Sales Challenges

[Skip Anderson]

What sales challenges have you overcome in the process of growing your business? Please share...

[bellapria]

I work in a company in the sales field. Our sales were getting stagnant, and weren't growing to meet our company goals. Most of the problem lie in the fact that our sales people were having issues closing the sale and building better relationships with our customers. The management decided that we all needed to go to a negotiation seminar, and though we were hesitant to go, it really helped. We learned how to talk to our customers and reach agreements that were mutually beneficial. The seminar we went to was through a company called Karrass I am still amazed that something that seems so simple was a big issue for our company.

[Skip Anderson]

Originally Posted by bellapria

I work in a company in the sales field. Our sales were getting stagnant, and weren't growing to meet our company goals. Most of the problem lie in the fact that our sales people were having issues closing the sale and building better relationships with our customers. The management decided that we all needed to go to a negotiation seminar, and though we were hesitant to go, it really helped. We learned how to talk to our customers and reach agreements that were mutually beneficial. The seminar we went to was through a company called Karrass I am still amazed that something that seems so simple was a big issue for our company.

Thanks for your post, bellapria. Anybody else want to share sales challenges?

[Anthony01]

One book I found to be excellent for practical stratagies and plans you can put into place for building relationships and closing sales in the corporate scene was How Winners Sell by Dave Stein he has won some amazing contracts with huge coroporations and I'd really recommend a read-it really helped me understand how alot of the larger businesses think

[mjnewland]

Read Dan Kennedy's "No BS Sales Success". Its an excellent book about the proper attitude for selling.

[Skip Anderson]

Does anybody else want to share sales challenges they've overcome?

[Amir W.]

Several years ago I overcame the challenge of finding good salespeople. Having built a successful business where I had been the main salesperson, I decided it was time to take the business to the next level and hire others, thereby duplicating myself. It took some time to find the right people, and at times I doubted whether I'd even be able to do it.

The whole idea was to manage others and run the business, instead of being "in" the business as the main worker. This is all explained in E-myth by Michael Gerber, an invaluable book for someone looking to grow their business.

[K&G]

I hope it's ok to post here because I have identified my challenge but haven't overcome it.

First, let me say that I have an excellent day crew. I'm comfortable leaving them on their own until 2PM or so when I come in. My problem is my evening crew.

They work other jobs so they come in after working a full day somewhere else, tired and not very motivated. In fact, I'd call them cashiers instead of salespeople because they aren't very interested in making a sale, they just want to ring up what the customer brings to the register.

If I had it to do over again I would try to find salespeople who don't have day jobs, but I'm not sure how successful I would be. Frankly, I pay as well as I can but you can't support a family on it. I don't know that it's possible to motivate people who are working too many hours and don't know what the solution is. Plenty of people come through the store in the evenings, but sales are less than a third of day sales.

I come in in the afternoon so that I overlap with both shifts. I try to motivate by example and get them excited about new products. They know the selling points and the products that give me the best profit margin, but they just don't seem to care. It's like they are doing time, just waiting out the clock.

My financial advisor suggested that I read E-myth but I couldn't find it and forgot about it until I saw it in the post above. I'll check Amazon tonight, but meanwhile if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

[Skip Anderson]

Originally Posted by K&G

I hope it's ok to post here because I have identified my challenge but haven't overcome it.

First, let me say that I have an excellent day crew. I'm comfortable leaving them on their own until 2PM or so when I come in. My problem is my evening crew.

They work other jobs so they come in after working a full day somewhere else, tired and not very motivated. In fact, I'd call them cashiers instead of salespeople because they aren't very interested in making a sale, they just want to ring up what the customer brings to the register.

If I had it to do over again I would try to find salespeople who don't have day jobs, but I'm not sure how successful I would be. Frankly, I pay as well as I can but you can't support a family on it. I don't know that it's possible to motivate people who are working too many hours and don't know what the solution is. Plenty of people come through the store in the evenings, but sales are less than a third of day sales.

I come in in the afternoon so that I overlap with both shifts. I try to motivate by example and get them excited about new products. They know the selling points and the products that give me the best profit margin, but they just don't seem to care. It's like they are doing time, just waiting out the clock.

My financial advisor suggested that I read E-myth but I couldn't find it and forgot about it until I saw it in the post above. I'll check Amazon tonight, but meanwhile if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

If you're clear about your expectations with your evening people, and your compensation plan supports your desired behaviors, and your management system includes coaching, then what you said suggests you have the wrong employees. You need to somehow find motivated salespeople to do the job.

[GRPFunding]

Originally Posted by Skip Anderson

Does anybody else want to share sales challenges they've overcome?

Building a pipeline! Sales people in my industry need to build a pipeline before they start cranking out sales. Sometimes it's tough when a new person comes in and already sees everyone else knocking down sales.

But after they get things moving, everything is good.