Briefcase Booklet

The Sales Manager’s Guide to

Why
Salespeople
Fail

Discover the top 13 reasons

why your sales team may not
be hitting their targets
The Sales Manager’s Guide to

Why Salespeople Fail

By Brian Jeffrey, CSP

(a.k.a. The Sales Wizard)

© 2000 Brian Jeffrey. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced or
distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system,
without the previous permission of the author who can be contacted at 613-839-7355.
Table of Contents

Preface ........................................................................................ 5

Chapter 1
If Selling Were Easy, Everyone Would be Doing It ................... 7

Chapter 2
Not Everyone is Suited for Sales ............................................ 10

Chapter 3
Getting Them Started on the Right Foot ............................... 13

Chapter 4
Why Salespeople Fail — A Baker’s Dozen .............................. 15
4 Why Salespeople Fail

Preface

Brian Jeffrey, CSP*

a.k.a. The Sales Wizard

In my over 30 years as a salesperson, sales manager, consultant, and

sales trainer, I’ve seen many people come and go from the sales profes-
sion. Some shouldn’t have been in sales in the first place, while others
didn’t have the drive, desire, and the discipline required to succeed.

Many of those who failed shouldn’t have. And if someone (a good sales
manager?) had come along at the right time, with the right help, some
of these people would still be productive salespeople today.

This Briefcase Booklet has three purposes: (1) If you’re a manager

charged with getting the most from your people and want to help them
succeed (as in avoid failure), this booklet is full of potential solutions
for the problems that cause failure. (2) If you’re a salesperson wanting
to avoid failure, this booklet will be your guide through the sales mine-
field. (3) The third purpose is purely self-serving — we hope it will pique
your interest in the services and products offered by SalesForce Train-
ing & Consulting Inc.

I hope the ideas, tips and techniques offered in this booklet will help
you and your salespeople not only avoid failure but succeed and make a
difference!

(*Certified Sales Professional)

6 Why Salespeople Fail

1
If Selling Were Easy,
Everyone Would be Doing It

A lot of people get into sales because they think it’s an easy way
to make a living. If selling were easy everybody would be doing
it. The fact of the matter is that selling—professional selling—
isn’t easy. Selling is hard and, unfortunately, because it’s hard
too may people who are in sales are doing it badly.

Old Saying
Sales and salespeople are important to the
survival of a business. The old saying, noth-
ing happens until somebody sells something, The Sales
simply isn’t true. One thing that can happen Wizard Says…
is bankruptcy. Another thing is that you get The old saying,
to renew old acquaintances with suppliers “nothing happens
and bank managers who want to know what until somebody sells
you’re up to. And you may get to meet new something,” simply
people called trustees and bailiffs. All kinds isn’t true.
of things happen when your salespeople fail
to do what you hire them to do—sell.

Good News/Bad News

Selling can be very rewarding. In fact, 65 percent of people earn-
ing over $80,000 are in sales and 80 percent of the people earning
over $30,000 are in sales. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the average salesperson’s income is
less than $20,000. How can an occupation that pays so much
also pay so little? Something’s not right here.
Why Salespeople Fail 7

What’s not right is that too many people are calling them-
selves salespeople while not knowing how to sell, not doing very
well at it, and consequently not making much money. These are
the people who give selling a bad name.

Profession or Trade
Let’s face it, sales is not a profession and probably never will be.
At least not in my lifetime. I have come to this sad conclusion
after many years of believing that it was and telling participants
in my sales training programs that they should be proud to be a
member of the “profession.”
If you’re reading this book, you’ve probably made sales a
career choice, consider yourself a professional, and are among
those of us who lament the fact that, despite our best efforts and
intense wishes, salespeople are still looked down upon by the
population at large.
While I still feel strongly that there are a lot of professional
salespeople in the world, that’s different from being a “profes-
sion.” Let me explain:
• Unlike most professions such as medicine, law, engineer-
ing, etc., selling doesn’t have a self-appointed body to
oversee and monitor our activities.
• Selling has no formally defined code of ethics for us to
believe in, adhere to and enforce.
• Selling has no formal, or informal, educational require-
ments. Anyone can call himself or herself a salesperson
(and too many do).
• Apart from the Canadian Professional Sales Association
in Canada and the International Association of Sales
Professionals in the U.S., we have no national or interna-
tional body to champion our cause, whatever that might
be, or to lobby on our behalf.
• We don’t proudly wear any badge of office like many of
the professions do (the engineer’s ring, the doctor’s
white lab coat and stethoscope, the lawyer’s robes, etc.).
So, if selling isn’t a profession, could we at least consider it a
trade—like being a skilled plumber, electrician, or mechanic? I’m
afraid not!
8 Why Salespeople Fail

While there are a lot of people who can do plumbing, electri-

cal work, or fix a car, the people who have earned the right to
truly call themselves plumbers, electricians, or auto mechanics
have all had to complete a prescribed educational program, serve
an apprenticeship under the wing of a seasoned member of the
trade, and be formally licensed by the government before they
can officially call themselves a member of their trade. There are
no such criteria for salespeople.

Get Certified
Both the International Association of Sales Professionals in the
U.S. and the Canadian Professional Sales Association in Canada
have been championing certification programs in their respec-
tive countries. I strongly applaud and support these efforts. In
fact, I’ve gone through the CPSA certification process myself
and I’m proud to add the CSP initials after my name.
Unfortunately, I feel these programs are not likely to succeed
until companies actively encourage their salespeople to become
certified and employers start giving preference to certified sales-
people by making certification a part of their hiring criteria.
Why Salespeople Fail 9

2
Not Everyone Is
Suited for Sales

Hiring the Wrong Person

One of the major causes of failure among salespeople is that they
shouldn’t have been hired as a salesperson in the first place. Not
everyone is suited for sales and the process of pounding a square
peg into a round hole usually damages both the peg and the hole.
As I mention on page nine of my book, The Sales Wizard’s
Secrets of Sales Management, one of the most critical functions
you perform as a sales manager is putting together the sales team.
The right people, working together, can make business life a pleas-
ure. On the other hand, hire the wrong people and your life can
become hell.

Hire Smart
If you want a salesperson, hire a salesperson, not someone with
no track record of sales success of some kind. Take your time to
hire the best you can afford. The cost of a hiring mistake can be
crippling. Why hire salespeople who are likely to fail?
Too many managers fall into the trap of
hiring the first or second warm body that comes The Sales
along in order to fill the open slot. Bad policy. Wizard Says…
There’s an old adage in sports that says “A” Be careful of who
coaches hire “A” players, and “B” coaches hire and what you hire.
“C” players. When this happens in the sales
department, and the “B” sales manager hires
“C” salespeople, he soon complains about business being bad.
It’s not always the business that’s bad; it’s often the salespeople.
10 Why Salespeople Fail

For the best results, stop hiring potential failures and start
hiring winners. Be an “A” sales manager who hires “A” salespeo-
ple.

Hiring the Wrong Type of Person

The next major hiring mistake is assuming that one size fits all
and that everybody can sell everything. This is like pounding an
oval peg into the round hole; it almost fits but not quite. These
“almost fits” result in the salesperson being set up for failure.
There is no doubt that there are some salespeople who can
sell anything to anybody but these people are far and few be-
tween. Successful salespeople tend to gravitate towards selling
products and services they know, like, and are comfortable with.
When hiring salespeople, look for people with experience in
your particular area or closely allied areas. In other words, peo-
ple who are currently doing the same types of selling as you want
done. Going too far afield may cause you to hire a potential fail-
ure.

Making a Match
In my research over the past 20 years, I’ve identified 18 types of
selling styles—including two that really shouldn’t be in sales at
all—along with 30 types of sales situations.
Not one of the 18 selling styles is suitable for all 30 types of
sales situations but some are a better fit than others. For exam-
ple, a person who is likely to be good at team selling, the soft sell,
long-term sale, consultative/relationship sale, etc., is not well
suited for the hard-sell, cold-call, low-price/high-volume sales en-
vironment. By the same token, the individual who is well suited
for opening new accounts, doing cold calls, and handling short,
turnaround sales is not well suited for developing long-term op-
portunities within government or major accounts. You get the
idea.

Improve Your Odds

While there’s no foolproof way of finding top sales performers,
I’ve developed an inexpensive, cost-effective instrument called the
Why Salespeople Fail 11

Sales Temperament Assessment (see page 42) that can help sales
managers make a better match between the person and the job.
The report will tell you what the person’s primary selling style is,
the strengths he or she brings to the job, the areas for concern
plus give you an independent opinion on how suitable the indi-
vidual is for sales in general and your sales situation in particu-
lar.
Will the Sales Temperament Assessment assure you of hiring
a winner? Wish I could say yes. It’s certainly better than putting
your hand into a bag of rattlesnakes hoping to pull out a mon-
goose! What the assessment will do is increase your odds of not
hiring a potential failure.
12 Why Salespeople Fail

3
Getting Them Started
on the Right Foot

After the Hiring Dance is Over

You can minimize failures by maximizing the chances of success
with new hires. You do that by getting them started off on the
right foot. In my book The Sales Wizard’s Secrets of Sales Man-
agement, an entire chapter is devoted to “Breaking in the New
Salesperson.” In it, I point out that the most popular excuse for
not providing a proper orientation and training for a new sales-
person is lack of time.
Sales managers are already very busy, many to the point of
overload. The arrival of a new salesperson on your doorstep just
adds to the load. Consequently, many sales managers often fall
into the trap of simply handing piles of product literature and
catalogues to the individual, giving him a pat on the back, and
telling him to “Go-get-’em, Tiger.”
The new salesperson takes an unguided tour through this
pile of product mush, trying to remember key points that he prays
will be of interest to someone, somewhere. And
then he wanders off in the hopes of finding
someone to “sell” to. Is it any wonder that The Sales
these new hires don’t work out as well as the Wizard Says…
sales manager had hoped? If you don’t know
Some organizations use the less than in- where you’re going,
any road will take
novative “B-L-B” training technique
you there.
(blind-leading-the-blind) where the new hire
is teamed up with one of the more seasoned
people who promptly passes on most or all of his or her bad hab-
its. An alternate approach is to send the new person out with
Why Salespeople Fail 13

two or three different people, ensuring that the new hire becomes
thoroughly confused.

Train Survivors or Train to Survive

Mind you, I prefer the B-L-B technique to the “swimming pool”
training technique where the philosophy is, “Let’s drop him into
the deep end of the pool and see if he comes up.” Some kind of
training, even poorly executed training, is better than none. At
least it shows you care.
Some managers like to train only survivors. They allow new
salespeople to flounder around for a couple of weeks or months.
During that time, the sales manager provides minimum direc-
tion and assistance (after all, he’s already too busy putting out
many fires). If the new recruit survives, the company will then
provide some training. It’s like sending a new soldier into battle
without showing him how to shoot and then providing target
practice if he comes back. The odds of survival are low.
Doesn’t it make more sense to give your new salespeople a
fighting chance by providing them with the tools and the train-
ing they need to survive up front, not after they’ve become dis-
couraged?

Get Them Up to Speed

The biggest payoff in providing training for your new salesper-
son is also the hardest to evaluate or put a dollar value on. A
properly trained salesperson can become productive months
sooner than one who is simply let loose into the world and ex-
pected to fend for himself. Unfortunately, there’s no way to de-
termine how fast or how slow a new salesperson will come up to
speed if you don’t provide training. But trust me, a week in-
vested at the front end for training can often trim months off
the naturally unproductive efforts of new salespeople, even
experienced ones, and helps avoid premature failure.
14 Why Salespeople Fail

4
Why Salespeople Fail
— A Baker’s Dozen

If the following 13 reasons were the only ones that caused sales-
people to fail, we’d be home free. Unfortunately, they are just
the tip of the iceberg, the ones that happen most often.
Some of them, like “hiring smart,” fall into the sales manag-
er’s area of responsibility while others belong in the salesper-
son’s domain. Understanding the reasons why salespeople fail
and knowing what you can do about them is the first step to
helping your people succeed.
The following reasons are not presented in any particular
order. One or more of these situations could occur at any given
time and cause a salesperson to teeter on the brink of failure.
Your job as sales manager is to make sure the person doesn’t
topple over the edge and take the rest of the sales team with him.

#1 - Lack of Organizational Skills

Most salespeople, including me, are born with a birth defect —
the organizational gene in our DNA stream is missing. We will
resist all attempts to be organized or to get organized. We also
resist any attempts on the part of others to organize us.
Having said all that, smart (and successful) salespeople know
and appreciate the value of being organized and will work hard,
if only occasionally, at staying organized. I use quarterly organi-
zational frenzies to stay on top of things. It works for me.

Lack of direction
Some salespeople are like leaves blowing in the wind. When they
Why Salespeople Fail 15

walk out the door in the morning, they blow

The Sales off in whatever direction the wind takes them.
Wizard Says… Sometimes they blow into the office, sometimes
If you fail to plan, they blow into a customer, and sometimes they
you plan to fail. blow into the coffee shop where all the other
disorganized salespeople have drifted.
Successful salespeople plan their day, their week, and some
plan their month and quarter. They’re on top of their territory,
their customers, and their opportunities. If you’ve got a sales-
person that can’t tell you where she intends to go today, you’ve
got a problem and a potential failure. If the salesperson doesn’t
plan on going somewhere, she’s going nowhere.
There’s an old saying: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Some salespeople plan to fail on a daily basis!

What to do:
1. Provide your salespeople with time-management training and
tools.
2. Make sure your salespeople all use some form of organizer/
appointment system. If possible, have all your people use
the same system.
3. Ask your salespeople to turn in a weekly plan and keep doing
it until you have helped them develop the habit. Pull sur-
prise inspections from time to time. Ask your salespeople to
send you a copy of last week’s plan, the one they were sup-
posed to have done. It keeps them on their toes. (Note: it can
also aggravate them as well!)
4. If your sales operation isn’t already computerized, start mov-
ing in that direction. There are lots of good CRM programs
on the market today (Customer Relationship Management
— the latest term for sales automation). Computerization is
no longer something that would be nice to have; it’s become
necessary for business survival.

#2 - Not Making Enough Calls

One of the major causes of this problem is reason number one
above. Because salespeople are disorganized, they waste time
looking for things (like the door out of the office), handling low-
priority situations, and socializing.
16 Why Salespeople Fail

The other major cause of this problem is that salespeople

have no idea how many calls they should be making in order to
reach their sales target.

The prospecting pipeline The Sales

Wizard Says…
Here’s a fast way to calculate the size of a
salesperson’s prospecting pipeline. Let’s as- Know the size of your
prospecting pipeline.
sume a salesperson’s annual sales target is
$1,000,000 and an average sale is $10,000.
That means the salesperson must make 100 sales in order to
reach quota. If his closing ratio is 30 percent (a closing ratio of 3
in 10 is considered reasonably respectable, depending upon the
selling environment), then the salesperson must have at least
334 prospects to sell to over the course of the year (100 divided
by 30 percent).
Now, assuming the salesperson will be working 50 weeks of
the year, he will have to dig up about seven new opportunities
each week (334 divided by 50) if he is going to keep his prospect-
ing pipeline flowing at a minimum rate. In fact, 50 weeks is a
somewhat optimistic number when you consider time spent at
trade shows, in meetings, and other miscellaneous time-consum-
ing endeavours. Thirty-five weeks is probably more realistic
which means our salesperson needs to find nine or more new
opportunities each week (334 divided by 35).
Every week that passes without a new opportunity being
uncovered can put the salesperson farther and farther behind
and grease the skids to failure.

What to do:
1. Make sure your people know the size of their prospecting
pipeline.
2. If appropriate, ask your salespeople to turn in a list of new
sales opportunities they’ve uncovered every week or month.
3. Ask your salespeople to keep a count of their daily sales calls.
This process of self-monitoring often produces astounding
results.
4. Remove the internal obstacles that reduce the number of
calls they can make (i.e. too many meetings, etc.).
Why Salespeople Fail 17

#3 - Lack of Motivation/Enthusiasm
Selling isn’t easy and most salespeople ride an emotional roller
coaster. They will go up and down more times in a day than most
people do in a month. You leave one sale on a high only to get a
door slammed in your face (figuratively speaking) at the next
call. A 30 percent closing ratio means you’re going to get three
“nos” before you get a sale. And that’s on a good day! No wonder
motivation and enthusiasm sags at times.

Don’t demotivate
Sometimes sales managers are the cause of reduced motivation.
We chide instead of support, we harangue instead of coach, and
our sales meetings (if we even have them) are inquisitions in-
stead of inspirational. I talk about this in chapter six of my book,
the title of which is (in case you’ve forgotten) The Sales Wizard’s
Secrets of Sales Management.
I point out that face-to-face sales meetings are the best way
for communicating with your salespeople. Telephone, e-mail,
voice mail and paper are secondary mediums. A well-run meeting
can be a very motivating and invigorating event. Unfortunately,
most sales meetings are not well run. They have all the motivating
aspects of a funeral service and can be downright depressing,
particularly if they turn into finger-pointing and bitching sessions.
Nobody starts out to have a poor sales meet-
The Sales ing. But, like many other things, if you don’t
know what you should be doing, there’s a high
Wizard Says…
probability of doing it wrong.
Understand what
motivates each of When properly executed, the sales meeting
your salespeople. is a two-way communication medium that helps
keep problems to a minimum and builds team
spirit. Potential problems can be brought into
the open before they become too big. While the sales meeting
doesn’t eliminate problems, it sure can help catch them before
they catch you. And if everyone is involved in the solution-finding
process, there’s a sense of teamwork.
I recognize that it is not your responsibility as a sales man-
ager to motivate the team, but it is your responsibility to create
a working environment that enhances people’s self-motivation.
People who are self-motivated are often enthusiastic, and enthu-
18 Why Salespeople Fail

siastic salespeople rarely fail. They just bounce from one success
to the next and take the down swings in their stride.

Build morale
Overall morale is a key factor in creating a motivational envi-
ronment. In chapter eight on “Building and Maintaining Mo-
rale” (yep, same book, The Sales Wizard’s Secrets of Sales Man-
agement), I point out that there are two times when morale within
an organization is high. One is when everything is going well
and sales are rolling in. The other is when everything is going
bad and sales are just dribbling in, but no one realizes it yet! In
the first case it’s important to make sure that morale stays high.
In the second case it’s critical. When times and sales are good,
it’s easy to keep morale high. Almost anyone can do it. During
difficult times, however, it’s harder to do and that’s when leaders,
not just managers, are required.
In difficult times, the accounts receivable staff are usually
the first to know. Word spreads quickly to other employees via
the grapevine, often before management or the business owner
knows what’s happening. Before you know it, a pall hangs over
the organization. As soon as it hits the sales department, the
sales go from bad to worse and morale drops another notch.
Too often, management drops like a ton of bricks on to the
salespeople with predictable results — panic. Or management
puts on a brave face hoping their people will be fooled into think-
ing everything is all right. This is not the time to place a wall of
silence between management and staff. It’s the time for open
and frank communication. Unsubstantiated rumours will destroy
morale quicker than the worst truth.
Remember, the word “motivate” stems from the words mo-
tive and activate. People become activated for their own motives,
not someone else’s. Your challenge is to understand what some
of these motives are and to capitalize on them to activate your
sales team into the kind of action that will achieve the desired
results.

What to do:
1. Understand what motivates each of your people and help
them see their goals as being achievable.
Why Salespeople Fail 19

2. Make sure your sales meetings build morale and motivation.

3. Reward enthusiasm.
4. Set the pace. Be enthusiastic yourself. Don’t expect your peo-
ple to rise above you. If you’re not enthusiastic, they sure as
heck won’t be.

#4 - Failing to Qualify
Too many salespeople would rather spend time with a poor (or
non) prospect than no prospect at all. Consequently they end up
wasting time talking to people who have no intention of buying.
In our office, we refer to this kind of prospect as a PWOT (poten-
tial waste of time).
Presenting your product or service to people who have no
real interest or need is poor use of a salesperson’s time. Some
salespeople think they’re doing their job by just talking to pros-
pects about their product/service. They don’t realize that their
job is to talk to people who will buy their product/service.

Telling isn’t selling

Salespeople need to qualify a prospect before launching into a
presentation. This means they have to ask questions, which is
something most of them seem loath to do. Heck, I’d be delighted
if I could get most salespeople to even ask for the prospect’s name!
Too many still try to talk their way to a sale instead of asking
enough questions to properly qualify the prospect and then sell
to the prospect’s needs.
More sales are made by listening than talking. The problem
is that most salespeople don’t know what questions to ask, so
when they run out of what few questions they have, they do what
they do best — talk.

Talk to the MAN

In the old days I used to teach salespeople that if they wanted to
make a sale they had to talk to the MAN. They had to talk to the
person with the:
Money
Authority, and the
Need
20 Why Salespeople Fail

In this age of sales sophistication, it’s no longer appropriate

to simply talk to the MAN in order to qualify a prospect. First of
all, talking to the MAN is sexist and politically incorrect and,
second, it won’t get you all the information you need to truly
qualify the prospect. Nowadays you have to talk to the COW-
MAN.
Whenever someone asks me what a COWMAN is, I usually
tell them that a COWMAN is what a cowboy wants to be when
he grows up! (I know, I know, it’s a bad joke!)
In our ProSell sales training workshop (see page 40), we teach
salespeople how to talk to the COWMAN. Of course, COWMAN
is an acronym that reminds us of the areas of questioning that
need to be covered if we are to really qualify a prospect. It stands
for:
Competition: Who else is in the race?
Organization & Other person: Building rapport—getting to
know the prospect and the prospect’s organization.
When: Timing/Urgency — when to expect the purchase.
Money: Can they afford the solution?
Authority: Who is the ultimate decision maker?
Need: Is there a need for the product/service?

Sales malpractice
A salesperson who sells before qualifying is like a doctor who
writes a prescription before making a diagnosis. Not a good idea!
There are two other problems to watch for when qualifying:
asking closed questions instead of open-ended ones, and not lev-
ering off the prospect’s answers.
Instead of asking, “Have you had any problems with…” ask,
“What problems have you had with …”.
When salespeople ask closed questions, they often end up
with monosyllabic answers (yes, no) or the occasional polysyllabic
answer (maybe) rather than an answer that is rich in the detail
you need.
Asking questions that begin with who, what, when, where,
why, how, and tell me usually result in longer answers that give
them another piece of the puzzle as to what the prospect really
Why Salespeople Fail 21

wants and why he or she wants it. This is the information we

need to make a sale.

Inquiry or inquisition?
If the salesperson fails to lever off the answers and just asks his
questions as though he’s taking a survey, the Probe (qualifying)
part of the sale can turn into an interrogation instead of a di-
rected conversation. Allowing the answers to a question to lead
naturally to other questions shows the prospect you’re paying
attention and going with the flow rather than trying to swim
upstream towards the prospect’s wallet.

What to do:
1. Coach your salespeople to spend adequate time listening to
the prospect before starting to sell.
2. Develop a set of open-ended, need-based questions (the N in
COWMAN).
3. Make sure your people have at least one question they are
comfortable using from each of the other five question areas
(COWMA).
4. Consider using a call checklist to ensure all the required in-
formation is collected.

#5 - Poor Product Knowledge

I had a less-than-wonderful shopping experience a while ago. I
was looking for a weed whacker to deal with the vast amount of
unwanted foliage that grows around my house.
So there I was, facing a large display with units ranging in
price from $89 to over $300, trying to determine the differences
that justified the various prices. I had read the descriptions on
the boxes and was getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of
information. Just then, a sales clerk came along and asked if he
could help. Aha, I thought, I’m saved! “Sure can,” I replied.
“What’s the difference between all these whackers?”
The sales clerk then picked up a box and proceeded to read
the description to me as though I was an illiterate who couldn’t
read English. I pointed out that I had already read the boxes and
what I was looking for was additional information to help justify
22 Why Salespeople Fail

the various prices. I was foolishly hoping for some value-added

service from this person. Needless to say, I was disappointed. He
ended up being even less helpful than the store’s catalogue which
had better information.
Like many other wannabee salespeople, this fellow was suf-
fering from poor product knowledge. He knew what the product
was and what it did (facts and features) but wasn’t able to trans-
late this into useful information for me (benefits). He couldn’t
answer the simple question that goes through so many prospect’s
minds, “Why should I buy this product or service?”
Salespeople who are on their way to fail-
ure forget that prospects listen to radio sta-
tion WIFM-FM — What’s In It For Me-For The Sales
Me! They forget that if they don’t broadcast Wizard Says…
on their prospect’s frequency, they’re not go-
Make sure you
ing to get the message. broadcast on your
Salespeople fail because they don’t take prospect’s frequency.
the time to really know their products, the
difference between different versions of these products, and the
difference between their products and competitive ones.

What to do:
1. Make sure your salespeople know how to qualify a prospect
so they know what “frequency” the prospect is listening to.
2. Provide your salespeople with a list of key features AND ben-
efits for all your major products or services.
3. Make sure your people know why some products are differ-
ent from others, both yours and your competitors.

#6 - Poor Sales Presentations

There are two major reasons (and a plethora of minor ones) why
salespeople make poor sales presentations that can ultimately
lead to their failure.
The first is that their sales presentation is so far off the target
that the prospect stops listening or starts bringing up all kinds of
objections. This is usually the result of not properly qualifying the
prospect and simply launching into a preprogrammed (canned)
pitch. As soon as a prospect suspects you’re giving him the same
Why Salespeople Fail 23

old presentation you give everyone else, his attention and inter-
est quickly die off.

Sell what THEY want

Another reason this can happen is that the salesperson falls in
love with some particular feature and feels compelled to tell the
prospect all about it regardless of the prospect’s interest.
A couple of years ago, when I was trying (very trying!) to buy a
van, the salesperson asked me if I ever towed anything (an at-
tempt at qualifying?). After I told him that I have a pick-up truck
that I use for that kind of thing and wouldn’t need to use the van
for towing, the salesperson launched into a sales pitch about how
this particular van had a towing package, heavy duty suspension,
extra oil cooler, etc. Excuse me! Is anyone home! Didn’t he hear me
say I wouldn’t need the van for towing? The guy’s credibility
dropped a notch and he took one step towards failure, at least as
far as this sale was concerned.
Are your salespeople providing appropriate information to
their prospects or are they just talking to hear themselves talk?
If it’s the latter, they’re on the road to failure.
The second reason for poor presentations is lack of content.
Some salespeople have the ability to use a lot of words to say very
little. Once again, some of this problem comes from not properly
qualifying the prospect and not knowing exactly what they should
be saying to capture the prospect’s attention and interest.

Give them something to chew on

The sales presentation becomes a watered-down, highly diluted
dissertation of facts and features that fail to connect with the
prospect’s real needs. Salespeople miss the mark when they give
general information to a person who has specific needs.
One way to avoid giving meaningless in-
The Sales formation is to make sure that the informa-
Wizard Says… tion given always answers the prospect’s un-
spoken question, “So what?”
Make sure your
salespeople always During our van-buying episode, our
answer the prospect’s aforementioned auto salesperson gave us a
unspoken question wonderful example of how to do it wrong. He
“so what.” pointed out that the van had seven coats of
24 Why Salespeople Fail

paint. When asked “What does that mean to me,” which is a

polite way of saying “So what,” he responded with “I don’t know,
but they told us to say that.” Now there’s a salesperson that
really knows his product!
Do your salespeople know the “so whats” about what they
are selling? Remember, people buy meaty words, not watery sen-
tences.

What to do:
1. Make sure your salespeople don’t fall so much in love with
what they’re selling that they fail to make a connection be-
tween the product/service benefits and the prospect’s needs.
2. Spend time in your sales meetings helping your people de-
velop the habit of converting facts and features into benefits
on the fly.
3. Make sure your people always answer the question, “So
what?” when presenting their product/service to a prospect.

#7 - Poor Prospecting Skills

Salespeople who are on their way to failure feel that they don’t
have to prospect, that new sales opportunities (prospects) will
just walk through door or call on the telephone, and all they
have to do is wait. This is true in some cases, notably the retail
sales environment, but isn’t true for most business-to-business
selling situations.
There are two problems here — lack of pros- The Sales
pecting skills and a fear of prospecting in gen-
Wizard Says…
eral. Let’s look at the skills problem first be-
cause that’s the easiest one to overcome. The Know who is a
good prospect for
skill deficiency has two parts — identifying a
your business and
prospect and finding sources of prospects. who isn’t.
Know thy prospect
The first skill in prospecting is knowing what constitutes a real
prospect for your business and what doesn’t. The glib salesper-
son will tell you that “everyone is a prospect” or “anyone with
enough money” or “if they’re breathing they’re a prospect,” etc.
These people are unclear of the definition of professional selling
which is not to grab the money and run but to satisfy the pros-
Why Salespeople Fail 25

pect’s needs and/or wants. They seem to think that anyone and
everyone is a prospect and often waste valuable selling time deal-
ing with PWOTs (potential waste of time).
In our ProSell workshop, we encourage participants to de-
velop a list of qualifiers and disqualifiers as they define who or
what constitutes a good prospect for their business. The list of
disqualifiers is equally as important as the qualifiers because it
helps the salesperson recognize a red flag when they see one. For
example, here’s what we look for at SalesForce Training when
we’re prospecting for an in-house, customized, sales training
workshop. I’ve included the rationale in brackets.
Qualifiers:
• 10 or more salespeople
(If they have less than 10 it may be more economical to
put them through our public ProSell workshop.)
• President, sales manager, owner
(These are usually the key decision makers.)
• Sales are poor to medium
(There is little need for a comprehensive sales training
workshop when sales are good. Simply adding some
refresher training to your sales meeting is usually
sufficient. See Chapter 6 of my book, The Sales Wizard’s
Secrets of Sales Management.)
• Morale may be low
(The ProSell workshop often acts as a morale booster.)
• Past history of training
(It costs money to train. If the company has a previous
history of investing in its people, i.e. spending money,
then they’re likely to do it again.)
• Prepared to invest in their people
(They understand the value of training their people.)
• In a competitive market
(Training can give a company a substantial competitive
edge.)
• Financially stable
(They probably have the financial resources to invest in
their people.)
26 Why Salespeople Fail

Disqualifiers:
• Very poor sales
(Impacts their ability to make the investment in train-
ing.)
• Don’t advertise or market
(Now I can tell you why their sales are poor!)
• No previous training
(If they haven’t done any training in the past, they’re
not too likely to start now.)
• Poor attitude towards sales
(Some business owners feel that sales and salespeople
are a necessary evil and not worth investing in.)
• Sales are very good
(The increase in sales would not justify the investment.)
• No or poor competition
(No competition, no need for a competitive edge, there-
fore no need for training.)
• Weak or poor management
(It’s very hard to get these types of people to make a
decision.)
• No urgency
(Training may happen but it’s unlikely to happen soon.)
Knowing who is and isn’t a good prospect allows you to more
effectively ask for referrals. For example, if I was in a networking
situation with someone I knew, using the above criteria, I could
solicit a referral by saying something like this:
“I’ve found that the companies who can benefit most
from my services fit this description: Typically, they’re
medium-sized businesses with 10 or more salespeople.
Sales are not what they could or should be. While the
salespeople may be good, management feels they could
be doing better. The company has no tracking or fore-
casting system in place and realizes it’s flying blind.
They know sales could be improved but aren’t sure how
to do it. (Pause briefly.) Based on that description, Bill,
who’s the first company that comes to mind?”
The second skill needed for prospecting is finding sources of
them. In our ProSell workbook, we identify 25 sources of pros-
pects along with some ideas on how to capitalize on each one of
Why Salespeople Fail 27

them. Not all the sources are applicable for every salesperson but
if you can’t find at least four or five that are useable (or perhaps
you’re already using), I’d be very surprised.

Using the law of reciprocity

One often-overlooked source is referrals from your existing cus-
tomer base. There are two secrets to getting these referrals. The
first is to know what you’re looking for (see above) and the sec-
ond is to use the Law of Reciprocity.
My first exposure to the Law of Reciprocity was in the early
60s. It was hard to get through an airport in those days without
being approached and given a flower by a Hari Krishna believer
(you know, the people who walked around in robes and had even
less hair than I have today). Of course, you were expected to give
them a donation in return. A lot of people gave money, but I
always found that giving back the flower worked just fine for
me. That’s the basics of the Law of Reciprocity: I give you some-
thing and you give me something in return.
The law is still alive and well today. If you’ve ever received a
letter in the mail with a bunch of personalized address labels or
a set of unsolicited greeting cards from a charitable organization,
you’ll know what I mean. It’s a rare individual who can use the
labels or cards without sending a donation to the organization.
That’s the Law of Reciprocity at work.
So how can you use this law to get referrals? Simply approach
past customers for whom you have provided excellent service. In
fact, you might even target some prospects to give extra-special
attention to so that, even if you don’t get a sale, they will feel the
obligation to give you one or more referrals.
Many times, getting a referral is simply a matter of asking.
Here are a couple of examples:
Example one. Let’s assume my client has just thanked me for
something I’ve done for him. I can say something like this:
“Thanks, Bill, I appreciate the fact that you notice the
things I do for good clients such as yourself. There’s
one thing that you can do for me in return. If you could
provide me with the names of two people like yourself
who could benefit from my service, I’d really appreci-
ate it.”
28 Why Salespeople Fail

Example two. Or perhaps I’ve just done another extra service for
my client and she’s expressed her appreciation. I can say some-
thing like this:
“Sarah, I’m glad that this service is of value to you.
There’s one thing that you can do for me in return. I’d
like to provide this type of service to even more people.
If you could give me the names of two people like
yourself who could benefit from my service, I’d really
appreciate it.”

What to do:
1. Make sure your salespeople know who (or what) is and isn’t
a good prospect for what you’re selling.
2. Train your salespeople in how to ask for referrals.

#8 - Low (or no) Persistence

It’s unfortunate that more salespeople aren’t like postage stamps.
At least the postage stamp sticks to the job until it’s finished.
Most salespeople give up far too soon.
Many salespeople will make two, maybe three, calls on a pros-
pect and if they don’t get a sale or get very close to one, they tend
to move along. Bad move.
In our ProSell sales training workshop, we talk about the
different types of personalities prospects have and how some of
them, primarily the Amiable and Analytical, will often require
five to seven contacts with you before they feel comfortable mak-
ing a buying decision. The Driver is a normal sell but still may
require two or three contacts before he buys. On the other hand,
the Expressive takes two to three contacts plus one additional
one if you’re smart. The one additional contact is what I call a
thumb-sucking call where you contact the person and tell him
what a good decision he’s made in buying from you.

Don’t quit too soon

Here are some additional statistics regarding the number of calls
it takes to make a sale that you may find interesting:
• 81 percent of sales are made after the fifth call, yet 84
percent of salespeople quit after the third call.
Why Salespeople Fail 29

• 45 percent of all leads turn into a sale (for someone), yet

50 percent of leads are never followed up.
I have a gentleman who works with me,
The Sales Paul Crozier, who is known in our marketplace
Wizard Says… as “Mr. Velcro.” Paul is the prince of persistence.
Make sure your There are two ways to get Paul off your
salespeople know case. One is to shoot him (and thankfully no one
the numbers. has used that approach yet) and the second is to
tell him that you’re not interested in using our
services. Now, unless you add the word “ever” to your statement
(as in, we’re not interested in your services, ever), you can ex-
pect a call from Paul a year or two down the road as he calls to
test the waters. This guy personifies persistence.
Paul and I have had a number of chats as to where persist-
ence stops and being a pest begins. It’s not a thin, definite line
that one crosses over. In fact the line exists only in the prospect’s
mind. If Paul senses a prospect has no intention of using our
services, he’ll let it go and move on to a non-PWOT (remember
what that stands for?). It’s hard to be a pest if you have your
prospect’s best interests in mind and can demonstrate that fact
by your actions.

What to do:
1. Make sure your people know the numbers.
2. Always make sure your people have a reason to contact a
prospect, a reason that’s important or of value to the pros-
pect.

#9 - Mishandling Objections
Most salespeople will take a simple objection and turn it into a
sales disaster. Salespeople who are prone to failure fear objec-
tions and look upon them as something to either be avoided en-
tirely or wrestled to the ground in an adversarial approach to
objection handling.

Price is never an objection

Then we have the price objection, which really isn’t an objection
at all. Most price objections are the result of not qualifying well
30 Why Salespeople Fail

(failure reason #4) where the salesperson is trying to sell some-

thing the prospect doesn’t want, or a poor sales presentation
(failure reason #6) where the salesperson fails to create enough
value to outweigh the price.
If a prospect doesn’t want what you’re selling or can’t afford
it, you’re unlikely to get a sale. These are just two of the things
you should find out during the probing or qualifying step of the
selling process.
On the other hand, a well-executed sales presentation that
helps the prospect create a “want” for what you are selling can
overcome most price concerns, especially if you can establish a
high value in the prospect’s mind. Remember, the person who
wants to buy can justify any price.
Some salespeople, particularly those with an Amiable or Ex-
pressive personality, fear objections because they feel that hav-
ing to deal with the objection will destroy their personal rapport
with the prospect. These salespeople like to be liked and don’t
want to upset the sales apple cart. Yet failing to handle objections
can stop a sale cold.
On the other hand, salespeople with an Analytical or Driver
personality can become defensive, or even offensive (the Driver
personality) when faced with an objection that catches them off
guard.
In our ProSell workshop, we do a couple of things to solve
these challenges. First we teach salespeople how to use a proper
acknowledgement, which is key to avoiding their natural incli-
nation of becoming defensive. Then we show them nine different
techniques for dealing with objections. Not every technique works
with every objection, so you have to learn which ones work best
in certain situations.
Objections have three root causes and each cause has a basic
method for handling it.
Root Cause Handle by:
Misunderstanding Explaining it
Skepticism Proving it
Drawback Offsetting it
Here’s an interesting point: In my experience, most sales-
people only ever get four to five common objections and some-
Why Salespeople Fail 31

times far less. If they can isolate their most common objections
and develop reasonable responses to them, they’re well on their
way to non-failure (also known as success, but this booklet is
about failure).

Answer their concerns

If there’s one secret I’ve learned over the years, it is to treat
objections like requests for information and answer them accord-
ingly. For example, when someone tells me my
The Sales price is too high, I interpret that as a request for
Wizard Says… assistance in justifying my price. (“Your price is
too high. How am I going to justify paying that
Treat objections
like requests for
much?”)
information. In our ProSell workshop, we also point out
that there is a class of sales-killing objections
that simply can’t be dealt with and if you don’t know how to
properly respond, you’ll be dead in the water (or up that famous
creek without a paddle). It’s called the emotional objection and
the basic rule for handling it is DON’T. Learning to recognize an
emotional objection and knowing how to respond to it increases
a person’s chances of long-term success in sales.

What to do:
1. Make sure your people know how to probe (qualify) properly
and thoroughly.
2. Make sure your people know the hidden value of what they’re
selling.
3. Uncover your four or five most common objections and de-
velop ways to respond to them.

#10 - Undeveloped Selling Skills

Apparently sex, parenting, and sales are the three things in life
that we don’t need any training for.
I always marvel at the fact that Olympic athletes will train
and practise for years and years for just a few moments of glory,
while salespeople will train for a few moments and expect years
of glory. It just doesn’t make sense.
If a person is serious about being in sales, why won’t he or
32 Why Salespeople Fail

she make the investment of time and money to learn the trade?
Sometimes it’s simply a matter of being encouraged to do so by a
mentor or manager (hopefully you’re both to your people).

We’re bad!
In North America, companies are woefully lacking in providing
training to their people. I’m not referring to just sales training, I
mean training in general. For example, in Sweden, employees get
an average of 200 hours of training a year. In Japan the number
is 170 hours. In North America we invest just 7 hours per em-
ployee per year! Is there any wonder why we’re losing our once
commanding lead in world markets?
The cry from employers is “Why should I train people only to
have them leave and go to a competitor?” True enough, this is an
annoying fact of corporate life. What many of these firms don’t
realize is that, in this day and age, the employers who train are
fast becoming the employers of choice.
The Sales
Protect your investment
Wizard Says…
There’s no doubt that it’s incredibly annoying Training is a
to have invested thousands of dollars in some- process, not
one only to have the individual leave prematurely. an event.
Sales training is a portable skill in that once a
person is trained you can’t take that skill away from him when
he leaves your employ, like turning in the keys to the front door.
There are simple ways to protect yourself, however, and sales
managers who have read pages 123 and 124 of “The Book” (yep,
here it is again, The Sales Wizard’s Secrets of Sales Manage-
ment) have saved themselves thousands of dollars by following
the advice found there.
Training doesn’t need to be expensive. Some time ago, I was
commissioned to develop a series of short, sales-training modules
for use as either a self-training course or at sales meetings where
sales managers wanted to institute a training component to their
sales meetings. The result was The 5-Minute Sales Trainer which
includes 35 self-paced training modules that allow you to pick
and choose appropriate topics to fine-tune your salespeople’s sell-
ing skills.
Why Salespeople Fail 33

Defining training needs

One of the problems we have as sales managers is determining in
which areas our salespeople need additional training or tuning
up. A tool that can help you with this conundrum is the Sales
Strategy Index or SSI for short (see page 43).
The SSI is an instrument that consists of 54 typical sales
situations. Each situation has four alternative correct ways to
be handled. The alternatives vary only on the degree of
correctness. The respondent’s results are compared against 2000
top performers in seven categories:
• Prospecting (ability to find people to sell to)
• First Impressions (getting past first base)
• Qualifying (how to probe effectively)
• Demonstration (making convincing sales presentation)
• Influence (ability to persuade)
• Close (asking for the business)
• General (overall knowledge)
The SSI identifies specific areas where additional training or
coaching assistance may be of value. We include the SSI as a pre-
program test instrument in our ProSell workshop so participants
will know what areas they should focus on during the workshop.

What to do:
1. If you can’t or won’t financially support sales training for
your people, at least provide encouragement and non-finan-
cial support.
2. Hold mini sales training sessions as part of your sales meet-
ings.
3. Know your people and build on their strengths and mini-
mize their weaknesses.

#11 - Failing to Close

The fact that you lose 100 percent of the business you don’t ask
for doesn’t stop salespeople from not asking. Some of them just
stand there waiting for the prospect to make a decision instead
of trying to make something happen.
Of course the reason they don’t want to ask for the business
is because they’re afraid of getting the big NO! Apparently a NO
34 Why Salespeople Fail

is eight-to-ten-feet tall, made of solid concrete, and if it falls on

you it will crush you to death. No one’s ever died of getting a NO,
but getting an occasional YES they weren’t
expecting has certainly surprised a few. The Sales
Fear is certainly the first and major rea- Wizard Says…
son for salespeople failing to close sales. If You lose 100 percent
they can learn to use trial closes as a precur- of the business you
sor to any close, they will minimize the dan- don’t ask for.
gers of a close going bad.
While we teach six different trial closes in our ProSell work-
shop, it needn’t be that formal. Basically, a trial close is simply
an opinion-asking question, the answer to which tells you if the
prospect is ready to buy. If the prospect isn’t ready to buy, only a
fool would ask them to!
Once all the prospect’s concerns (objections) have been dealt
with and you’ve tested the water with trial closes, it’s time to
jump in with an appropriate close and that gets us to the second
major closing problem — knowing how to close.
Many salespeople will tell you they know how to close but
when you push them to give an example, they can’t. If they can’t
tell you what they would say in the relative calm of a discussion
about closing, what do you think the chances are they will come
up with a close in front of a prospect? Not too likely is it?
The problem is that many salespeople, the failure-prone ones,
are simply not prepared to close the sale. In our ProSell work-
shop, we teach thirteen different closing techniques and I’m
happy if the participants leave the program being comfortable
with two or three that are appropriate to their type of selling. I
get them to practise in the training room until they develop their
comfort level because I know that if they won’t do it in the relative
safety of the training environment, they sure as heck (or
whatever) won’t do it in front of a prospect.

World’s easiest close

I encourage participants to consider the Direct Question Close
because it is so quiet and so easy. At the appropriate time, you
simply ask the prospect, “Will you be going ahead with this?”
That’s it! I happen to prefer the Negative Direct Question Close
(“Is there any reason you won’t be going ahead with
this?”) where the prospect’s no means yes and the sale is made.
Why Salespeople Fail 35

What’s your favourite closing technique? Which techniques

work best in your particular type of selling? Do your salespeople
know? If not, don’t be too surprised if some of them fail to close,
and failing to close is one step closer to just failing period.

What to do:
1. Make sure your people know how to ask for the business.
They should all have at least two closing techniques they are
comfortable with.
2. Have them practise asking for the business until it becomes
natural. If they won’t practise with you, they won’t do it
with a prospect.

#12 - Failing to Work Harder AND Smarter

Let’s face it, a lot of salespeople are just plain lazy. They’re al-
ways looking for ways to work smarter, if only to avoid having to
work at all! As we pointed out earlier, the truth of the matter is
that selling is not easy and, if it were, everyone would be doing
it. Selling is hard work. I delight in telling new salespeople that
selling is not a nine-to-five job. You start early, quit late, and sell
like hell in between.

Don’t do lunch
I’m also not a big fan of long lunches unless I’m conducting busi-
ness and, even then, I feel that most business lunches are not
good value for the time (and money) spent. Often I could have
accomplished the same result in less time and done some selling
or prospecting during that one-hour period.

Lazy is as lazy does

How do you tell if a salesperson is lazy? I don’t know, but I’ve
developed some signs that help. Watch out for these:
• Likes to sleep in on the weekend. Lazy people love being
idle and what better time or excuse for being idle than a
Saturday or Sunday morning?
• Does not have a hobby or engage in any extracurricular
activities. Once again, these things can interfere with a
person’s idle time.
36 Why Salespeople Fail

• Does little in the way of self-improvement (reading

appropriate material, taking courses, etc.). No need to
improve yourself if you’re not going anywhere.
• Is the last one to show up in the morning and the first
one to disappear at night. Why spend more time in a
work-type environment than necessary?
• Can’t seem to get his paperwork in on
time. This may be a sign of lack of The Sales
discipline rather than laziness but it’s Wizard Says…
a red flag nonetheless.
Selling is not a 9 to 5
None of these signs by itself will tell you job. You start early,
that you have a lazy person on your hands quit late, and sell like
but if you see two or more, beware. You’ve hell in between.
got a potential failure ready to spoil your sales
record.
Not every lazy person came that way directly from the womb.
Sometimes they just slip into laziness and it’s your job to catch
them before they slip into failure.
People who suddenly become lazy may be going through some
type of personal crisis or difficult time and an empathic ear may
be all that’s required to help get the person back on track.
Apparent sudden laziness may also be a result of a lack of
direction or important personal goal. In other words, lack of mo-
tivation. Now I don’t believe that we can motivate people. I feel
that motivation must come from within. I do, however, feel that
we can create a working environment where people feel moti-
vated to do their best and not let down the team.
In chapter eight of my book, The Sales Wizard’s Secrets of
Sales Management, I give a comprehensive Psychology 101 course
in twelve pages and outline what sales managers can do about
the situation. It’s profoundly interesting reading, if I do say so
myself.

Things to do:
1. Be careful to avoid hiring people who have the potential for
serious laziness. Ask the right questions during the hiring
process.
2. Add the question, “Do you consider Harry to be a bit on the
lazy side?” to your reference-checking questions.
Why Salespeople Fail 37

3. Find your people’s personal hot buttons and try pushing them
to get them motivated or re-energized.
4. Make sure you create a working environment where people
want to give their best all the time.

#13 - The Sales Manager!

Who, me?
Yes, sometimes you’re a contributing factor to the failure of a
salesperson. Maybe you shouldn’t have hired him in the first
place but you needed a warm body. Maybe you didn’t provide
him with adequate sales tools. Maybe you were too busy to train
him properly. Maybe, despite your best intentions, you didn’t
take the time from your busy schedule to make calls with him
and provide some coaching that might have cut the problems off
at the pass. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
Maybe it’s time to review your role as sales manager and a
sales leader. One of the many facets of your job is the develop-
ment of your people. You need to make the time to not only help
your people to avoid failure but also help them to be as successful
as they can be.

Be a leader The Sales

Sales management leadership is not a matter of Wizard Says…
showing your people how to do the job. It’s a Effective leaders
matter of helping them to help themselves by envision, excite,
developing their individual selling skills. This empower, and
means you have to develop your coaching skills. educate.
A lot of sales managers don’t coach because
they don’t really know how to go about it. I’ve seen too many
sales managers take over a sale that was going off track instead
of turning the occasion into a learning situation. That’s why I
developed the Sales Manager’s Coaching Checklist for curbside
coaching. It gives you a checklist of what to watch for along with
a proven procedure for successful coaching.

What to do:
1. Know your people, their strengths and their weaknesses.
2. Get out from behind your desk and in front of prospects with
38 Why Salespeople Fail

your salespeople so you can give them the benefit of your

years of sales wisdom.
3. Learn to be a coach to each individual salesperson. Your sales
team will only be as strong as your weakest team member, so
build them all.

Success is Better
While you share in both the successes and failures of your sales-
people, sharing the successes is a lot more fun (and a lot more
profitable).
There are many reasons why salespeople fail, and I’ve only
touched upon some of the major ones I’ve seen over the years.
Some of them you can do something about and some you can’t.
You need to recognize the differences and react accordingly.
Sales management isn’t easy, and I hope that this booklet
has given you enough insights into why salespeople fail so that
you will be able to manage even more effectively and build a
successful sales team.
Good luck and good selling!

The Sales Wizard Says…

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Unique Training Programs — Basic or advanced, our flexible training
programs meet the specific needs and objectives of our clients. Our pro-
grams are relevant to today’s market and are customized to include
concrete examples and content that participants can apply to their indi-
vidual sales settings.

Consulting Services — Our comprehensive consulting services provides

clients with an opportunity to get their ideas and systems validated by a
third party who can help fine-tune their sales operations.

Assessment Tools — We offer a variety of assessment services to help

managers build the strong sales teams that are needed to survive in
today’s highly competitive markets.

For more information:

SalesForce Training & Consulting Inc
500-120 Eglington Ave E, Toronto ON M4P 1E2 Canada
416-322-2888 • 800-461-7355
[email protected]
www.SalesForceTraining.com
40 Why Salespeople Fail

ProSell Workshop
Strengthen your selling skills and close
more sales with a focused approach
to professional selling

Sales success today is no longer a matter of luck, determination and a few

good contacts. Prospect demands and selling styles have changed rapidly
in the last ten years. Old selling styles are being replaced with a relation-
ship and consultative approach to the marketplace.

For the successful salesperson in these competitive times, the ability to

generate ideas and spot new opportunities is essential. Even the best
salespeople must be willing to start over again, to relearn the basics of
good selling in order to maintain a winning edge.

The ProSell Workshop offers a unique opportunity to refine and

strengthen your selling skills, develop techniques for controlling the
sale, and master more sophisticated methods of approaching and deal-
ing with potential customers.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to:

• Ask the right questions to uncover your prospect’s needs and
concerns
• Provide effective solutions to your prospect’s problems
• Make more dynamic presentations
• Overcome objections
• Use powerful closing techniques
…and much more!

For more information:

416-322-2888 • 800-461-7355
[email protected]
www.SalesForceTraining.com
Why Salespeople Fail 41

TARGETS
Don’t miss out on these
FREE monthly e-newsletters

TARGETSSP (for sales professionals)

On the first of each month you’ll receive a high-content feature article
covering a topic of specific interest to sales professionals along with some
tips, trends and techniques that are guaranteed to help you sharpen your
selling skills.

TARGETSSM (for sales managers)

This e-newsletter is edited specifically for sales managers. It too contains
a relevant feature article plus insightful ideas and tips to help you hire,
manage, and motivate your sales team. Look for it in your inbox on the
15th of each month.

It’s easy to sign up for one or both.

Simply go to
www.SalesForceTraining.com/newsletters

For more information:

416-322-2888 • 800-461-7355
[email protected]
www.SalesForceTraining.com
42 Why Salespeople Fail

Sales Temperament
Assessment™
Use this service to take the “guesswork” out
of hiring salespeople and sales managers

Not all salespeople sell the same way, and not all selling styles are effec-
tive in selling your particular product or service. Are you trying to pound
a square peg into a round hole?

Putting a person in a position he or she is temperamentally unsuited

for is setting the individual up for potential failure. Serious mismatches
are costly to the company in terms of lost revenue and resources.

Take the guesswork out of hiring salespeople and hire smart with the
Sales Temperament Assessment. You’ll find out the person’s primary
selling style, suitability to your sales situation, personal strengths, ar-
eas for concern, reference checking suggestions… and more.

The STA won’t solve all your hiring problems. But used in conjunction
with good interviewing techniques and thorough reference checking,
you can improve your odds of hiring a winner. The STA is an inexpen-
sive, cost-effective, independent, second opinion as to the suitability of
an individual’s temperament and how well he or she might work in your
particular sales environment.

(™Trademark of Salesforce Assessments Ltd)

For more information:

416-322-2888 • 800-461-7355
[email protected]
www.SalesForceTraining.com
Why Salespeople Fail 43

Sales Strategy
Index™
An objective analysis to determine how well
a person understands the selling process

Here’s a simple instrument that measures a person’s selling knowledge

in seven critical areas and compares it against 2,000 top performers. It
essentially answers the questions: “Can this person sell? Does he or she
know what to do? And equally important, does he or she know what not
to do?”

Not only does the SSI evaluate the respondent’s ability to select the
most effective sales strategy, it also measures his or her understanding
of the least effective strategy. A person’s understanding of what NOT to
do keeps him from building barriers to a successful sale.

In addition to telling the respondent what he or she did correctly, the

SSI also indicates when the “worst” choice was selected so the respond-
ent can review the sales situation and his or her answer. This allows the
person to learn what not to do in certain sales situations.

Find out how your salespeople compare against the best and what to do
if they need improvement in any area.

(™Trademark of Target Training International)

For more information:

416-322-2888 • 800-461-7355
[email protected]
www.SalesForceTraining.com