4 Reasons Why Your Sales Are Dwindling

If you’ve been operating a small business for some time you will understand the ebb and flow of sales. When it’s up, it’s up, but when it’s down, it’s really down. Let’s show you some reasons why your sales are dwindling and what you can do about them.

You’ve Lost Your Goals

Many businesses want to just sell as much as possible but this is a very transparent directive. Understanding the why you want to achieve more sales is a far more tangible approach to increasing motivation amongst your sales team. While platforms like Salesforce and the Salesforce playbook can help you with finding clear goals, you’ve got to understand that, if your team is not hitting targets, it’s not to do with the individuals, but the fact that you are not setting clear goals.

Your Workforce Is Unhappy

If you find your employees are not happy, they’re not motivated. If you really want to give your business an advantage, you’ve got to focus on happiness. But what does it take to create a happy workforce?

• Making your team feel valued.
• Offering competitive benefits and perks.
• A better work-life balance.
• Not applying pressure.

The latter point is pivotal, and while you may find that if somebody is not keeping up their end of the bargain despite the rest of the team hitting targets, you’ve got to delve deeper into why they are not doing as best as they can. It’s a common misconception that we only look at the last week as a hallmark of performance but this is an incredibly short-sighted but endemic part of in modern sales. You’ve got to look at the bigger picture and if your sales team is not performing, is there a real reason that’s beyond them? Because if you’re applying too much pressure this results in an unhappy workforce.

You Don’t Understand the Reasons for the Sales Slump

It’s not just about performance but about recognizing that there are things that are either your fault or beyond your business scope. For example, there can be a global problem affecting the business, but there can also be other issues that have nothing to do with your sales team. You might not be keeping up with the times, and therefore you could benefit from upgrading your knowledge of the marketing world.

Additionally, you might come to the conclusion that you’re not targeting the right customers. If this is an issue, you need to sort out the problems on the inside and invest in a CRM (Customer Resource Management) system. You can have the best salesperson in the world but if they’re not targeting the right person it’s the equivalent of selling mulled wine to a Mexican.

Your New Candidates Aren’t Cutting It

One of the biggest problems we all make as businesses that focus on sales is giving a new candidate a very short space of time to find their feet. It can take up to 8 months for an employee to fulfill their potential. Give people time!