Sales Drop and how to manage it!

Sales Drop! 

Your sales numbers are dropping?! It’s okay, most of the companies may face that even if just once in the company’s lifetime! So, what we’re going to talk about today is why do these sales drops may happen, and how to control them to get your sales numbers back up! 

Possible Reasons of Sales Drop…

• Ineffective Management, this may result based on not holding the right people accountable, not giving out a worthy reward systems, or even applying poor metrics for measuring sales targets.

• Minimal Sales Training, as the lack of initial training and coaching along the way can lead to a significant drop in sales.

• Marketing techniques, the lack in using inbound marketing strategies may definitely result in a great sales drop. 

• Using Old-School Selling Techniques, they just don’t work anymore, the inbound selling techniques that should be used nowadays:

  • Know more about the prospects

  • Discover why they might buy from you before you even reach out

  • Time and place the sales attempts

• Lack of  Follow Up on existing leads, a constant follow up is always required on qualified leads. 

• Ignoring Your Competitors, they might have just come out with a top-of-the-line product that’s unmatched, or providing a service that’s a first-kind in your targeted area. 

• Insufficient focus, the sales rep should know what products and services are “In” to the market every now and then and start focusing on how to sell these products/services to right users. 

• Insufficient choice of words during the selling process, the client must feel the positive emotions transferred from the Sales Rep to them, they must be sure that if they chose the company, they will be in safe hands

Well, now that we’ve highlighted some of the main possible reasons of sales drop, we won’t leave you hanging! We’ll now state some efficient solutions on how to raise your sales up again! 

The solutions…

• Lead with what's in it for your prospect, the sales rep has to make the prospects feel that they have a real problem that this product would definitely solve!

• Talk end-results, sales rep must talk to the prospect of the end results they will get if they purchase this product. 

• The sales rep should use the problem-agitate-solution method with the prospect, 

• • Problem: Identify and clearly state the #1 problem your product solves for prospects.

  • Agitate: Highlight how dangerous the problem is and remind prospects about all the negative implications it can have.

  • Solution: Position your product as the solution to their specific problem.

• Create urgency, the prospect has to feel the urgency of the situation they’re in and how much they need your product! 

• Flexibility on phone and during meetings, the clients must feel that he’s smart and that the sales rep is adding to his intelligence and mind from point of expertise in the industry. 

• The leads must be categorized, at the end of each week or month (depending on the number of leads coming in), the sales rep must prioritize leads based on budgeting/ persona/seriousness...etc, and the highest priority lead must take the most time in proposal preparation and follow up. 

• One you see interest; connect with the decision maker, once the sales rep find the interest in the process, he must request a meeting with the decision maker in order to convince him with words and results to make the purchase. 

• Calls Calls Calls, the phone call coming to a sales rep is the first impression the company makes to the client, it has to be exciting, and to the point. The sales rep has to show a huge interest in the project even if it's lame!

• A win-win negotiation is a must, the prospect won’t feel comfortable if you’re only talking on how the project will only benefit them! It won’t be logical for a businessman, so the sales rep must talk that doing X would definitely be a win-win situation for both parties!

• Follow-up until you get a definitive answer, for example, in the Mobile App Development and Web Solutions Industry, there’s an average purchase cycle duration of 69 days. The sales rep must give themselves a maximum period of time to follow up with that prospect and after that period of time if they haven’t heard from them they should call one last time to know if the lead should be considered, if not, then the deal is considered lost. 

• Use inbound marketing techniques, 

  • SEO 

  • Blogging 

Summing this up!

Today, we’ve highlighted a main issue that most companies face, maybe once in the company’s lifetime, maybe more. So, when we say most companies face this crisis, we mean that this sales drop may not be fatal to the company on the short term, but if ignored, it would definitely be fatal in the long run! Hence, check your sales number regularly, make sure that you’re on the right track of time and number, and if not, you should check if you have any of these reasons and try to solve it out!

References: 

https://www.salesforcesearch.com/blog/9-possible-reasons-for-a-drop-in-sales/

https://www.salesforcesearch.com/blog/5-reasons-for-a-drop-in-sales-and-what-to-do-about-it/

https://blog.close.com/sales-strategies