Your Linear Sales Process is Broken: The sales process is important. It wasn’t designed to answer every challenge that one faces as they pursue a deal. But in a world where the buyers are experiencing the kind of friction that Clausewitz described in warfare, the lack of information, the misinterpretation of information, and external events outside of their control, the linear process is no longer enough. Without new methodologies, you are leaving the sales force ill-equipped for the task you have given them.
You Value Opportunity Capture and Not Opportunity Creation: There is no opportunity capture until there is opportunity creation. No one prospects anymore. I’ll repeat this here for effect (I hope): No one prospects anymore. I am not kidding. There are no targets, nor are their call blocks. Nor are their pipeline meeting where the salesperson reports on the opportunities they created.
You Gave Them a SME Instead of Making Them One: Some reps now suffer under the belief that they need a subject matter expert for the most routine of all discovery calls. They rely on them to their detriment. How can one be a trusted advisor if one lacks the advice? They need to have a working knowledge and be conversational about whatever the SME knows. Let’s call it 57 percent SME, with the technical person or engineer picking up the other 43 percent.
It’s bad. And it is getting worse. Only we can change it
https://thesalesblog.com/2017/12/19/sales-leader-keeping-night/