The Three Reasons Your Sales Stink

Is your organization currently meeting its sales goals?

Besides your market's leaders, who continually meet and surpass their sales goals, a good majority of those in your industry are failing to meet their productivity, sales and revenue expectations.

Although they give many excuses for this (the economy, too much competition, seasonal business, the sun and the moon aren't in alignment, etc.), there really are only three reasons for poor sales. Here they are:

1. No Demand for Your Product or Service

The first reason is nobody wants your product or service. This is rarely the case.

There is a simple test to figure out if this is the reason for your stagnant sales.
- Have you been able to sell your product or service in the past?
- Is another salesperson successful in selling your product or service?
- Is another organization successful in selling your product or service?

If the answer to any of these questions was "yes," there is a market for your goods. Therefore, it must be one of the other two reasons.

2. Ineffective Marketing and Advertising

The second reason for poor sales is your ads and marketing are ineffective. The goal of your advertising is to get your phone to ring, hits on your website or walk-in customers.

The only way you'll accomplish this goal is to distinguish your organization as the one to do business with in your industry. By tracking and measuring all of your ads, you should know which ones are working and which ones you should modify or cancel immediately.

3. Your Salespeople Don't Fit their Jobs

The third and most common reason for poor sales is the 80/20 Dilemma. Unlike your Market's Leaders, you haven't beaten the 80/20 Dilemma; where 80 percent of your sales come from just 20 percent of your salespeople. The dilemma robs your managers of their time and energy and is the most costly issue in sales.

To improve your sales, your number one goal this year is to beat the 80/20 Dilemma. Let me reword that: Not only beat it, but conquer it.

To do so, you must first understand why it has seized your sales force. Here's the hones truth: You simply have hired the wrong people to sell your product or service. Perhaps not all of them, but 80 percent of them.

A recent study of salespeople found that half of the people in sales should have never been hired in the first place. I'm sure you'd agree that the sales profession requires natural qualities that not everybody has.

Of the remaining 50 percent, only half of them will achieve their potential. There are two reasons for this. One, they are trying to sell the wrong product or service. Two, their skills are never properly developed.

That leaves the 20 to 30 percent who are in jobs they fit. They are the people who sell 80 percent of your products and services.