The Top 10 Sales Problems and How to Fix Them

The role of sales is critical to the success of the organization and challenges are inevitable. From generating leads to closing deals, sales professionals encounter a myriad of obstacles that can hinder their success. Identifying these issues and implementing effective solutions is crucial for maintaining a thriving sales operation. Having helped teams fix sales problems for over 37 years I wanted to share what I have observed as common sales problems and how to fix them.

Here are the top 10 sales problems and strategies to overcome them:

1.Lack of Qualified Leads: Without quality leads, sales efforts are often wasted. As I share in my training on identifying your ideal customer, we do not want salespeople contacting anyone who can fog a mirror. We want to spend our time focused on reaching out to current customers and prospects that have a high probability of having problems and challenges we can solve. To address this, we must focus on refining your target audience and implementing robust omnichannel lead generation strategies such as content marketing, social media outreach, and networking events. Additionally, invest in lead scoring to prioritize prospects most likely to convert.

2.Ineffective Sales Communication: Poor communication can result in misunderstandings and missed opportunities. Can your salespeople clearly and succinctly share your companies’ value proposition? As we work with sales teams it is not unusual to assess the team and find as high as 70% of the team cannot share a strong value proposition. Provide comprehensive sales training to your team, emphasizing active listening, effective discovery and qualifying questioning techniques, and clear articulation of value propositions. Encourage regular communication and feedback within the team to foster collaboration and alignment.

3.Difficulty Differentiating from Competitors: In crowded markets, standing out from competitors is essential. Here we want your sales team to understand your distinctive competence. We want to answer the question: Why do customers buy from us? Conduct thorough market research to understand your competition and identify unique selling points. We highly encourage the teams we work with to conduct voice of customer research. In this research our team will ask what your product or service does well? What competitors do you buy from? Why don’t you buy those products or services from your company? In these critical customer and prospect interviews we quickly gather answers to the questions we need to answer. Keep in mind as well the reason someone bought from you five years ago is often much different than why they buy from you today. We must capture the “why” for today. Tailor your messaging to highlight what sets your product or service apart and emphasize the value it delivers to customers today. Work with your salespeople and help them be able to share your value statement conversationally. Equip your salespeople with success stories and case studies that support your value statement.

4.Long Sales Cycles: Lengthy sales cycles can drain resources and impede revenue generation. Long sales cycles also impact the mindset of your salespeople, and we must address this quickly when it occurs. Do you have a formal sales process? Are your salespeople using it or are they skipping steps. For example, it is not unusual to see salespeople act transactionally since the pandemic, skipping rapport, discovery and qualifying. When they skip these steps, the sales cycle becomes long, and close rates decrease. Build a formal sales process and train your salespeople how to use it. Update your CRM to follow the formal sales process and hold salespeople accountable to following the process in your weekly coaching sessions. Streamline the sales process by identifying and addressing common bottlenecks. In an earlier post I referred to places in the sales process where sales stall as roundabouts, the sales spins and spins but does not go anywhere. Implement sales automation tools to expedite administrative tasks and nurture leads more efficiently. Additionally, focus on building strong relationships with prospects to accelerate decision-making.

5.Lack of Sales Alignment with Marketing: When sales and marketing teams aren’t aligned, it can lead to disjointed messaging and missed opportunities. You can quickly determine this is happening when your marketing tea says something like we delivered 123 leads last week and sales shares none of the names we were given were leads. Often, we find what marketing believes is a qualified lead is not a sales qualified lead. Foster collaboration between sales and marketing departments by establishing shared goals and KPIs. Encourage regular communication and feedback to ensure both teams are working towards common objectives. When I led a team that trained the world’s largest companies in product management, we highly encouraged marketing to interview customers and make customer visits. Marketing time with customers helps marketing deliver leads to sales and not just lists.

6.Failure to Adapt to Changing Market Dynamics: Markets are constantly evolving, and sales strategies must evolve accordingly. Do you have an outdated value proposition? Is what your salespeople are saying to customers and prospects no longer resonating with your customers of today? Stay abreast of industry trends, customer preferences, and competitive developments. As mentioned earlier we recommend our clients conduct voice of customer research and make at least two customer interviews per week. Continuously assess and adjust your sales approach to remain agile and responsive to market shifts. For example, today over 75% of the sale process is over before a buyer speaks with a salesperson. We must have a strong web presence and digital marketing strategy that leverages the key words and phrases to help customers and prospects find our site. Sales teams also must be updates with new sales tools, processes, and training.

7.Inadequate Sales Training and Development: Continuous learning is essential for sales success and improving sales effectiveness, yet many organizations overlook training and development initiatives. It is not unusual for a prospect to call me and ask if I can attend a meeting and train their team. Can I attend and deliver content that will help their team? Yes. Is this the best way to train salespeople? NO! I encourage each client to first assess the skills of their salespeople, sales managers, and sales leaders. Then collaboratively we work together and design a spaced stacked learning experience that is designed for retention and deliver the maximum ROI on your training dollars invested. In our training we offer interactive virtual training with application exercises for each skill. We recommend investing in ongoing sales training programs that cover product knowledge, sales techniques, and industry trends. Provide opportunities for skill development and career advancement to keep your sales team engaged and motivated. If this feels daunting it does not need to be. It starts with understanding the skills of your team and delivering training to close skills gaps we discover. We must deliver training that is retained and applied in their daily activity. Once we have created a strong sales skill foundation, we can deliver specific training based on needs sales managers observe. For example, one client I trained a year ago has asked I deliver key account planning and business acumen training. Another client prefers to use sales books. We have the sales team read books like SPIN Selling, Trusted Advisor, and many more. One client asked I share monthly You tube videos that reinforce and refresh sales skills. Other clients ask we create sales scenarios for sales managers to use in their sales meetings for salespeople to practice specific skills. Top preforming salespeople are trained and confidently drive explosive growth in revenue and gross margins, ( if you would like to learn more about sales training you can download a white paper here)

8.Resistance to Embracing Technology: Technology can enhance sales efficiency and effectiveness, but some sales professionals may be resistant to adopting new tools and processes. Offer comprehensive training and support to help your team embrace technology solutions such as CRM systems, sales automation software, and analytics platforms. Highlight the benefits of these tools in streamlining workflows and driving results. The quickest way to help your sales team embrace and use new tools is to clearly articulate the benefits to them. Salespeople , from my experience often resist new tools because they feel it is one more way for ‘big brother” to watch me. Help them see the new technology to improve their results and compensation.

9.Inconsistent Sales Performance: Inconsistency in sales performance can be demoralizing and detrimental to overall success. We refer to it as roller coaster revenue or random acts of sales. One very strong sales month or quarter then one or two quarter with sales results struggling. Implement a performance management system that sets clear expectations, tracks progress, and rewards top performers. Provide coaching and support to underperforming team members, identifying areas for improvement, and offering targeted training and development opportunities. As buyers have become must more sophisticated, the old days of random acts of sales do not work. We must have a formal sales process with specific leading indicator KPI’s.

10.Lack of Customer Focus: Ultimately, sales success hinges on understanding and meeting customer needs. Do your salespeople have commission breath? Buyers can smell commission breath from a mile away. What is the salesperson’s intent in speaking with the decisionmaker? Are your salespeople reaching out to ideal customers and trying to help the customer solve common problems or are they selling to hit their goals and commission? Salespeople who take a consultative approach, build business relationships, and collaboratively suggest solutions become top performers. Salespeople with commission breath take a transactional approach and decisionmakers can feel it. Cultivate a customer-centric culture within your organization, emphasizing empathy, responsiveness, and a commitment to delivering value. Encourage active listening and solicitation of feedback to continuously refine your products and services to better serve your customers.

Addressing these top sales problems requires a combination of strategic planning, effective communication, and continuous improvement.

By proactively identifying and resolving these challenges, organizations can empower their sales teams to achieve greater success and drive sustainable explosive growth.

A few questions for you to consider….

Do your salespeople have the skills to meet their goals?

Are your customers satisfied or unhappy with how your sales communicates with them?

Do sales and marketing in your organization have the same definition of a lead, opportunity, and prospect?

Can your sales team clearly share your value proposition and is it still resonating today?

Are your salespeople trained and equipped to sell consultatively or do they have a bad case of commission breath?

What impact would it have on your revenue and gross margins to have a trained sales team that grows organic revenue by more than 20%?

What impact would it have on your net income if your salespeople improved their skills selling based on value and not just a transaction based on price?

Let’s schedule a call if you would like to assess your sales teams’ skills today and develop a plan to close any sales skills gaps, we discover.