Converting sales is a difficult task for any company, but for some it is much more difficult. Whether you are a B2C or B2B company, your sales team works tirelessly to reach your quota and help the company reach its goals. However, no matter how hard they work, their sales team can’t seem to attract enough willing buyers. You know what they say, work smarter, not harder.

It doesn’t matter how much effort you are putting into the sales operation; it won’t make any difference if you go in the wrong direction. There are reasons why your business is having difficulty making sales and you need to understand them before finding a solution.

You have not adapted to the change

The economic climate changes every time a new wave of innovation and technology arrives. So if your business is not making as many sales as it used to, it could be because you are using outdated systems. Since the proliferation of social media, analytics, and big data came onto the scene, things have changed.

To stay ahead of the competition, it is essential that your company adapts to these changes. Take big data and analytics for example. Many companies have not yet accepted the importance of data and the trends that can be derived from it. Once you do, you will begin to understand many things; why a sales campaign failed, why you are losing customers, and what makes a marketing campaign powerful.

You are putting a cap on commissions

For your sales team, the motivation is knowing that, on a good day, they can take home a huge commission without worrying about the limitation. Limiting commissions can prevent your sales team from closing more sales and struggling to exceed a specific quota. Numerous studies show that capping commissions can affect overall income and productivity.

The results of such studies conclude that companies should remove commission caps. Once the respective companies did, they saw their revenues increase by almost ten percent. So, don’t worry about having to pay large commissions to your sales reps, as they probably helped your company make big profits.

You are not following every potential customer

Sales reps seem to lose enthusiasm for following up with every prospect they find. Instead, they only work for those who feel they can convert. This conjecture makes things very confusing, especially since your sales team relies on instinct rather than objective factor.

Keep records of how long your sales team has followed up with old leads. The reason for the low sales could be that they are ignoring certain potential customers, causing your business to close fewer sales. It’s crucial that you remember how every consumer is a potential customer in one way or another, so it’s best to never ignore a potential customer.

Inappropriate marketing

All parts of a business must work together to drive sales and increase customer retention. A company’s marketing department plays an integral role in providing sales reps with the leads they need. It often happens that a marketing team cannot deliver qualified leads to sales reps.

This step hurts your business numbers and you need to improve by improving your marketing efforts. This process may involve launching a well-planned Google AdWords campaign and other solutions that have the potential to drive sales.

You are not aware of the competition

Even if you are looking at your competitor’s numbers, there is a chance that you are not learning what they are doing right. A large part of your understanding should come from what our competitors are doing. You need to invest in research and data on rival companies that have better sales figures than you.

This research can provide you with valuable information that determines what you are doing wrong. Although you don’t have to imitate your competitors, there is always something you can learn from them, and that’s not a bad thing.

No training programs

The only way a company can move forward is if it invests a lot of time and resources in improving its employees. It is unrealistic to expect your sales reps to learn new things in a job that is so demanding. When they follow up on leads throughout the day, your employees won’t be interested in hearing about new findings from sales research jobs.

This is why you need to develop your skill set by hiring the right expert. Sales mentors are one way that large corporations are increasing their numbers. Hiring a sales expert is a valuable initiative you can take to improve your business numbers. A sales mentorship also increases morale and helps your reps develop stronger relationships with their colleagues.

Your sales team lacks a process

In each company’s sales department, leaders must develop a process that representatives must use to make a sale. When there is no sales process in place, your reps could be trying to pursue leads without examining any weaknesses. At this point, your team may be implementing a random process, so even an informal one will produce better results.

However, rather than allowing reps to do what they want, sales leaders should start by establishing an informal process for how they should get things done. Once you follow the leads in a systematic and consistent way, you can go from an informal process to a formal and dynamic one.

conclusion

So now that I’ve listed what your company’s sales team might be doing wrong, it’s time to recap what you should be doing to resolve the issue. To begin with, you must adapt to changing industry climates by implementing new technologies and software.

Next, you need to reconsider the commission cap and improve your marketing strategy. After that, you must learn about your competitor’s solutions and try to understand the theories behind them. Assign focused and dedicated sales leaders to your department so they can implement a sales process. Also, most importantly, there should be sales training and mentoring programs to improve the productivity of your sales reps.