One of the biggest things overlooked by sales people in a sales campaign is the prospect’s relationship with their current provider of products/services you also sell. Even though their business relationship might not be the greatest, it is still easier and less risky to do business with existing providers rather than changing to you. Everyday businesses buy products/services that are not necessarily the best solution, accept inferior service, or pay higher prices because it is “comfortable.”

Over the years I've had an opportunity to work for, and now coach, many sales managers. Most of them were great sales people that were promoted to sales managers based on their sales success, not because they would be good leaders. As you might already suspect, many were not successful leaders in spite of their desire to be one. In this article I will address the biggest reason for lack of success and how to overcome it.

What is the most common problem you address in developing sales leaders?

In a down economy, the power in negotiating price moves to the buyer. It is typically called a "buyer's market." In a buyer's market, sales people need to be experts in executing early sales cycle discovery to effectively negotiate a favorable price at the end of the sale.

Additional challenges in a down economy include:

Business people who receive phone calls from sales people have provided me with insight about what gets their attention and what irritates them. In a down economy, fewer businesses are buying products and services and more sales people are competing for those few opportunities. In addition, with all the staff cutbacks the remaining people have little time to speak with sales people.

What sales people do that wastes business people's time:

Our job as leaders is to accomplish our goals and objectives by developing other people. This requires coaching them until they are able to stand on their own. Every time there is a change in the world, economy, or the company you are required to coach your team until the new skills needed for success are part of their everyday behavior.

Here are three tips for effective coaching:

1. Invest the majority of your coaching time with your "B" players.

Most people agree that if you want to accomplish something in life, it's best to have a plan. When you are attending college for a degree, you plan how many credits you need and what classes you need to take. You plan vacations, birthday celebrations, weddings, buying a house, and many other "life events." It only makes sense that you should plan how to grow your sales.

Problem:

Even though planning makes sense, very few companies actually plan for sales growth other than setting a target income goal. In fact, many companies spend more time planning sales outings than planning their sales goals. Setting an income goal is not the same as planning how to reach that goal. Additionally, other things need to be considered:

Lead generation makes most people think of spending hours on the phone convincing people to talk to you, and schedule an appointment to meet with you to hear about your products and services. It is a labor intensive numbers game that sales people hate doing, and prospects hate the interruption.

Goal of Lead Generation:

The goal of lead generation is to identify ideal prospects for our products and services then develop them into sales-ready leads.

Challenge:

Traditional cold calling is more difficult now do to electronic phone systems, Caller ID, and voice mail which helps prospects screen calls. Ironically managers who prod us to make more calls screen cold callers from reaching them.

Tough economic times tend to reveal weaknesses in our businesses. Successful companies take this opportunity to identify and address barriers that affect their business growth.

In my consulting with clients I have identified seven barriers that most impact your sales growth:

1. Unclear business value

Communicating your business value to your customers is top priority. Customers want to know, "What value will I gain by using your company vs. your competition?" If you can't communicate value, then the only thing to compete on is price.

2. No plan