This document discusses common sales problems and provides solutions. It identifies seven common problems as ineffective sales leadership, ineffective sales teams, poor marketing and sales cooperation, flawed sales propositions, unclear sales messages, poor sales processes, and poor customer relationships. It then outlines symptoms of each problem and offers a seven-stage process to identify issues, collect data, create an action plan, implement changes, and measure results to fix sales problems. The author, Mike McCormac, provides independent consulting services to help companies analyze problems, recommend solutions, and implement changes.

1. GET SELLING,
NOW!
Some of the common
problems that stop sales
and how to solve them

2. CONTENTS
• What are sales problems?
• The common problems and their
symptoms
• Finding workable solutions
• A seven stage methodology to drive
change
• How I work with you

3. BACKGROUND
Sales isn’t working. Here’s the evidence:
 Over half of sales professionals are  More than eight out of ten deals
missing their targets are lost through either ineffective
qualification, lack of sales process
 The average time in-job for a sales
or planning, or both
manager is just 18 months
 Only a third of companies have a
 Turnover amongst sales people is sales forecast accuracy of more
over 40% per annum than 50%
 Everybody’s seeking the same 10%  Only 43% of companies have a
of sales superstars sales training programme, and of
those, only half provide any form
 Most sales teams are less than 50%
of sales skill training
efficient
 Three out of five companies do not
 Only about 10% of sales have a sales performance
opportunities close measurement system in place

4. FIX SALES PROBLEMS FAST
• Ineffective sales leadership
• Ineffective sales team
• Marketing and sales not co-
operating
• Flawed sales proposition
• Unclear sales proposition
• Poor sales processes
• Poor customer relationships

5. INEFFECTIVE SALES LEADERSHIP
• Lack of management skill
• Ineffective objective setting and
measurement
• Ineffective sales compensation
plans
• No vision for the sales team
• Sales disjointed from the
organisation
• Ineffective recruitment practices
• Ineffective training and coaching
• Focus on sales not management

6. INEFFECTIVE SALES TEAM
• Lack of leadership or motivation
• Lack of sales skills
• Lack of engagement with
company
• Lack of belief in company or
solutions
• Lack of solution knowledge
• Lack of credibility with
customers

7. MARKETING AND SALES NOT CO-OPERATING
• Lack of shared objectives
between the two functions
• Lack of holistic view from
solution definition to completed
sales
• Lack of shared language
• Lack of seamless join between
the two
• The two functions acting
independently of each other

8. FLAWED SALES PROPOSITION
• Solution doesn’t work
• Problems the solution
addresses not important
• Cost base too high to compete
• Little differentiation from
competition
• Solution only solves part of the
problem
• Commercial terms don’t match
how customers buy

9. UNCLEAR SALES PROPOSITION
• Problems the solution addresses
are unclear
• No clear link from problem to
solution to benefit
• Solution is generic or
commoditised
• Solution focus is technology not
business
• Unclear ideal customer criteria
• Inappropriate sales channels
• Ineffective support materials
• Marketing messages vague

10. POOR SALES PROCESSES
• Customer relationships not
tracked or planned
• Ineffective account planning
• Ineffective prospecting
• Ineffective qualification
• Ineffective value propositions
• Ineffective sales proposals
• Ineffective sales reviews
• Little or no sales performance
measurement
• Lack of factual information

11. POOR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
• Contacts too low to make
decisions
• Single or low points of contact
• Seen as sales not problem
solvers
• Inability to relate at senior
levels
• Poor customer satisfaction

12. FINDING SOLUTIONS THAT WORK FOR YOU
• Interview key stakeholders
• Agree issues
• Data collection
• Agree action plan
• Agree metrics and deliverables
• Implement change programme
• Measure results

13. WHY WORK WITH ME?
• Get answers, action and results
• Help you define what isn’t working
• Independent, objective view of the
problems
• Experience to recommend pragmatic
solutions
• Capability to implement solutions as
a project
• Clearly defined objectives, metrics
and deliverables

14. MIKE MCCORMAC
About Contact
• Mike McCormac founded Sales • Connect on LinkedIn
Success and More to help • Follow on Twitter
companies selling high value
services achieve more • Email
• He has an MBA and his sales • Phone:
background includes over 15  +357 99 860725 (Mobile)
years success selling IT services  +44 (0) 20 8133 7635 (UK)
and outsourcing as a sales
executive, sales manager and
sales director
• Mike works mainly in the UK and
Cyprus