Sometimes, Doing Your Best
Is Not Enough

© 2007 David Newman

I meet a lot of salespeople who are “doing their best.” Working hard. Making contacts. Networking. Filling their pipeline. Collecting business cards. Phoning people. Meeting people. And it’s just not working. More often than not, these folks throw in the towel after a certain period of time. Too much rejection. Too much pain. Too much hard work. Not enough reward – financially, emotionally, or professionally.

This always makes me upset, because at my core, I always want the good guys to WIN. And many of them do win once they realize that the compass of their selling is “stuck on stupid” – and they immediately do better once they take action to fix the situation.

Here are the top 10 reasons for sales failure, in my experience:

1. Being a great product/service expert and a terrible sales strategist.
2. Not getting the right kind of sales help in time – or at all!
3. Not being organized enough for consistent follow-up.
4. Not having a business plan/goal/vision/destination in mind, including failure to plan for failure!
5. No differentiation – me-too, same-old boring stuff using me-too, same-old boring language.
6. Not taking themselves seriously as a solution provider.
7. Mentally over-investing in the importance of sales brochures and gimmicks.
8. Lack of prospect and customer focus – trying to be all things to all people.
9. Failure to develop infrastructure/partners/mentors – you can’t do it alone.
10. Underestimating the amount of time and effort it will take to get the sale.

Nobody likes to throw in the towel. But don’t kid yourself by saying, “I did my best.” The real question is did you do what had to be done?

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