If your approach to Sales Training hasn’t evolved over the past 24 months, then your business may 
have already been disrupted without you realizing it. The traditional models of “pain” selling or other product-focused, manipulative sales models are not going to work much longer. The cold call is dead and so is the cold email. In their place is something more important and more valuable to customers; a sales process that integrates Business Acumen so that Sales Professionals can position the value of their solutions through the lens of the customers’ business, as opposed to pushing products to hit an arbitrary quota.
During a recent Strategic Business Selling™ program I was conducting for a global organization, my direct client, the Vice President of Sales, asked me for my opinion and assessment of several members of the sales team who, in his words, “seem like they have no idea what they are doing and sit around like lost zombies.” This was a rather harsh statement, and while I typically conduct assessments in a more formal and scientific manner, I agreed to provide some color commentary about his team based on the model of success I’ve developed during the past several years.
After three full days with these 34 Sales Professionals, I was able to establish the clear telltale signs of sales dysfunction and share the approach with my client, and now here in this blog.
The following are my seven signs of sales dysfunction, and I truly believe that if even one of them is present in any of your sales team, you have a huge challenge. If for some reason all seven are present, then it is way overdue to terminate.
Doesn’t have a perspective or point of view
A dysfunctional Sales Person doesn’t have a perspective or point of view and is of no value to a customer. The customer can simply go online and make an order without the hassle of having to deal with someone only incentivized by a commission.
Doesn’t know their customers’ business
A dysfunctional Sales Person is lazy, sloppy, and not prepared to sell when there is not a deep and profound understanding of the customers’ business, including their strategy and their financial metrics and results.
Doesn’t know their customers’ customers
A dysfunctional Sales Person does not have a deep and profound understanding of the customers’ customers and the reasons behind the buying decision to buy from their direct customers.
Doesn’t know their own business
A dysfunctional Sales Person doesn’t understand their own business – including their own products, services, and how to get things done.
Customers don’t like them
A dysfunctional Sales Person may not be despised by their customers, but if their customers don’t like them as human beings first, and business people second, they will never be successful.
Customers don’t trust them
A dysfunctional Sales Person is not trusted by their customers and will never have the opportunity to listen to deep and important needs, and then position valuable solutions that will impact customers’ business performance.
Customers have no belief in the ability to add value
A dysfunctional Sales Person attempts to sell to customers without believing that they can add value to the customers’ business and will never be successful because they will never have the chance to be a trusted partner.
In summary, strategic selling is not a perfect science, and there are many variables that impact performance. However, this list of seven telltale signs can provide you with the insights needed to either train the sales team better or hire a different team.
