Stale sales: Is it really possible to predict and prevent B2B sales issues?

People often get in touch with me when their sales aren't working - to a critical point.

(Which is totally fine and absolutely what I can help with!)

But - people often miss the early symptoms that their sales are about to stagnate/ plateau or stop entirely and so when that happens? They feel like it was a surprise which means that they'll often blame 'uncontrollable factors' like the market/ the economy/ the fact that companies 'just aren't buying right now'... and oftentimes?

That's categorically untrue.

It's why coaches/ consultants/ speakers and trainers need to get better at understanding:

A) What early 'stale sales' symptoms look like so that they can take fast action to prevent sales issues.

B) How to tell the difference between a genuinely unexpected sales issue and one that could have been prevented so that they can feel super confident in their sales process and rely on it to give them the best possible opportunities to create consistent revenue.

C) How to troubleshoot their existing B2B sales process so that they can take action to plug simple gaps that are inadvertently losing them lots of business.

So let's take a look...

As someone who has successfully trained over 20,000 people in best practice B2B sales techniques, I can tell you that it's simple to spot 'stale sales' symptoms before your revenue begins to plummet.

But that's because I've got the benefit of:

• 18 years B2B sales experience
• Significant data after training over 20,000 people
• Doing diagnostic work with both companies and entrepreneurs over the last ten years to identify where these issues occur (and why!)

In short, I've dedicated almost twenty years to understanding, researching, testing and improving B2B sales - which most people? Don't have.

Which means that if you do have early 'stale sales' symptoms that you hadn't spotted prior to reading this? It's not your fault. You're not a sales expert. But it does mean that once you've spotted them? You are solely responsible for doing something to prevent the problems. (Like investing time, money and energy into a proven B2B sales strategy that will help you reignite your revenue. )

So what do these early symptoms look like - and what can you do about them?

1. Relying on inbound leads: Having qualified inbound sales leads is brilliant for businesses. Some might even call it 'the dream'. But the problem is that some entrepreneurs can fall into the over-reliance on inbound trap... and that's a problem. Because a) inbound leads are usually not the most qualified (see other articles I've written about junior employees!) and b) you have to rely on a lot of marketing to generate 'inbound' leads which can be costly and not always easy to manage on platforms you don't own. Relying heavily on inbound leads means that you're not in control of your sales process at all... and as soon as the leads dry up? You're likely to spend lots of money on paid advertising/ costly social media marketing agencies or lead generation agencies to 'get more leads' which can cause major cashflow issues.
2. Not tracking (or analysing) your metrics: If you don't know how many business development calls it takes you to make a B2B sale? You've no idea whether you're operating at a high or low standard. If you don't know what your average transaction value is? You'll struggle to ever raise your rates. If you're not tracking how long it takes you to convert a cold lead into a paying corporate client (or it's taking more than 90 days?)... you're going to end up with a sales problem. I get it, people want to track their metrics when they're 'better'... but you only get better metrics when you track + use the data that you have. Even if you don't like it!
3. Not having a clear, measurable process to book qualified business development calls: 'But Jess, when I get decision makers on the call with me, they always want proposals/ make sales... I just need more calls' I hear this a lot and I understand. But most people either have no proactive lead generation process at all (so struggle to control how many calls they book) or they keep doing things that don't work to book sales calls because they don't know how to execute a proven lead generation strategy that actually does the job. (And no... posting content on LinkedIn doesn't convert stakeholders into clients.) Reactive lead generation = lower sales calls and feeling frustrated. Proactive lead generation = targeted lead generation that you can eventually outsource :)
4. Personalising everything: Standardised sales processes are able to be measured... and what gets measured? Is able to be managed. So when you're 'giving this one client a discount for XXX reason' or 'just quickly personalising this lead generation message with some stats on the company'... it's not doing you the favour you think it is. In fact, it's going to make it harder to spot the real reason(s) that your sales process isn't working correctly - because you've got hundreds of variables to consider.

Yes... there are lots more reasons that I could have included on that list

But the reality is that most of them will fall under those categories in some way.

So if we know that there are early symptoms that can highlight a future problem with our sales process... are there really unexpected issues that we couldn't predict/ control?

Absolutely.

• Critical events: Pandemic / war / environmental issues (like hurricanes/ earthquakes etc). These are genuinely unexpected events that can stall sales processes (depending on your area of expertise) and cannot be controlled by you as the seller or by your prospect either.
• Political change: Sometimes big political events will cause sales processes to be delayed; elections/ upcoming budgets/ new policies being put in place.
• Genuinely unexpected change inside an organisation: Sometimes companies go through really unexpected change; restructures / redundancy processes/ being bought out... and our stakeholders don't always know that these things are happening.

Outside of these?

Everything in your sales process has the ability to be controlled, prevented or at least discussed by you.

(And it's also worth noting that even when these situations do happen, it's still possible to sell successfully if you know how!)

'But that makes me feel 100% responsible for my sales process and results...'

Yes. It should - because you are.

As Codie Sanchez once said; 'You get the results you deserve'.

It's a mantra that I live by - and that I'd offer up to you too.

You see, if you're not getting the sales results you want but refusing to change anything about the way you're currently doing it?

It is on you.

Which doesn't mean that you don't have valid reasons to justify why you're continuing down a path that isn't working for you.

Because you absolutely might be:

• Afraid to change anything in case the situation gets even worse
• Unsure what you're supposed to do... and so doing nothing feels safer than doing something
• Feeling sure that eventually your experiments will work and you'll get the result you want
• Freaked out about investing in a real sales strategy before you make sales/ make your existing sales strategy work because it's tough to invest money when you're not making any / what you want

But in making those decisions not to change... you are directly controlling how your sales are going to continue.

Which is a painful but valid truth.

So what should you be doing instead?

Honestly? Starting by understanding what a best practice B2B sales process looks like is the best first step.

And once you've been able to understand what it looks like?

Decide which areas are currently most problematic and go and get some support to fix them.

Because knowing without doing (properly) isn't effective.

And implementing without being an expert? Takes a lot longer and very rarely gets the result you want.

If you want to get real sales results and hit your ideal revenue goals/ increase your average transaction values or decrease the time it takes you to land corporate clients?

Drop me a line and I can do a free sales gap analysis for you to explain where the gaps are in your existing sales process and help you plug them properly.

Jessica Lorimer is the UK's leading B2B sales coach for entrepreneurs selling their services to corporate organisations. Jessica regularly provides insights on sales strategy and techniques on her award nominated podcast; Selling to Corporate ? and has been featured in The i, The Telegraph, Forbes, Daily Express, City AM, Psychologies and is a TedX speaker.