## 6 Reasons Why Your Company’s Sales Are Struggling

# Introduction

Most companies struggle with sales. Perhaps you’re the exception with stellar sales performance, but in 90% of cases—even among large companies—sales are a significant pain point. I say this both as a business consultant who has seen countless hiring processes and as a sales trainer who has interacted with millions of companies trying to sell you something that only causes embarrassment for them. Sales are terrible, gentlemen.

# 1. HR Mistake #2: Experience Doesn’t Equal Professionalism

Often, companies hire mediocre professionals with excellent experience. How is this possible? Let me explain. If someone has been digging the ground with a stick for 10 years, it doesn’t mean they’re an excellent excavator operator. Operating an excavator requires additional training.

However, a super boss might approach an HR leader with a stack of resumes—someone with 3 years of experience, another with 5, and another with 10 (at the age of 22). The super boss says, “Of course, we’ll take the one with 10 years of experience! We need seasoned professionals.”

Professionalism includes intensive training on top of experience. This means that trainers and master classes are crucial for developing salespeople.

Consultant’s Note: The likelihood of finding good and bad salespeople among those with “3 years” and “10 years” is roughly the same. The former group has the advantage of being more trainable and motivated, while the latter has experience but lacks professionalism. The disadvantages are the opposite.

# 2. Company as an Extension of One Person

The commercial department is merely an extension of the head of the commercial division, whether it’s a Regional Sales Manager (RSM) or a commercial director. You’ll always hire your doppelgängers (hiring yourself would require a divine level of self-awareness and understanding of strengths unknown to you).

Imagine you have an RSM (with a salary of 300K) and a commercial director (700K). Ask them, “Describe the third stage of sales. How should it be conducted? What nuances, techniques, mistakes?” You’ll likely get silence or a helpless excuse like, “Our theories don’t work.” Only about 3-5% can provide a meaningful response for 15-20 minutes.

Consultant’s Note: Most leaders try to avoid the thought, “A bad subordinate has a bad leader.” Yes, hiring mistakes and “hidden mines” happen, but this shouldn’t be a rule defining the entire department or division. Begin changes by evaluating your own approaches, knowledge, and belief systems.

# 3. Lack of Skills in Building a Sales Department

Building a sales department isn’t just about hiring random people and saying, “Bring me all the money you can.” It involves numerous systems—choosing the type of sales department, motivation systems, onboarding processes, proper reporting, performance and quality control systems, feedback mechanisms, protocols, CRM/BPM/ERP/WMS systems, telephony, well-configured funnels, checklists, and scripts.

Additionally, you need a pool of unique selling propositions (USPs) that describe your product as a set of benefits and values for the client, a competitor matrix, meeting schedules, communication standards with clients and other departments, proposal templates, quality work standards, and more. Plus, hiring and training staff (alongside RSMs and commercial directors).

Consultant’s Note: What else can I add? Everything is written above. However, many business owners still try to “perform a self-operation” by continuing to manage current operations without the necessary skills and/or time. It’s better to hire a specialist.

# 4. Lack of Systematic Training for Managers

Most leaders regularly think, “We need to train our sales team.” But how? Let them read and learn on their own! What’s the most popular sales book? Maybe “The Sales Bible” by Jeffrey Gitomer?

• “Tell me, did you read it?”
• “Yes! It’s an interesting book!”
• “What new sales techniques did you learn that you can apply?”
• “Well, there was this part where the client asked, ‘What?’ and the salesperson replied, ‘Through the shoulder!’ and closed a billion-dollar deal.”
• “I liked that too. Now you understand all the sales techniques. Go sell more. Your quota is doubled.”

Consultant’s Note: In successful companies, sales and negotiation training are conducted quarterly. Market leaders do it monthly, and top-performing companies even hold weekly mini-trainings and daily knowledge checks. A voice from the audience might say, “We trained once and it’s fine!”

Firstly, repetition is the mother of learning. Secondly, the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows that within a week, a person forgets over 80% of what they’ve learned. That’s how it is.

# 5. HR Mistake #1: Critical Misunderstanding of Whom to Hire

When a business owner has unwavering confidence that they understand exactly whom to hire, often accumulated over 30 years in the market and 40 years studying the product and market nuances, it leads to the biggest mistake in job requirements.

They might say, “We need someone with experience in our industry and knowledge of our product.” Then they seek someone with niche experience that is rarely found. For example, “We need a sales manager with excellent knowledge of green PVC packaging for barley sorting in extreme northern conditions.” When approached with, “Maybe we can hire a good salesperson from a related market?” they respond, “We need someone who can be trained on the product; it’s too specific.”

Consultant’s Note: If product knowledge is crucial and unique, it should be internalized within the company. Quality management should include training systems for product knowledge. Without a system, you need to create one—it’s the core of your business.

Example: “There are no sales skills for potatoes that are different from selling celery.” Amen and hallelujah. I’ve seen numerous examples where a strong sales department successfully sold a mediocre product, and unskilled salespeople sank an excellent product. New salespeople boosted the business, while old, experienced ones dragged it down. Product and market knowledge is good, but it should take a backseat to professional sales skills.

# 6. Fear of Change

Imagine a person with a sales department generating a couple of billion in annual turnover. The salespeople are well-compensated but sales start to decline. The root cause is a misunderstanding of sales department typologies and skills needed for their transformation.

Example: Initially, a universal sales department is built where aggressive and hungry salespeople start capturing the market. Over time, managers accumulate big clients and stop working with new ones, or the quality of their work sharply declines. Hiring new people? Newbies have no clients and will leave if they don’t meet targets. Increasing salaries? The veterans will rebel and demand the same. Finding someone with the same experience as the veterans? See point 5.

The business ship gradually sinks under the flag of corporate celebrations. Owners are reluctant to create discomfort among their trusted team who manage key clients, fearing they might leave and take major accounts with them.

Consultant’s Note: In my operational management course, I discuss team formation stages, including the “Swamp” stage. A competent manager must recognize its signs, delay its onset, and know how to restructure the team when it occurs. For sales departments, choose restructuring strategies based on business process audits.

Only the main causes are touched upon here. There are millions, and hopefully, none are present in your company. An effective leader is someone who constantly grows and changes, which undoubtedly leads to increased sales and business success. As consultants, we help facilitate this growth.

Wishing you all success in your business endeavors!

This article was optimized using Co-Founder Ai, a leading tool for enhancing your startup’s growth and connecting with top venture capital firms, angel investors, and private equity companies.

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