Again, we don’t believe there is one single silver bullet for increasing sales. We do, however, believe there is a common cause beneath the poor sales performance symptoms presented above. The common cause is the sales team’s inability to articulate and sell the value of their organization’s products and services.

In the table below is a list of poor sales performance symptoms and a value-based solution to address each of them. You can see how each of the above symptoms, or reasons given by a prospective client for not making a purchase decision, can be addressed and resolved with a professional, structured, ROI and value-based conversation.

The next blog in this series, Part III, will address how a sales teams can gain proficiency in selling value as a means of addressing the symptoms of poor sales performance.

Symptoms of Poor Sales Performance

As with anything we can observe and try to fix symptoms or we can get to the root cause of the symptoms, correct it and many of our problems are gone. First we’ll look at some common symptoms of poor sales performance. Then we’ll associate them with the single cause. And finally well look at the one cure that will address the cause .  .  . the silver bullet.

No decision or delayed decision – You know this one. The prospect told you on your first visit they were expecting to make a decision within “x” number of days or months and now you’ve presented your solution and delivered a proposal and it’s been 2 to 4 weeks since they last returned a call or email from you. The prospect has gone dark on you.

Comparing proposals from multiple vendors – This can take time requiring the utmost of patience on your part. Perhaps the prospect is comparing you with one or more of your competitors and they’re not ready to make a decision yet. Maybe you’re the preferred choice but your contact person is charged with evaluating and comparing several alternatives before making the final decision.

There’s no budget – If this is the reason a prospect gives you for not purchasing your product/service you want to flush it out early in the qualification stage of your sales process. If discovered early, find out why before giving up on the deal.  It could be they’re not aware of the value or ROI that your product/service can provide them. For example, if they knew the ROI was fairly immediate they may find the budget dollars to commit to it. In other words, is there no, or not enough, budget because there’s  no perceived need or is it because they have a need but don’t understand the immediate value your product/service can bring them.

No immediate need for your product/service – Maybe there’s no compelling event or immediate need that’s requiring them to make a decision for, or against, you.  So they don’t.

Can’t justify the cost to acquire your product/service – Maybe there’s an acknowledgement of need, and they have funds to purchase your product/service, but other important purchases appear to be more cost-justified than yours.

We’re at capacity and reluctant to invest in growing the business until the future is more certain – There’s acknowledgement of need, there’s a budget available with no higher cost-justified solution competing with you, however, the organization is reluctant to spend money in uncertain economic times.

The price objection – You continually hear . . . “Your price is higher than your competition and we can’t justify paying the higher price.”

This is not an exhaustive list but does represent some of the things you might have heard from prospective clients that you’ve invested a ton of time and resources toward with hopes of adding them to your client list.

The next blog of this series, Part II, will address a common cause of these symptoms and suggest solutions to address them.