CREATING THE
B2B CUSTOMER
	Alan/Anthony October 2002

Why Aren't My People Selling More?

Nearly everyone we know who sells a product or service says that the downturn in the global economy is making it harder to sell and create new customers. However, some companies sell effectively across the business cycle. They do better in good times and suffer less in bad ones, despite not having a charismatic CEO, a shady CFO or even a recognizable brand. In fact, we have a list of companies that are thriving right now. What's their secret?

Their 'secret' is so ordinary that it is often overlooked. They have audited their sales efforts and have identified the key weaknesses. They have then put together a winning sales program. Like a football team with a new coach, they have made 'stars' out of once-ordinary players.

But how, exactly? The answer lies in one of the four—and only four— possible reasons why your people aren't selling more:

Your salespeople don't know how.

Sounds shocking, right? But it may be true. You may have good intuitive salespeople who have a sufficient understanding of your products and services. But they lack the B2B selling skills to consistently perform up to their potential. Or maybe they are engineers or project managers by trade, for whom selling is a necessary evil. They know your products, services and processes inside and out, but they don't know how to apply the same discipline and process-based thinking to the job of bringing sales in the door.

The person managing them (you?) doesn't know how.

Please don't take this personally. But in many B2B companies, salespeople don't report to an experienced sales professional. They report to the CEO or the COO or even the CFO. They report to the head programmer or the person who runs the factory floor. Or they may report to a Sales Manager, but he or she is not really a manager at all —just the best salesperson in the company. When salespeople, who need as much support and direction as any other employees, are going through a rough patch and need to be coached in their approach, they have nobody to turn to for advice. Like a football team, they keep running the same plays while the defense is there waiting for them! You can't win that way.

You're sending them into battle empty-handed.

Selling is one end of a communication process. Your sales effort needs to be supported through a tactical mix of communication efforts that you may be ignoring, even though some of them may cost you next to nothing. Your salespeople need quality support that removes barriers and helps them make their case. They need innovative

Your products or services have lost their competitive edge.

Every new product or service that achieves success starts out having a unique value, which is why customers buy it. But in a free market, competitors quickly respond by adding features to their own products and services. Within a predictable period of time, your innovative product or service becomes a commodity. And commodities are purchased based on one factor alone: the lowest price.

The good news

The good news about these four problems is that they are highly curable. And it doesn't take a corporate reorganization, a CRM platform, wireless Palm Pilots or any of the toys that people try to sell you. What it takes is an ability to identify your weaknesses and find ways to overcome them. After all, you don't need to re-invent the disciplines of sales and marketing. All you need to do is to take the best of the knowledge that exists and apply it to help you get through the current down cycle and prepare for the up cycle to come.

 

Want to know more? Alan/Anthony offers auditing and consulting services, under the StarBuilder brand, for B2B companies that want to sell more effectively across the business cycle. We're a partnership of B2B customer creation specialists with decades of experience at growing companies in tightly-focused B2B niches.

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