Most people want to be great at what they do, and if they don’t want to be great, it makes you wonder why they want to even do it at all. This is so true with salespeople, but considering how many people you have known in sales, what percentage of them would you consider great? What was it about the remaining salespeople that didn’t meet the mark? Can the gap be closed to create more great salespeople? Yes, if you can identify some of the key factors that keep them from being great.
Sales is such an interesting department in businesses because it is so vital to the health of every single business, and yet we invest so little into this critical component. Training is lousy if it even exists at all. Very few managers know how to manage and coach salespeople well. To make matters worse, most salespeople are even embarrassed to admit that they are salespeople. They will go so far as to change their job titles to ‘account rep’, ‘business development’ or ‘client advisor’ to avoid any stigma associated with being a salesperson. As if customers couldn’t tell the difference. So it’s no wonder why so many salespeople don’t become great. Common reasons include:
- Lack of proper sales training – Very few organizations have a formal training program. This is especially true of small businesses. Fortunately, there are a lot of third-party options to help you with this. You can also find out more about Scorecard Basic Training and Sales Objection Training here.
- Lack of an effective sales process – Be honest; are you mostly winging it? Many salespeople are because they are too proud to write out their process. If you need help with your sales process, check out Scorecard’s Tools and Templates to streamline your organization’s sales process.
- Lack of sales experience – Hey, we all have to start somewhere. This is one that you cannot control, but it is important to use our experiences to our advantage.
- Lack of preparation – It is all too common that salespeople do not like to plan. Again, too often salespeople are winging it. Take the time to get organized and develop the necessary disciplines.
- Lack of self-confidence – We all have bad days, and sometimes our lack of confidence is easily detected by our customers. Read these tips to help with your confidence.
- Lack of self-control – We give in to our impulses too easily and lose control of our sales. This is usually seen as desperation by our customers.
There are certainly more items we could add to our list, but these are usually the top issues. At least one of these reasons is constantly getting in your way. Customers, as a result, are taking control of the sale and taking your profits. It’s not that you can’t be great, it is that no one has shown you how to become great. Discover which area you need the most help with so that you can take your first steps to being great.
