5 Blockers preventing your sales team from selling more

Sales can be tough even in the best of times, especially for sales leaders and managers. Your performance is often judged based on your team’s performance. Then, throw in a global pandemic, sweeping budget cuts, furloughs, and a business world turned upside down, and it might feel defeating or even downright impossible to reach your goals.

According to the Hubspot 2021 Sales Enablement Report, 40% of sales leaders missed revenue targets this past year. On the other hand, the sales teams that did perform well credited: 

• Adapting their sales models
• Enabling their team with tools and technology
• Using data to focus on coachable opportunities 

Additionally, the beauty of an unprecedented event (I’m sorry, I know we’re sick of that word!) that impacted the entire global business ecosystem is that we can learn a lot, fast. So using recent reports, data, and lessons learned, we’ve put together a list of five overlooked obstacles that your sales reps may face plus actionable tips to overcome them. 

1. Not offering real value to prospects and customers

Relationship building as a part of your sales cycle is nothing groundbreaking, but the best practices on doing so do change. Creating and maintaining a relationship starts with trust and continues by being a valued partner. 

In the State of Sales report by Salesforce, 86% of sales reps cited the importance of developing long-term customer relationships. Additionally, 83% report increased importance of building trust before a sale, and 80% say trust after a sale is just as critical. In simpler terms, all signs point to trust needed throughout the customer journey.

Trust is built on a symbiotic relationship. LinkedIn’s State of Sales report found that 88% of buyers will ultimately do business with “trusted advisors.”

The bottom line: you need to offer real value to both prospects and customers. The tricky part is what’s truly valuable is different for everyone and evolves each year, so it can’t be a cookie-cutter process. 

Start asking your team questions to ensure they know how to assist and support prospects and customers. Encourage your sales reps to get creative and focus on how they can be an asset, not just another salesperson. Their approach needs to match the climate and customer.

For example: 

• Does your organization produce industry reports that might be helpful for customers? Take it one step further and don’t just send a download screen, pull out specific data or insights that might help prospects/customers, and email it to them directly. 
• What digital resources can you offer? Do you have free tools, templates, or downloads? Don’t just send it and forget it. How can you ensure that the prospect/customer understands and uses those resources? 
• Are existing customers using your product or service to their full ability? Have sales reps connect customers with your support team for routine check-ins (or, if workflow allows, let sales reps check-in themselves). A customer shouldn’t speak to you only when they have a problem. 

2. Missing out on coaching opportunities 

What are your team’s best assets? If “me” isn’t one of your first responses, then you’re doing something wrong.

Sales leaders must consistently support, mentor, bolster, and coach their team members, especially in a remote environment. We often get so caught up in the day-to-day minutia and operations that we forget a manager’s job isn’t just to manage but to teach.

In that same Hubspot report, Suzie Andrews explained, “The single most underutilized resource in any company is the sales leader. All sales leaders should align themselves to ensure they are most efficiently managing their teams. Simply said, how much time are they spending one-on-one with their reps?” 

An often-overlooked strategy is simple coaching. You got to your position as a leader for a reason; you did something right, you have experience and instincts. It’s your responsibility to consistently share that with your team. Andrews mentions a few real-world suggestions to put into practice:

• Weekly one-on-one meetings
• Pre-call and post-call planning
• Ad-hoc coaching
• Roleplaying

3. Forgetting the art of conversation  

When the pressure cooker is on, your sales reps may feel like they need to get more aggressive in their approach. However, the best relationship with any prospect or client is a real one. Real relationships start with conversations. 

Many sales reps feel they need the in-person connection to do their best work, pitch appropriately, and close deals. But, odds are, that isn’t happening anytime soon. McKinsey research shows that 70-80% of B2B decision-makers prefer remote interactions or digital self-service. Authentic connections and real dialogue can still happen virtually, but it is an art.

Take a beat to remind your team of the art of conversing. Ask them to tell you about a few recent prospect meetings and check in on whether those interactions were authentic or pushy.

Use this article as a resource to understand (and train on) the difference between conversation and hard-selling: 15 Bad Habits That Make Salespeople Seem Pushy (And How to Correct Them). 

4. Neglecting adaptability 

Adaptability is a tough skill to teach. Some individuals thrive on routines, established processes, metrics, and benchmarks. But the silver lining of the pandemic is that we all got a crash course on being agile. Whether it was shifting all your in-person meetings to virtual, perfecting the Zoom pitch, or working with marketing to create digital assets—we all got outside our comfort zone. And that’s great because rigidity might be an obstacle your sales rep didn’t know existed. 

70% of sales managers agreed the capacity to navigate change is more important today than it was five years ago. 

the linkedin state of sales report, 2020

Use this experience as a teachable moment for your team to keep adapting. When sales reps get too comfortable in their practices, they don’t know how to pivot should they meet a roadblock. Explain how 2020 made us all think outside the box, and while the pressure might slowly decrease, we should still keep that flexible mindset to innovate and navigate. 

5. Sending out stale proposals

The shift to digital means you can’t send out flat, boring PDFs to close deals and expect the same results. Most companies optimized their digital experience during the past year and that applies to everything from their website and social presence right down to—you guessed it— sales proposals. With the increased popularity of DIY design and automation tools, there’s no reason not to include interactive elements in your forms of communication, especially when you’re showing off your product or service to a prospect.  

Qwilr’s templates and platform allow you to create dynamic and unique proposals—no design experience necessary! While you can personalize every proposal for each client, the unified workflow also ensures that your team is consistent across the board with access to the latest and greatest information to include in their pitch. 

Helping your team to overcome roadblocks 

Just as the sales landscape evolves, so do the barriers your team faces. Whether it’s a lead, prospect, or customer, reps need to play the role of counselor, rather than a pushy salesperson. As their manager, your focus should be on learning and development opportunities—both formal and informal. Remember that authentic conversation drives results more than annoying touchpoints, especially when selling virtually.

Agility is the ability to think and understand quickly. And as the sales leader, agility is also removing the roadblocks, helping your reps pivot, and seeking out better ways to get the job done. Innovative tools like Qwilr, can help your brand look good, get noticed, and win more deals, regardless of the selling environment. Equip your team for sales success; book a Qwilr demo now.