Your morale had diminished and your self-esteem was bruised, so the motivation you’d been carrying at the start of the period had disappeared.
Now you are questioning if you will ever be able to make another agreement.
If this situation sounds painfully familiar, you’re not alone.
Many experienced salespeople have experienced a period of decreased sales during their career.
The significant factor here is that the sales personnel were capable of coming out of their downturns in sales.
Have you been feeling down for an extended period, and unable to energize yourself? Have you attempted all possible solutions and every one of them has produced no results?
1. Get in the right frame of mind to attack the sales slump
A frequent cause for a decrease in sales is a series of unsuccessful contracts. These sapping away of your trust and making you doubt your abilities and talents.
Attempts at extreme effort are not an effective way of tackling this issue.
A crucial moment for a decrease in sales is when you address the problem from the root.
Bestselling author and sales consultant Jill Konrath shared her thoughts with us on this:
My best investment in becoming a better salesperson wasn’t in a course or a book—the best investment I ever made was
changing my mindset .
She had a shocking setback in the beginning of her sales job which brought realisation to her. She turned what was initially seen as a disappointment into motivation to alter her way of thinking.
I concluded then that I had not failed. Konrath stated in an interview that he had recently gained a worthwhile knowledge. Throughout the course of my professional life, I have gained priceless knowledge and not gone through a single disappointment. I am in the process of understanding, and the decision I made shifted my profession for the better.
The initial move to conquer a decrease in sales is to reorganize your thinking. Do not consider the unsuccessful transactions as errors: view them as educational opportunities.
When you look at your failures as opportunities to grow and improve, you have initiated taking action to overcome the slump instead of allowing it to control you.
2. Analyze your process and output
Now that you have made the decision to beat your bad patch, let us focus on your work process and results.
First, start with an analysis of your sales activity.
Analyze the information within your CRM to get an understanding of what is occurring regarding the process. What’s changed month-over-month or quarter-over-quarter? What correlation exists between the amount of calls you place or emails you send and the amount of bargains you successfully complete? Are you feeling stuck because you’re not doing as much? Or is it something else?
3. Build a clear action plan for each day
It may seem like a tremendous challenge to get out of a downturn in sales. Despite recognizing the main factors to blame for the downturn, you may find it hard to marshal the necessary emotional strength to get back to your normal state.
Rather than concentrating on an entirety, such as a goal you believe is too tough to accomplish or a set of prospective customers you are too tired to call uninvited, plan what you can do right now.
Organize your day in such a way that you are reserving energy for the most crucial activities. Don’t make carefree phone calls when you’re feeling lethargic in the afternoon, and try to steer clear of social media before consuming your morning cup of joe so that you can get your mental alertness going.
Divide tasks that you believe to be too difficult into 30 minute segments. If the concept of cold calling an exhaustive list of leads seems to be an intimidating task, assign a period of thirty minutes in the early part of the day to make those calls. Next, do something simpler for thirty minutes as a rest period. After that, set another 30-minute block for cold calls.
4. Learn the power of consistency
Steli Efti, the CEO of Close, affirms that investing in consistency as a salesperson is more worthwhile than investing in any of the popular techniques or ‘hacks’. “I’ve spent my entire life studying sales, communication, psychology. It was completely worthwhile, but the most noteworthy impact was gaining the capability to be consistent and exhibit self-control in the field of sales.
When you used to be feeling successful and reaching your targets in sales, perhaps you paid too much attention to creating an accumulation of sales shortcuts and techniques. However, relying on these strategies would not be an effective way of dealing with a downturn.
Being consistent in your approach to sales is the way to gain steady success in sealing deals.
So, keep prospecting and qualifying. Keep pounding the phones. Continue to carry out research and preparations for conferences and presentations. Rely on the proven sales scripts and email templates that have demonstrated reliability.
Don’t have templates and scripts yet? Get a headstart by downloading our
There are 8 options you can choose from to create scripts, emails, comparison charts, and other documents.
5. Practice mindfulness before your calls
It’s no denying that dialing makes up the most difficult element of selling for the majority of representatives. If you are feeling discouraged, it might be tough to put in the emotional effort needed to dial up someone and converse in a cheerful manner.
The tension associated with a drop in sales can make the situation even worse. As the phone is ringing, you may be pondering if they’ll disconnect the call, berate you, or just occupy your time.
That’s not the right mindset to start a call. Beginning with a lack of confidence will make it difficult to get people to listen to you, let alone see your product as something worth investing in.
To combat this, practice mindfulness before each call.
7. Work on non-sales activities.
It may seem strange, however it can be beneficial to concentrate on tasks you excel at instead of sales when you’re stuck in a selling slump.
Where are you most in your element? Leading a sales meeting? Creating a pitch deck?
Focus your energy on those activities when you are experiencing a decrease in sales. This will not only maintain your morale, but doing activities in which you excel will increase your self-confidence and give you a resurgence of drive when your enthusiasm for selling is waning.
8. Take a break.
When a decrease in sales persists, it can become disheartening, affecting one’s daily enthusiasm.
If you’re enduring a difficult day or period of time during a sales decrease, remember to take a few minutes off. Have a good, long break for lunch, why not take a stroll outside, or do some physical activity to help you relax and refocus your attention for a period of time.
Having a sharp mental clarity can make room for creative thoughts or invigorate a brand new perspective.
9. Lean on your team for support.
Should sales remain stagnant for a period, it could be beneficial to inform others of your situation. Discuss it during your next squad gathering or even during a private discussion with your boss. It is likely that there is not just you feeling stuck, and you are not the initial person this has happened to.
By speaking candidly about the decrease in sales, you and your associates can work together to develop a plan of action or swap ideas for marketing strategies, and you could even gain knowledge about methods that have not been implemented yet.
10. Seek inspiration from industry leaders.
The most talented salespeople have a spot of prestige due to their impressive performance, but even long-term sales directors can sometimes fall into a dip in their results.
If you cannot find a way to rid yourself of decreased motivation, search for examples of success and advice from the leading people in your field of work. Hear a podcast about sales, check out YouTube clips, or peruse inspiring words from those who have achieved success.
If you require more advice from experts in the area, Crunchbase assembled a useful list of fifty-four distinguished sales chiefs to be familiar with.
11. Focus on areas for improvement.
You could be very good at initiating conversations when it comes to making cold calls, but your enthusiasm might not be sustained during a presentation. Perhaps you excel at establishing an array of prospects, yet you get no responses when it is time to conclude the deal.
It’s not possible for everybody to be outstanding in each and every part of sales, but one can certainly improve in the areas that are holding back transactions.
Look for guidance from someone on your squad who is great at the task you need assistance with, be it making cold calls, proposing, or giving a demonstration. Now is the optimal moment to refine your sales tactics during a period of decreased sales.
12. Connect with a cross-functional team.
Feel free to step away from your regular sales tasks periodically to converse with members of the marketing, customer service, or product squads.
It could be useful to have additional conferences with those teams if you experience a decrease in sales figures, as this increases the chance for contemplation on varied strategies.
When meeting with one of these teams, there are specific learnings to take away that can impact your sales activity including:
- Product: Is there a different solution you can position when pitching the product?
- Customer Service: What types of pain points have the service reps noticed lately?
- Marketing: Are there any industry trends or new competitors to be aware of?
13. Review case studies and success stories.
It can be inspiring to think about the successes which have been achieved by using your product.
Consulting customer successes and studying case studies can be inspiring and encourage growth. Look back at how your organization’s services have been advantageous to customers and write down anything remarkable customers have expressed.
This can not only help give you a renewed enthusiasm when sales are low, but it could even spark a creative new approach to how to present the product to potential customers.
14. Accept the ups and downs of sales.
If you have experience in sales, you understand that each month may be different. It is possible for there to be great variability depending on the item being sold.
The explanation for why you constantly have a steady stream of prospects is evident. Concentrate on what you are able to accomplish every day, even though you can’t predict the fluctuating number of sales that will be finalized.
If you’ve had a great month of sales, but now you’re having a slow period, don’t worry – the good numbers from the previous month will balance out your figures when you analyze your results for the quarter.
15. Recognize the slump will end.
Finally, know that your sales slump will end. Nothing lasts forever, including the dreaded slump. Take the time to recognize that you will finish off business and regain control in the near future whether it be today, this week, or this month.
Also, remember that you were hired for a reason. Your business acknowledged that you are an asset to their organization and will be successful. You earned your job title. Now go pick up the phone and get selling!
16. Shift your focus from closing deals to helping people
Again, the mind is a powerful thing. When you’re experiencing a time of reduced sales, it can be easy to become solely focused on sealing the deal, regardless of the cost.
This presents all kinds of problems, including:
- Coming across as desperate
- Selling hard to prospects who aren’t ready to buy
- Trying to force a deal with prospects that don’t qualify
- Closing crappy deals that will end up churning out
It is important not to place excessive emphasis on sealing contracts. Instead, shift your focus back to helping people.
Whenever you feel like all you’re doing is concentrating on sealing the deal, take some time to reflect on your product and how it could help meet your customers’ requirements. Go back over case studies of happy customers. What impact has your product had on their lives or businesses? What real benefits do they see?
