• Sales Manager (SM) - As you can see, the sales are steadily declining…
  • Me - Well, yes. How long does it take to deliver?
  • SM - I’m not sure exactly. I don’t even have a CRM to track this data. Just a guess, it’ll be about 6 or 7 weeks…
  • Me - If you are unhappy with your service, imagine how unhappy your customers must be…

Selling has never been easy. But if you don’t even have the right tools available, it becomes impossible.

THE 3 CAUSES OF THE REDUCTION IN SALES

The current commoditized market is far more competitive than the previous decade, so it’s more difficult to convert, both because of the presence of many competitors and the high paradox of choice. Let’s look at the main causes of reduced sales capacity:

1) The company doesn’t know the customer’s needs

The market changes and the company must change with it. In fact, better: anticipate it. If there is no process for the company’s continuous alignment with the market, the value proposition marketed by your own product/service becomes asynchronous to customer needs, and sales decline until they are effectively wiped out.

2) Salespeople don’t know the value proposition

Ask any sales rep/salesperson: what do you sell? Statistically, they’ll tell you they sell a product or service with the goal of generating revenue. In the pre-commoditization period, this was the case because the demand was almost monopolized due to the low number of competitors—not because of the best value proposition among different companies (there weren’t “different companies”).

Now, everyone sells everything, so the buyer’s choice depends on the best perceived value proposition.

3) Performance is poor compared to competitors

You want to buy a transformer and ask for offers from three suppliers: one delivers in 5 weeks, another in 3 weeks, and the third in 1 week. Equivalent quality and prices. Who do you choose? Obviously the fastest option. The same assessment is made by your customers who, unlike you, can also see offers from other companies, while your limit of comparison is defined by the walls of the company or its external fence.

The productivity of companies varies a lot and is generally trending downward, so if your organization isn’t among the top on the list, it will very likely be rejected and many offers won’t convert.


SOLUTION

Based on our experience from the many interventions carried out on the sales process in companies of any sector—product or service—we’ve seen economic and operational benefits many times greater than improvement activities in other processes, such as production, logistics, maintenance, etc.

This is because the sales process is generally entrusted to company management, where it’s therefore much more difficult to change processes and operating mindset, especially if management is made up of the owners.

However, if this opportunity is offered, the increase in sales is substantial and sometimes even embarrassing compared to previous performance levels, both in terms of revenue as well as profitability. These important results are made possible by:

  • the use of the BMC+SOB method;
  • innovation of the business model;
  • targeted pricing strategies;
  • standardization of the sales process, with periodic coordination meetings, KPIs, goals, bonuses, and cross-functional versatility of salespeople;
  • digitalization of the process with CRM and data-integration software;
  • coaching and training in neuromarketing and emotional intelligence.

The solutions are there—you just need to apply them to your sales office!