TLDR: You’re failing at sales because timing is off, you have an empty pipeline, your questions are simple, lack of use cases, and your champion is a clown.
There are so many reasons why you suck at sales, it can be based on one specific reason like you throw up and have panic attacks when you’re speaking to a prospect, or it could be a multitude of reasons like your product market fit and your marketing and the questions you ask. Let’s dive into a few of those reasons below:
Timing
Engaging with your prospects at the right time is pivotal in building pipeline. While inbound leads can be life savers, how many of you feel comfortable with marketing putting food on your table?
While every prospect may not be the perfect candidate, it’s the job of the sales rep to qualify and disqualify, identify timelines, put a lead that’s a “not right now” in a nurture pipeline, and follow up forever and ever.
Relying on Marketing
What separates the boys from the men in sales is the ability to generate your own pipeline with prospects. Many SaaS & cloud focused companies rely on marketing leads to build pipeline, but those that embrace the outbound and create the habit of doing so will survive in the long run.
It’s recommended by hundreds of leaders in the sales world to create habits of prospecting and outbounding sessions built into your weekly activity cadence. This way you will always be a killer and a true hunter when you go to your next sales org.
Questions
Every industry is different, every product is different, and every prospect is different. But what remains constant is that solving problems is what gets you a sale.
If your prospect has a problem and needs solving they have your product or your competitors. If your product can solve the specific problem and your competitors can’t, even if they love your competitor, the prospect will purchase your product. Asking the right questions to identify the problem and the desired future state is what will move the needle for you in conversations with your prospect
Use Cases
Often times prospects want to know how your product has helped other orgs in their industry or with a similar problem. It’s the job of the sales rep to be able to provide use cases that can clearly state “X customer had Y problem, it caused a similar result to what you are facing today however the key driver for them was the ability to do ABC. Does that resonate with you?”
From there being able to hyperfocus on the future state of that use case customer to drive your prospect towards their desired future state is imperative as it will allow the prospect to capture ownership of their future desired state.
Gartner data reveals it typically takes 7 individuals to make a decision at an organization to purchase a product. That tells you it wont just be your main point of contact, but that they will be bringing your product to different people and departments that have different wants and needs.
Your Use Cases should be able to demonstrate solving the problem, leveraging metrics, display a similar desired future state, and speak to the Return on Investment (ROI) your product gives to the customer.
Your Champion
Sometimes we do not vet our point of contact enough. They speak big game but don’t show up in the playoffs (looking at you Julius Randle of the NY Knicks).
As sales people we need to be able to understand the role of our point of contact, their experience in the decision making process, and climb up the ladder if possible.
Testing your supposed champion is vital to know if they are truly invested and believe in your product or they are wasting your time. Getting them to have you meet with the decision makers, while ideal is not always possible. If my ‘champion’ tells me “oh it’s not necessary to meet with the CEO, I was given authority to make the decision,” they are usually full of b.s.
Takeaway
These are not all the reasons you suck at sales, but they are some of the main ones we see consistently. It’s imperative that if you want to be a professional sales person and improve your pedagogical approach, you need to focus on what is not working, make adjustments, read and educate yourself in the sales space to improve and not suck.
