product, or if you can’t sell it at a feasible rate and margin, you won’t be a business for long.

Investing in improving this key business skill/function and increasing your sales effectiveness is critical for sustainable success.

Planning vs Hoping

If you’re like one of the many businesses I’ve met, without a best practice and structured sales process, then this is equivalent to leaving your revenue to chance, or hope.

Many businesses are already highly systematised when it comes to the components of their profession, but few apply the same diligence when it comes to systematising the process to convert a prospective client.

Sales is?necessary and a planned approach offers the strongest confidence for revenue generation.

World’s Best Practice

Michael E. Gerber - Beyond The E-Myth , author of best-selling and world-renowned books The E-Myth and The E-Myth Revisited, perfectly describes how business can be much more successful,” “the system runs the business, and the people run the system”.

He talks about the importance of a sales process in every business, across every industry, which is the same as having a?revenue machine.

Supercharging Your Sales Function Isn’t Painful!

Often, business leaders attribute increasing sales effectiveness with more ‘discomfort’ – higher wages, more salespeople to manage, more networking, more marketing, and the most common misunderstanding is they need to force people to be more ‘salesy’!

This is an absolute misconception (that should be left in the 1970s) because when the sales process is conducted properly, here’s what you’ll notice:

·??????? Your team enjoy doing sales, sometimes for the first time ever

·??????? Conversation feels calm and free flowing

·??????? Trust is built early, and with strength

·??????? Prospect share lots of helpful information

·??????? You’ll have more business on, with the right type of clients

·??????? You avoid the price war and margins increase

·??????? Your revenue is predictable, sustainable, and constantly increasing

Here are 3 things businesses can do right now to fix the problem:

1. Don’t Ask Your Sales Team to Sell

No-one likes being sold to, but people naturally want to avoid pain.

If your team were asked “what problem do you solve?” what would they say? Then, if it was suggested that your competitors do the same thing, how would they respond?

There are plenty of people in business who can’t answer this question. They can?explain?their product or service, but cannot articulate what problems consumers would experience if their service did not exist.

Having clarity on this question will make you laser focussed on how you serve your market.

2. Don’t “Show up and Throw up”

Whilst your team likely believe that your company is a market leader or has a unique point of difference, your prospective client does not care for that upon their first interaction with you.

Some professionals get caught up in vomiting their product, company, and technical information all over a prospect during the first interaction, after all, they’ve come in to hear about that, right? Wrong.

Your customer has come in with a problem and your role is to give them the right information so they can make an informed decision as to whether your service is the right fit.

How do you know your product is the right fit if you don’t ask the right questions?

Most people in sales are unskilled in their knowledge of questions. Not just what questions to ask, but the type of questions, the number of questions and the order in which they are asked.

3. Use a Sales Process

Like any framework, its benefit is to help you stick to a process of ‘best practice’. A sales process is a repeatable system that starts when the enquiry comes in (or the meeting is held) and ends with a paying client.

It is designed to bring out the best in your prospective client, so they can share what is important to them, and also to showcase that your practice is best-placed to assist them. A sales process will also shorten the amount of time it takes for prospects to decide to become your clients.

If you want to maximise your opportunities for sales success, a sales process is crucial.

Master the art

You can master the art of selling by adopting the Infinite Sales System?; a strategic, tried-and-tested process that follows the same expert techniques used by the world’s best negotiators. You’ll master the conversations you need to connect with prospective clients and grow your profits — from a stellar first impression to building genuine, mutual trust.

You can also learn everything in the Infinite Sales System? from my new book: From Pitch To Profit.

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