“Why aren’t my company’s sales growing as expected?”

Having spent the past thirty-one years working in small and mid-size businesses as a senior sales & marketing executive or as an independent sales operations consultant, the question I hear over and over again from business owners is … “Why aren’t my company’s sales growing as expected?”

Based on my experience, I’ve identified 12 primary reasons why this happens.

12. No annual performance reviews. An annual performance review forces a manager to sit down and evaluate performance. This is the time to set goals for the following year. Then progress should be tracked and discussed minimally on a quarterly basis if not monthly. This also lays the foundation for performance improvement and, if necessary, termination.

11. Over reliance on sales team to generate leads. Having sales reps fend for themselves when it comes to finding leads is an ineffective approach. While sales reps should always be on the lookout for good prospects, there should be an automated, digital lead-generation and lead-nurturing program in place to feed them qualified leads.

10. Limited, ineffective sales skills training; sales mentoring is non-existent. A sales leader should travel with each sales rep regularly–at least monthly–to determine their competency. With that, knowledge and skills training can be customized to fit each rep’s needs. The best training involves ongoing coaching and mentoring in addition to formal training sessions. Role-playing is an excellent way to test a sales rep’s ability to apply what he or she has been taught. Practice improves performance.

9. Compensation plan doesn’t incent desired behavior. What gets rewarded gets done. The comp plan should provide the right activity- and results-based incentives. An effective comp plan is a win-win for the sales rep and the company. Another question to consider: will it help attract the right salespeople?

8. No customer relationship management (CRM) system. A first step is to determine the proper application of CRM for the team. CRM is not one size fits all, and should be customized to match the company’s sales processes, sales support structure, and sales reporting requirements. This is the single repository for all sales activity and results reporting. The proper implementation of a CRM system enables multiple departments to see the status of sales activities and deal progression.

7. Sales message doesn’t differentiate from the competition. The company’s sales message must distinguish the company from the competition by communicating unique value. To accomplish this, the message must be: (1) important to the prospect, (2) unique to your company, and (3) easy to defend against competitive attack. There are three messaging musts: it must be simple, it must be presented from the customer’s point-of-view, and it must be memorable.

6. Sales team is not staffed properly. The sales team must be led by a sales manager who is focused on building highly effective sales reps versus securing individual sales to achieve significant and sustainable results. There needs to be a proper structure to maximize sales, such as outside versus inside reps, reps that are hunters versus reps that are farmers, and direct sales versus indirect sales channel support reps.

5. No short-term and/or long-term sales pipeline and forecasting tool. A sales pipeline and forecasting tool provides a bottom-up view for use by the company to forecast future sales, align costs with expected revenues, and accurately predict cash flow. Monitoring the sales pipeline is one of the most important duties of a sales manager.

4. No weekly scheduled sales meetings for the group and one-to-one. These meetings should be a learning experience designed to share success stories, what’s working and what’s not working, as well as to identify and resolve issues that are getting in the way of making sales. These meetings are the foundation of effective coaching and mentoring. Each member of the sales team should know what is expected of them each week. The sales leader should make sure everyone comes prepared to report on their expected deliverables.

3. Sales metrics are not clearly defined. Attention must be paid to how a company is keeping score of sales activities and results. This is how a company sets the proper performance levels it desires and provides a common score-keeping system for what is good and bad. Furthermore, this is how to determine future success before it is too late.

2. No defined sales processes. Each step of a company’s sales processes must be clearly stated and documented. This creates a common language and understanding of sales success. It is vitally important to define checkpoints for each step in the sales process.

1. No detailed sales plan that is understood by the entire sales team. The number one reason holding companies back from smooth selling is the lack of a sales plan understood by all. Remember this business adage? “The probability of hitting your goal is much greater if you have one.” A business must know where it wants to go and when and how it wants to get there. A written plan must be created that includes three critical elements: (1) sales strategy, (2) sales support/enablement systems, and (3) sales organization structure and people The plan must include clear deadlines and accountability for executing each and every plan component. This must be clearly stated in writing. No fuzzy thinking allowed.

Taken from … Smooth Selling Forever enables small and mid-size business leaders to generate significant, predictable, and sustainable sales growth. Based in the science of selling, when applied correctly and managed vigilantly, smooth selling produces revenue results in a systematic fashion.