Why do People Fail in Sales?

As Gold Calling mentioned in a previous post, a sales job is the easiest job to get and the most difficult to keep. Salespeople have to keep producing to maintain employment. Therefore, many in our industry fall by the wayside because they have failed.

Why do you think people fail in sales? Are there any common qualities that salespeople have that make them likely to fail? What behaviors are missing from the group of failing salespeople?

Please share your thoughts...

Skip Anderson -Skip Anderson

IMO, sales people fail for one or more of the following reasons; attitude, behavior and/or technique. ;trg -Houston

The bottom line - poor management -Wonderboy

The sales business changes all the time... products change, deals change, attitude changes within customers etc.

Many salespeople in my eyes live in the past. They relate back to what they've achieved or what's worked in the past and because they don't adapt, they perish. -MrCharisma

In what way Wonderboy? :dun -SpeedRacer

Wonderboy, I'm not sure that management is at fault if a SR fails.

The team is generally comprised of a number of SRs, admin support and a SM. Failure of one SR can be the result of a number of dynamics but they are based on two fundamentals:
1. job is a poor fit for the individual (personal abilities are not up to the task at-hand); or,
2. the individual is a bad fit for the job (the person is simply unwilling to do what is required to get the job done);

If the SM can promptly identify which of the above is at the root AND if there are resources available to fix the situation ... the individual might be saved.

If a SM makes a "bad hire", then, he has exaccerbated the situation but we're all adults and there were two decisions made during the interview ... ONLY one was made by the SM.

It is FAR too easy to blame someone else then it is to look in the mirro when the numbers start to slide.

Good luck & Good selling!
Pat -OUTSource Sales

There are a number of reasons why SRs fail in sales but stepping back from the topic, there are outside influencers which I have tried to acknowledge when I see slippage out there.

For example, when the "sales prevention department" (Finance) gets overly aggressive AND it happens repeatedly in one territory, the performance will suffer.

When marketing makes a "left turn" in the middle of a quarter (eg. price changes, product launches, etc.), the rhythm gets out of whack. This frequently impacts opportunities where the H.O. is in the US (for example) and the decision is being made in Canada.

When inventory or distribution get screwed up, deliveries aren't made and the forecast tumbles!

When politics within your suppliers become louder than your screams ... something will give (we lost a $200K/qtr client because the supplier changed their approach in Q4)!

When a SR is suffering some personal issues, it's easy to take their eye off the ball at work.

As a good SM, it is critically important to keep a finger on the pulse of such topics. Or, you risk frittering away individuals on a strong team!

Good luck & Good selling!
Pat -OUTSource Sales

1) Poorly Trained ...

2) Poorly Trained ...

3) Poorly Trained ... and;

4) Ineptitude (clumsiness, incompetence, uselessness, ineffectiveness - otherwise known as lack of skill)

.... oh, almost forgot, this might also be a cause;

5) Cocaine Habit.

Sorry about the last one, I could not help myself!
Does that qualify as personal issues Outsource? -Gold Calling

Gold, Your training interests are shining through.

As well, I'm not sure that these "deficiencies" don't fall under one or the other of the two fundamentals suggested:
"1. job is a poor fit for the individual (personal abilities are not up to the task at-hand); or,
2. the individual is a bad fit for the job (the person is simply unwilling to do what is required to get the job done);"

Training/mentoring/motivating can resolve the situation for SOME. My experience, though, is that some simply don't want to be 'saved'. And, others the SM simply doesn't want to save (can't see the upside).

Good luck & Good selling!
Pat -OUTSource Sales

In twelve years I've built an international distribution network including opening three foreign markets and living in Malaysia and Singapore when we opened there. My work included extensive prospecting, recruiting, training and selling. Back here I've done even more of all that as the bulk of our business is USA. So my experience in hands on work with distributors is extensive and diverse.

Failure in selling is as Skip and Gold Card have pointed out quite common - everyone knows this. So we who are successful in sales ponder the big WHY.

We know there are many answers: it's a bad fit/not the right person for sales; company training is poor; company management and support if poor; personal motivatioin is weak. Pat nails it all down!

One thing rarely mentioned that happens too often in real estate, telemarketing, medical sales and network marketing (to name a few) is that people are poorly screened but recruited anyway because "some might work out." The worst of network marketing practices borrowed this concept from door-to-door salesman in the last century that was also later put into practice across the boards in many sales force situations.

Being highly selective about who you hire for sales, who you recruit, and who you sell to will eliminate many failure problems. The rest of success has to do with quality training - not the new age kind of mystical stuff Gold Calling likes to disparage and rightfully so, but also old age systems that are not relevant to today's informed and IT oriented population.

SO selectivity in who you hire and in how/what you train is everything. I've certainly found that to be true!

MitchM -MitchM

If you take this one step further, it speaks to how you can see sales crumbling: SRs > SM's > VP Sales > departments/companies! IP? Assets? These things are all 'nice to have's' but the only real value in a company is its people!

My sore point: how companies resist giving the search to recruiters? The sentiment that it costs too much absolutely ignores the lost opportunity of having the right SR in-the-patch early - vs - posting the job and interviewing the masses!

I'm expressing frustration here because it seems to be a sign of the times. My past life experience saw input to HR from the SM. HR then worked the recruiters and provided a short-list. It was sweet. (Maybe another reason why Xerox was SOOO successful.)

Now, however, the job boards claim to 'cut to the chase' and provide candidates. The reality of it is that you get THOUSANDS of responses to job postings. I've even retracted a posting, re-written it to be more specific (key talent areas REQ'D) only to get the same type of response. I've then retracted the posting, re-written with such phraseology as, "DO NOT REPLY IF YOU DON'T HAVE ...". Only to get the same type of response!!!!!

It's really quite pathetic because there is some talent out there but there is simply too much "noise".

The SM of today needs to be extremely introspective when writing a posting or job spec. Then, that needs to extend into the interviews. You need to be ruthless during the phone interview process. Then, you really need to open up the tough areas during the one-on-one's, "... tell me where you and I are going to have trouble...", "...when you sold systems, why didn't you sell-up to include services...", "...what really happened when you left company 'X' ...".

The SM of today needs to have the best possible people!

Good luck & Good selling!
Pat -OUTSource Sales

Bang on! I like that. We have a customer in England and she is teaching us new phrases and expressions to live by - that's fun.

"but the only real value in a company is its people!" -- Pat

That's the real heart of your post - then the specific examples you give. The more we strive for excellence in highly defined selectivity the less will failure and frustration get in the way of achievement and success.

Also "The SM of today needs to be extremely introspective when writing a posting or job spec" is something I've found to be most instructive and telling.

MitchM -MitchM

Yes Outsource, totally agree. That was what #4 in my previous post in this thread was supposed to mean, that there are those who should not have gotten into our industry in the first place!

This is not the profession for the clumsy, incompetent, useless or ineffective, otherwise known to have a lack of skill. If it is a knife we can sharpen it. If not, we are wasting our time.

Incredibly, there are those new age sales trainers who say that the failure rate is unacceptable and blame the "old way" of training, instead they ought to look at poor hiring as the number one cause of failure in our profession!

Of course, the "old way" could be to blame for poorly trained people if that way of training was inferior, which many have been throughout time.

The original way to learn sales was as an apprentice (mentoring). Even then there were those who thought the way the "new agers" do now and coached confusion. There were also those who truly mastered the art of selling and knew how to work to help prospects get what they need, want or desire and passed it on properly. If it were not for the latter there would not have been great books on selling at the turn of the 20th century and there were.

Research and technology have only reinforced what has been known for more than two millennium. You can disbelieve this if you want to but psychologists agree, people are pretty much the same as they were then. Technology changes but morality, social consciousness and individual core values are not very different at all, though they vary slightly with each person.

If they had spoken the same language, we could hop in a time machine and get on well with people who lived during the time of Christ. -Gold Calling

Well I believe that poor training and the lack of being driven to sell can affect a lot of salesman. I have see numberous salesman who just go through the paces hoping to just collect a check, when the ones who have to "feed their family" are running circles around them. -MoneyMaker

Sales people fail usually because they are lazy or fail to take responsibility for their results... (They blame the weather, the economy or management.)

Who is responsibile for training... management or the salesperson? A salesperson with a burning desire to succeed will get their own training. They will persist. They will take the time to sell themselves on their products and on themself.

Salespeople usually fail because they don't belive in themself, their product, or do not do the neccessary actions required to meet their sale objectives. They focus on results instead of actions.

Practice, drill, rehearse. Be productive. Count on yourself to do what is right. Continuously improve your skills, actions, and attitudes. Respect others. -FollowUpMaster

All true. Excellent post FollowUpMaster. thmbp2; -SalesCoach

Money maker - well stated!

FollowUpMaster - it is true, some companies think sales training is product knowledge. They themselves (the sales management) have never been properly trained so they have no idea of how to put in place a serious training initiative.

And, yes, the sales person can seek their own answers but, there are learning techniques that are not considered, either in a company with training or by an individual who attempts to get training information themselves.

If you turn to the Internet there are literally hundreds of websites with bad and fraudulent information about how we learn, which are deceiving. And there are an equal number of training sites with poor information about how to sell.

This is a double whammy. Today, popularity online and even best sellign books has more to do with an understanding of Internet marketing than having proven oneself as a great sales person who should be teaching others how to sell.

Heck, look at this forum, even here it is tough to get find good information, as there are those who think they know, sharing their opinions when they have never even been involved in B2B sales, let alone attain a lever of competence where they can say they are sales trainers.

But putting this argument aside ... Personal development, sales skill training, self belief, visualization, burning desire ... all of these things are part of the make up of a winner, you are bang on.

Those who come from the personal development skew their spiel toward desire and visualization - that is this is there everything else will fall into place, those who are top notch trainers beleive they can improve anyone in sales (and we can), but the truth is these things and the others must be part of one who is or will be a super achiever. -Gold Calling

Here is what I witnessed in my career, I authored the words below in a similar lesson; I copied and pasted it in to share.

A Salesperson's Heart & Mind Set will go through 3 stages to Maturity; Here they Are:

1) Doing it "TO" their customers: The beginning stage... They don't know any better, and they are focused on a paycheck. Career life is difficult, a lot of ups & downs. Works only with fresh "Ups" (or opportunities). This salesperson has very little sales skill, no repeat or referral clientelle; and zero follow-up skill.

2) Doing it "WITH" their customers: The 2nd stage. Decent sales skills (perhaps have read a few books on sales, and have been doing it for a little while). Still focused on a paycheck, but now wanting a higher paycheck. Still lots of up and downs, but now the swings are worse. Still focused on the "Sale of the Day". Works maily with appointments and fresh "Ups"; but very little or no repeat clientelle... This salesperson has the skills and wordtracks to help clients through the sales process; but deep down, the client knows their actions tell them that they are still working with a salesperson. This salesperson closes a good amount of sales, but every client knows (when they never hear from them again) that this person didn't care. Therfore, they never pass along their name; sadly because they usually don't remember their name.

3) Doing it "FOR" their customers: The final stage. Congratulations, you are finally a pro salesperson. You don't have ups & downs, in fact; time is what you are short on, not money. Every person you meet recognizes your professional glow, your "I Can" attitude. They probably are meeting with you because of somebody else's good experience they heard about (REFFERRAL) or because their entire family does business with you, and only you (REPEAT). You do not focus on the sale of the day; instead you focus on the new relationship of the day or the relationships you have been taking care of in the past. Sales skills are a thing of your past; in fact you can't remember your last "tough customer". Your clients take care of you, because you are their friend, not their salesperson.

One Question: What stage are you in? The only way to be a pro, is to CHOOSE TO BE. It is a heart and maindset to CARE MORE. Follow up is key. If you do not have a sytem in place that helps takes care of your customers long term; then get one. Your sales career is difficult because you are laking this one element. Trust me (it took me 8 years to learn this one)... How long will you procrastinate? The next time you have a hard day, or a puny paycheck; think about what you are doing to take care of your customers long term. If you don't believe me, then try this test. Pull out the name of a person who you helped with a mortgage, home, or whatever it is you sell; call them up and say "Hello ________ , this is __________ , I thought I'd give you a call to see how you are doing." Then be quiet. If they don't sound gleeful to hear your voice, and recognize immediately who you are; then you are failing them, your family, and yourself. They are not sending you refferrals, I guarantee it. And they will not be loyal to doing business with you the next time.

This may sound crazy, but it's true: People are looking for some magical words that will put customers into a trance-like state and make sign the order to buy. It doesn't exist. Whether business to business, or face to face; people like doing business with people they LIKE. Instead of working on that new close you heard of, try building a habit of complimenting people. Volunteer instead of knocking on another door. Take better care of the people who have already bought from you. Meditate for a half of an hour about how much you care about others, and focus on helping them MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION, regardless if it means a sale today or not. If the sale doesn't include future business, and a happy client then PASS ON IT. It is a bad sale, and you don't need it. Make sure your client gets more than they expected. These priciples, when applied; will insure your success. Focus on being a better person, and you will become a better salesperson. If your focus is only to improve your sales ability for your benefit; sadly, your customers, family, and co-workers will only take note of one thing: Your greed that has doomed you to failure without change. Practice putting other people first, and learn from your mistakes... there is where you'll find the road to success.

Tobias,

aka FollowUpMaster -FollowUpMaster

This thread is an example of the great discussions that take place on this forum. There are lots of great posts that cause one to think.

Here's my opinion:

Salespeople fail because they don't use the correct sales behaviors. That's the overarching reason for failure in our industry.

Attitudes don't make great salespeople, behaviors do. Attitudes do affect behavior, but a great attitude is a dead-end proposition unless that great attitude leads to the development and use of correct sales behaviors which will generate the desired results.

Great athletes are great because of their behaviors: they swing the bat the right way to get the desired result; they shoot the basketball the right way to get the desired result; they move their arms correctly to outswim the competition. They may or may not have great attitudes, but to be a great athlete, one simply must have the best athletic behaviors.

Let's take an imaginary group of people: One is a great attorney, one is a great accountant, on is a great oncologist, one is a great carpenter, and one is a great salesperson. They're all great because they have the requite behaviors to have achieved greatness. They may be wonderful people or obnoxious people, have great attitudes or crappy ones, be hard-working or lazy, but all of those traits are secondary to the behaviors they employ.

Take the oncologist. She might be a jerk. But if you cancer, you probably don't care as much about if she's a jerk as you do if she has used the proper behaviors (accurately diagnosing and treating your cancer). The same is true of your attorney. When you go to trial, you want him to have the behaviors that will cause him to win (such as, he made a correct analysis of the case, he selected the best strategy, argued the case in court to achieve the desired result, etc.), and you probably don't care so much about if he's a nice guy.

Even training and learning are secondary to the correct sales behaviors when determining sales success. I say that not because I don't believe in those things, because as a sales trainer, I passionately believe that salespeople can dramatically improve their skills to achieve the desired sales results.

But training and learning are only good for having an impact on behavior. If a training seminar is fun for the participants, well that's just swell, I'm sure everyone had a bang-up time. But if those trainees' participation in the seminar does one thing, it darn well better help them to improve their sales behavior, because improved sales behavior improves sales performance, whereas improved sales knowledge doesn't necessarily impact sales performance.

So behaviors are king in selling. Everything else is secondary. -Skip Anderson

One major contribution to sales success is the need for Personal Power. An accountant has power but this is intellectual power which is not the same as empowering any individual.

Highly successful sales people have the need for Personal Empowerment and see their sales position as transmuting this energy toward empowering others.

Those of modest success still have the need for empowerment but not to the same intensity which shows up in their earnings.

This need for power by highly successful sales people may appear as narcissism or someone exuding excessive self-confidence but these are false interpretations. They are actually the observable effects of Power.

The nature of power demands expression over others. That does not mean intimidating others toward personal financial gain although that is done. Mother Teresa was an excellent example of empowering others as she experienced personal Spiritual Empowerment. Power can also be as subtle as guiding someone toward accomplishing their dreams such as counselors and coaches.

In order to feel the ability to guide or lead others, you must feel you know or realize something the other does not. Otherwise, why would anyone listen to you? This is an innate quality having nothing to do with selling but is the foundation of what we call selling.

When a Power person speaks and we buy what they are saying, what did we actually buy? Did we buy what they were selling or the feeling that the salesperson was aware of something we did not?

Power people earn their power and are badly needed:

He who leads and no one follows is just taking a walk.

People must be given power. No one is powerful in a vacuum.

I have been called into board meetings to discover why they cannot seem to move forward. The answer: among all 6 highly intelligent and educated members there was not one Power person at the table. No one could or wanted to take control nor did they want this type of responsibility. No leadership class was going to solve this problem.

No one at the table could sell their ideas to the others.

It was agreed to hire a 7th member and after extensive screening, we hired a Power manager and the company excelled far beyond the owner's expectations.

This is what I meant by Power people are needed--they actually move the world forward. The more you need the feeling of empowerment, the more you contribute to the well-being of others.

This also helps explain why some are paralyzed by rejection and others are not. The Power individual is too powerful to take a "no" personally. -John Voris

Aside from the need to express various levels of Power, the need for Freedom is equally essential. That may sound strange but there are some people who actually find mental freedom a restrictive detraction.

Free the mind and enslave the body

Enslave the mind and free the body

Someone on an assembly line has their physical movements predetermined with their mind free of additional responsibility and major decision making. His or her living is determined by repetitive production. They follow instructions and get paid.

There is a sense of security and everyday is predictable. The process for advancement is well known by all and the work crew basically stays the same, making a comfortable atmosphere. Management is always present to offer guidance and acknowledgement for a job well done. Many enjoy this "family" atmosphere along with summer BB-Q's and bowling teams.

Salesmen and women have a very free body in that they choose where to be, but must decide on what to do once they get there. Their mind is shackled by deciding what techniques to use, how to sway the prospect toward a sale and away from a "no." Their quota may be strangling him or her along with moments of feeling of rejection.

Security is extremely fragile and they must earn a living exclusively through independent thinking. Management cannot help when facing a prospect. Cold-call selling can also be very lonely and while success is your to own so is failure. The mind is truly burdened.

But it is the Freedom that is worth it all. It is so compelling, they will endure almost anything to keep it.
-John Voris

Mitch M very interestingly said, "SO selectivity in who you hire and in how/what you train is everything. I've certainly found that to be true!".

At interview time, we have the person in front of us with his files of qualified papers and testimonials etc. If that person had not been in selling at all, one cannot draw a line and say which side will he fit; success in selling or failure in selling. If that person has had experiences, than some screening and selectivity is possible.

It must be something else in a person's chemistry that differentiates the good sellers from poor sellers from non sellers.

Training. Guidance. Coaching and all helps. How do you establish if that has fire in the belly and need no help to keep that fir fanned. -Thiruselvam K

I interpret the question, "Why do People Fail in Sales?" to mean, "Why do people fail to reach their intended objective(s) in sales?" With that being said, it is my opinion that success most often results from the mindful pursuit of a desired outcome.
When troubleshooting a specific outcome these are the areas I would first focus on. -Jeff Blackwell

I failed at my first sales job because I didn't believe in the product. I didn't feel right about asking customers to fork over their hard-earned money for it.

There are many reasons for failing, but I think belief in the product is a huge one. A good sales person should be downright obsessed about how great the product is. It should keep them up at night thinking there are poor sods out there that he/she hasn't had a chance to introduce it to yet. -La_pro

This question is almost too broad to answer. First of all it's important to define what we understand by "failing". Let's suppose you refer to sales people not reaching their targets, then the only way to find out is by monitoring, analyzing, evaluating and readjusting their efforts, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

1) Are they doing enough?
and
2) Are they doing it right?

Btw it's never OK to blame the sales manager. If he or she is not monitoring and analyzing your efforts, you should do so yourself. Keep track of the number of phone calls you make, the number of appointments you get, the number of visits you do, the number of sales you close etc. They will tell you where the problem lies.

Wim -WimWilmsen

Here's my take on the factors responsible for failure in sales:

1. The Product
2. The Salesperson
3. The Company
4. The Market

Products range from very-easy-to-sell to very-difficult-to-sell. To an extent, right marketing & advertising can make very-difficult-to-sell products a lot easier to sell.

Salespersons should have the right competence and commitment, and should have been well trained.

The Company has to provide the right Training, right Motivation (including compensation and incentives, right kind of motivational yet demanding managers), and right Marketing (including ad support).

Unless the product is appropriate for the Market, all other factors won't be adequate.

So, failure need not be of the people alone. There could be other factors as well.

Ganesan. -ezynes

I haven't opted in on this topic up until now. Currently the thread is being revisited. Here is what I have to say:

First, their are many reasons that people fail at sales. If we dispense with one of them, refusal or reluctance to do the work, which obviously would cause failure, two reasons stand out in my mind above all others. They are:

• Inadequate Understanding
• Inadequate Communication Skills

-Gary A Boye

Good Question!

We found that one major common denominator among those who fail in sales is the pronounced need for security.

Those who need security cannot effectively function on a commission paid basis only and want to be managed on some level.

Those who need freedom cannot effectively function on an hourly paid basis only and want to be managed on a minimal level.

In the extreme, the first group may be drawn to a highly structured and controlling career found in the military.
(Minimal career risk with maximum security available).

In the extreme, the second group may be drawn to a highly flexible and non-controlling career found in business ownership.
(Maximum career risk with minimal security available).

Those who tend to prefer a career with freedom work well in sales, while those who prefer more security, often engage in self-sabotage and leave the sales industry.

There are many more reasons of course but we found the need for freedom as an essential selling requirement, with other factors that cause failure to follow. -John Voris