Why Do Sales Professionals Fail?

Sales professionals fail for a variety of reasons. In the end, everyone has something to sell but unfortunately, not everyone knows how to either make the sale or close the deal.There are a million different formulas on how to have a successful sales process but most will fail. Typically, they fail due to the lack of organization of a process someone is willing to follow. Before we get into the reasons why sales professionals fail, we also want to make sure everyone understands there is a difference between sales and marketing. Marketing is a process by which a plan is implemented to make others aware of a product or company. A good marketing plan will lead to awareness but its job isn’t to sell something. Having a Professional Selling Organization (PSO) culture is essential to the success of any businesses. As with most employees, there are always a few employees who just don’t fit the position they are attempting to fill. But why do salespeople fail?

The following are what we deem the biggest reason why sales professionals fail:

• Lack of a plan or no plan
• Not making enough phone calls
• Not pounding the payment for face to face visits
• Lack of organizational skills
• They just don’t fit the bill
• Poor corporate management
• Laziness
• A short-term focus
• Lack of follow-up or professional service
• Focusing too much on the wrong prospect and customers
• Inability to multi-task
• Poor training or lack of training
• Weak support from the company
• Not listening to potential needs of others
• Poor communication
• Ignoring
• Not adapting to change
• Failure to learn
• Inability to build successful relationships

Once you’ve identified why your sales team aren’t selling more, the answer will be a combination of sales and leadership skills training, developing and implementing accountability programs and prospecting activities. A lot can be solved with just this. The only thing that will fix a challenged and slow economy is sales so hiring and training an effective team is vital!

Thanks for taking the time to read our reasons as to why sales professionals fail. If you should have any questions or would like us to write on a specific topic please let us know!