Having more than a few years of experience in sales, we like to think we know a thing or two here at Trelevate. Over the past 5 years, we’ve noticed a trend of common mistakes that salespeople/their organizations make that could hinder their ability to close the deal. That’s why we’ve taken the time to point out these common issues in a person/company’s sales tactics.
Your Approach is Outdated: The times have changed and technology along with it. If your sales process and tactics haven’t kept pace with these changes, your results will suffer. As you continue to evolve your strategy, be sure to research new methods and AB Test them against your current processes. In other words, keep tabs on the smart kids in class and use some of their methodologies to enhance your own, making something effective and new.
Lack of Accountability: This one applies to entire companies and their leadership. If you see an epidemic of poor results in your organization, the result is probably a lack of accountability. When leadership is unmotivated or unclear about what they need from their team, the result is always slow decay over time. Make sure your goals and messaging are crystal clear. It should be a top-down method, starting from your executive team, to ensure everyone understands one message, one goal, one strategy.
Lack of Focus: Riding the tailcoats of accountability, a lack of focus within an organization is another way results might be less than what you need. You need to see the following within your company: territory discussions, account planning, pipeline meetings, etc. If you don’t have a way to focus your sales force every week. Even worse than not having these meetings is treating them too lightly. Either way, your results will suffer for it. Simply put, you can’t train a successful sales team without direction.
Bad Execution: Alright, let’s step back to updating your approach. It doesn’t matter how much you research or how well you plan out your territories if your execution is poor. You’ve probably seen this a million times before; you sit in a meeting, ideas are thrown around, inspiring speeches, etc. Ultimately, you walk out of these gatherings feeling really good, inspired even. However, you keep having these meetings about the same things every month. This is typically due to bad execution, meaning you have everything you need to succeed but not a solid plan to pull it off.
Too Little Prospecting: You’ll never close a deal before you open it. For some reason, many salespeople treat prospecting as a secondary condition to the deal itself, literally putting the cart before the horse. All the numbers you need to make your quota come from the efforts you make in creating new opportunities. In fact, some of the best salespeople in the industry focus on building their pipeline and would gladly sacrifice a deal or two to make that pipeline more solid. It all comes together to create a network of efficiency, comprised of the relationships you’ve built and the data you’ve collected. Start making prospecting your primary goal!
These are all root problems that lead to poor performance. That’s why it’s essential to keep them in mind as you evolve your strategies and keep up with the times.