What kind of money are you losing by not having the right people, processes, and technology in place? It could be up to 14% in revenue growth or worse. In this post, we’ll explore some of the most common reasons deals slip or revenue is missed by sales teams.
Time Kills All Deals
One of the biggest problems in sales is time. Many enterprise B2B sales can drag on for months and sometimes even years. Time can – and will – kill all deals.
When reps are not adequately coached, they may miss opportunities to accelerate deals or inadvertently lengthen a deal cycle by missing key steps. They may have blind spots that will kill a deal at the last hour. They could be wasting time on low-value activities rather than connecting with and adding value for a prospect or customer. Or maybe your reps are bogged down with administrative tasks and not able to efficiently run a deal.
Salesforce’s 2020 State of Sales Report found that 77% of representatives say “having enough time” is a major or moderate challenge to seeking customer insights, and over 40% say they spend too much time discovering a prospect’s needs and researching competitive activity. Unpredictable Pipeline
Inaccurate forecasts and lumpy pipelines can feel like an inevitable part of the sales profession, but this doesn’t have to be the case
The first step in obtaining a crystal ball is establishing (and enforcing) a clear and concise sales process. Forecasting must be forward-looking and predictive of what deals will close based on real-time information. Leaders often make the mistake of relying on CRM metrics to predict the future, but they are lagging indicators. With a repeatable sales process, you have an evidence-based sales process that enables a more predictable pipeline.
In fact, a study by Harvard Business Review (HBR) showed that businesses with a standardized sales process see up to a 28% increase in revenue compared to those that don’t. What would 28% mean to you?
Neglecting Expansion in Existing Accounts
Another risk of inefficiently run deals is leaving money on the table. Would it bother you if you forgot to pick up $200 off the table? What if you were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because you aren’t looking at the whitespace in your accounts?
You could be failing to capture enormous amounts of revenue because your team isn’t equipped to identify and capitalize on expansion opportunities. Mike Pregler, VP & Research Director at Forrester, recently shared that “nearly 78% of all bookings and revenue are coming from existing clients. There is a shift towards retention and renewals, cross-sell, and upsell.”
It’s far more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain and expand an existing customer. I’m not just talking about in terms of money here. How long did your last security review take? How time-consuming was it for your team to identify – and connect with – every member of the buying team? Did you sweat a little when they check references or ran ROI calculations? When you’re expanding an existing account, chances are you won’t need to jump through any of those hurdles!
The Great Resignation
The Great ResignationWhether you buy into the ‘great resignation’ or not, it’s a well-known fact that turnover in the sales profession is incredibly high. A report by The Bridge Group discovered that the average sales rep tenure is now 1.5 years, down from 3 years in 2010. This might not sound bad at first glance, but if you consider that 41% of companies report an average ramp time of 5+ months…. sales turnover is starting to appear like a much bigger problem.
Key information about prospects or customers walks out the door with your sales reps if you don’t have the right technology to support your sales process. This isn’t 1994… there’s no reason for any seller to be tracking a deal in a notepad or on a personal spreadsheet. What if intel didn’t fly out the door when a team member leaves? Think about the positive impact that would have on the ramp time of the new account owner or sales rep!
Consider all the things you could be losing if you don’t level up your process if you don’t properly train your team and if you don’t get them using the right technology. And then…fix it! So, if you’re interested in setting your sales reps up for success, we urge you to take a look at the Revegy platform and set up a demo today.
