Sales Turnaround - First Things First

This post by Joe Murphy discusses one of the first things you can do to turn your sales around 180 degrees.

One of the first things I look at is the revenue decline over the past several periods (months/quarters) and to determine which products or services are facing problems.

What I look at - specifically - are the following areas;

1. Which services and/or products are not selling (declining sales numbers)
2. Which services and/or products are not selling at the same profit margin (declining margins)
3. Which services and/or products are having longer sales cycles (not closing as fast as they once were)
4. Which services and/or products do not have the same pipeline characteristics as they once had (dollar amount, volume, margin, close dates, and probability of winning/closing)

Once I have this data I can really begin to make some "informed hypotheses" where the sales force is failing or flailing. "Informed hypotheses" provide a useful tool that allow me to begin the next phase in the diagnosis as to why sales are declining.

Most executives want a turn-around specialist to come in and whip the sales force into shape. And you can find "sales leaders" who promise they will do that. They promise some of the following - what I call - "we needs:"

1. We need new training processes
2. We need to implement call reports
3. We need customer satisfaction surveys
4. We need new hiring processes
5. We need new sales management
6. We need new sales people

The "we needs" go on and on. But if you hear someone prescribing before diagnosing, run for the hills. Or show the person to the door and have them run for the hills.