Ten Tips to Put More Pop in Your Sales

If sales are slow and revenue is down, the sales manager needs to know why – and fast. Sales quarters creep up on a sales team, and a bad one can set the stage for a true downturn. Like in baseball, it’s hard to crawl out from under a slump. Here are 10 root causes for trouble and ways to overcome them.

1. UNCLEAR INSIGHT INTO WINS AND LOSSES
If you don’t know what winning deals looks like, how can you replicate the effort in the future? Conversely, if you don’t know why you’re losing deals, how can you avoid making the same mistakes again? Look back at your sales results using analytics to zero in on what works, what doesn’t, and how you can start winning more deals.

2. SENIOR-MANAGEMENT SHIFTS
When there’s a big shake-up in management, it can seriously impact your sales team’s results for months afterward. Changes at the top can trickle down and confuse even long-time reps. Make sure you’re clear and open with your team about new expectations and any changes in sales strategy or reporting.

3. HIRING THE WRONG PEOPLE
Hiring talented sales reps can be extremely difficult. You need to hire people who are smart, passionate, and willing to be coached to success. Take a good look at your team: maybe you’ve hired the wrong kind of reps. If so, consider retooling your hiring process altogether.

4. NO DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN INSIDE AND OUTSIDE SALES
The skills it takes to be a successful inside sales rep are very different from the skills your outside sales reps need. Make sure you emphasize the difference between the two in hiring, training, resources, goals, and support from management. Don’t be afraid to shift reps to a different department where their personality and skills will shine.

5. INEFFECTIVE PIPELINE MANAGEMENT
If you’re not aware of every detail in your sales pipeline, you are not in control of your sales team. Use analytics to carefully track key metrics, such as how successful deals behave as they move through the pipeline, overall pipeline growth, etc.

6. NOT ENOUGH SALES COACHING
With everything else on sales managers’ plates, coaching can easily fall through the cracks. Make sure your sales team is receiving consistent, one-on-one coaching focused on improving sales skills to boost performance.

7. SALES REPS’ POOR TIME MANAGEMENT
Your sales reps should be logging their daily activities so you can track how many calls they make, meetings they book, and demos they give. By tracking activities, you can see if any reps are falling behind and encourage them to step up and make more dials.

8. UNDERUTILIZED CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)
Used correctly, CRM software can be an incredibly useful, powerful tool for sales reps and managers. If you haven’t customized your CRM, however, or if you don’t follow best practices, you’re wasting it.

9. WORKING UNQUALIFIED LEADS
If marketing is handing over a bunch of leads that are unqualified, then the effort is not helpful to your sales team. Your reps will be wasting time chasing down prospects who aren’t interested in your product, have no purchasing power, or aren’t in the right industry. Implement a plan to qualify leads extensively before handing them to sales.

10. COMPLACENCY
Over time, your sales reps will start to get comfortable, and that’s not a good thing. Each month, you should push them to reach a higher sales quota and stretch their skills. Don’t push too hard, but be sure to challenge your team.

Now that you understand some of the major hurdles that can slow down your sales team, it’s time to make adjustments. By implementing some of the highest-level solutions to these problems, your sales team will stop struggling and start succeeding.

Zorian Rotenberg is vice president of sales and marketing at InsightSquared.