Sluggish Revenue Growth:

Companies cannot grow if they fail to regularly acquire new clients. A key here is that a poorly trained sales force does not have the ability to "create demand" for its products and services. We find less effective salespeople to be overly focused on customer service related activities because they get such poor results whenever going after new business.

Lost Sales Opportunities:

A small percentage of your target market is in the shopping stage of buying behavior at any given time. An ineffective sales force misses the chance to walk through this window of opportunity by being overly presentation focused versus listening focused.

Poor Morale:

A poorly trained sales force has a tendency to complain about such factors as price, when in fact it is their selling skills that are holding them back from better performance. By blaming their own poor results on the company they only add to the negative effect on the team.

No New Clients:

Every company experiences attrition with its existing customer base. Existing clients go through acquisitions and mergers, go out of business, change business models, etc. If your sales force is not focused on new client acquisition to compensate for the difference, the result will be negative growth.

Competition Gaining Market Share:

If one figures the lifetime value of customers by calculating annual sales multiplied by 5 to 10 years, it is easy to see the incredible amount of dollars being lost due to a sales force that lacks proper selling skills. Also, your sales force can give your company a competitive advantage over your competition if they add customer value beyond the attributes of the products and services you sell.

Lack of Innovation:

Often, an organization's major information pipeline from its market place is through the field sales force. A sales force that is not trained in effective questioning and research techniques can miss market trends and, therefore, huge new product opportunities. Thus, the company does not get the type of cutting edge information back that allows it to innovate, create new products and services, etc, as a means to differentiate from the competition.

Wrong Customers:

Ultimately, you want to bring new customers aboard who truly appreciate the type of unique value you deliver. Less effective salespeople have a tendency to lack strategic focus. The result is a very scattered prospecting approach that leads to creating new customers who turnover quickly.