Sometimes, the best salespeople have slumps. Here’s how to break out.
You’ve tried to avoid it. You’ve been positive. You’re making your calls. Your attitude is great, and you believe in your company, your product, your management, your support staff, and yourself. You’re doing all the right things. But, it’s impossible to miss the signs. You’re sliding down the sales ranking board in your office. It’s been so long since you’ve written any business that your order pad has moss on the north side. Your manager just grunts when he sees you. Let’s face it–you’re in a sales slump.
Slumps happen to nearly all salespeople–good, bad, or indifferent. The reasons that they happen are as varied as the people who have them, but they’re a truth of the profession. For some, it’s a learning experience that takes them to a whole new level as a salesperson. For some, it’s a soul-crushing experience that spells the end of their sales career. For you, it can be the best, the worst, or something in-between, and it all depends on how you handle it. Today, we’re going to talk about some common causes of sales slumps and the best ways to overcome each cause. How do I know? Because I’ve been there.
Cause #1: You’ve lost your customer focus. More slumps are caused – and prolonged – by this reason than by any other. When salespeople sell the same product or service for a long time, they get used to hearing the same answers to the same questions. Over a long enough period of time, salespeople will “assume” certain needs on the part of the customer. These needs may or may not be part of the customer’s overall picture, but because the salesperson is such a veteran, they assume. Then they forget to ask key questions. Then they miss buying motivations and signals. The end result is that they end up presenting things that the customer doesn’t want or need, in an effort to be more efficient by “skipping to the selling.” Customers don’t buy, and salespeople don’t sell. In a slump, this worsens. Salespeople start thinking ONLY of the sale, and walk in pitching product or service, rather than discovering needs. It’s a vicious cycle.
The Fix: Go back to basics. Treat every customer need as if it’s the first time you’ve ever heard it, and carefully walk through your questioning before presenting recommendations. Your customers will suddenly become interested and engaged again, and you’ll sell.
Cause #2: You’ve gotten lazy. There’s no kind way to say this, so I’ll just say it: Salespeople can get comfortable at a level of achievement, and coast on current customers. Prospecting and funnel-filling (never on the top of a salesperson’s “favorite things” list) get dropped to the side, and the salesperson convinces himself that he’s working as hard as he can – on current volume. The funnel empties. Customer volume slacks off, and suddenly, productivity is down. The salesperson then invests MORE time in current customers, hoping to generate internal growth. When it doesn’t happen, he’s in trouble.
The Fix: Fill your funnel. Devote extra time to prospecting, networking, phone work – whatever you have to do to get new prospects in the funnel QUICKLY. Get back in the game.
Cause #3: You’ve gotten stale. Closely related to #1, but a little different. Being stale has more to do with your own presentation, rather than your discovery. Again, this has to do with salespeople who have sold the same thing long enough that they no longer find it interesting. Features and benefits become dry recitation of facts, and no enthusiasm can be found. Customers don’t get excited either, and they buy from other salespeople. Many times, the other salespeople are less skilled with lower quality products, but they’re more excited about them. Customers feed off enthusiasm. If you’ve lost yours, you’re either in a slump or headed for one.
The Fix: Get excited, soldier. Find whatever it was about your product or service that got you excited in the first place, and use it. Alternatively, use your own creativity to come up with a new way of presenting old products that you can have some fun with. Either way, you have to make yourself exciting and interesting on sales calls. If you can’t do that, change companies or change professions.
Cause #4: There are changes in the marketplace. This one is probably the least common cause of slumps, but it should be considered. Sometimes, seismic shifts occur nearly overnight that can cripple companies who don’t adapt – or who adapt slowly. The best example of this is the foreign car invasion of the ’70s, which coincided with a lowering of American automotive quality. Initially, the Big Three laid the blame at dealers and salespeople who were suffering as consumers chose Hondas over Pintos and Vegas. Clearly, it wasn’t the fault of the dealers or their salespeople. Most market shifts, however, aren’t this radical and don’t require this much correction. Maybe it’s something simple. Has one of your competitors changed their offering, or the way they present it? Has a new salesperson been hired by your competitor, and they’re kicking your butt? If they’ve raised their game, it’s time to raise yours. The value proposition that sounded great a month ago may not be so good right now.
The Fix: Talk to customers who bought from a competitor instead of you. Ask good, detailed questions regarding their decision process. If you lost on your value proposition, it’s time to reevaluate it. If you just got outsold, it’s time to tune up your game.
Cause #5: The numbers aren’t playing out right. Believe it or not, this is probably the most common cause. Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that you sell one out of every five customers that you call on. Your normal week has you seeing ten customers, so you should sell two.
Remember, though, that you’re anticipating eight no-sales in a week. What if, by luck of the draw, you hit a run of customers for two or three weeks that don’t buy (the “sales” just don’t come in)? It happens, and it’s probably the start of more slumps than all the other causes put together. Suddenly, you look around, and it’s been 3-4 weeks since you made a sale. So, you start pressing. Instead of doing a good discovery, you’re moving more quickly toward the Presentation – and you’re missing customer needs. Now, by pressing, you’re into Cause #1. And Fix #1 will fix it.
The Fix: Stay cool. This is one slump that can be nipped in the bud before it moves to Cause #1, just by carefully analyzing your calls and making sure that you’re still doing the right things the right way. Like the batter in baseball who suddenly goes 0 for 20 because his line drives happen to be hit right at fielders, concentrating on your fundamentals will get you out of this one before it deepens.
As I said, slumps can be tough. I’ve been there, so if you’re in a slump, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. In addition to the fixes above, you should use all the resources available to get out of it. Have your manager go with you on some calls –or, if possible, have a non-slumping rep accompany you. Maybe they can find areas where you’re dropping the ball. Watch videos, listen to tapes, read books. Alternatively, when you go home for a weekend, make a conscious effort not to think about selling at all. Clear your head, come to work with a new focus, and look through the causes above.
What does not end your sales career makes you a much stronger salesperson.
