If you are in a sales slump, the good news is that you have likely experienced sales success in the past and can get back on track. As a starting point, it’s important to recognize that fluctuations in sales results are natural and that several factors impact sales performance. These include economic headwinds, industry trends, changing market conditions, and increased competition. Irrespective of these factors, it is still essential to consider what is within your control: your approach to selling and the steps you take to break out of a slump.
As a parallel in the sports world, I did a quick ChatGPT search on top baseball players, and here is what I learned about their ability to rebound from hitting slumps.
- Willie Mays, a legendary figure in baseball, faced a prolonged slump during the 1954 season. Yet, he demonstrated remarkable resilience, bouncing back and leading the New York Giants to a World Series victory. This is a testament to the fact that even the best can face setbacks, but it's the ability to rebound that truly defines them.
- Derek Jeter, the iconic New York Yankees shortstop, faced a challenging slump during the 2004 season. Despite the struggles, he finished the season strong and continued to be a key player for the Yankees.
- Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters of all time, experienced a slump during the 1952 season. Despite this, he remained dominant at the plate and is remembered for his incredible career achievements.
In the world of professional sports, the top athletes always work on their mechanics, especially when they fall into a slump. This process of self-reflection and improvement is what sets them apart. A combination of mental toughness (mindset) and discipline (skills development) leads to their success. This same approach can be applied to sales professionals, empowering them to take control of their performance.
For sales professionals, how we approach sales is essential to our future performance. Unfortunately, many stop sellers become overconfident based on their existing customer relationships and ability to “push” their solutions. To prevent this from happening, it is essential to stay disciplined in your sales approach (mindset) and align how you sell with your customer's purchase process (skills development).
With mindset and skills development as a foundation, here are seven ways to break out of a sales slump:
Mindset:
- Attitude: While slumps are uncomfortable, staying positive and focusing on what is within your control is essential. While you can likely identify external factors affecting your selling (e.g., not enough warm leads), focus on what you can control, which begins with attitude. A positive attitude allows you to continue to communicate within your organization and with clients in a professional way where you are respected and appreciated. It also helps avoid the temptation to “press too hard” and engage in selling techniques that create more friction instead of accelerating sales results.
- Grit: Perseverance is essential. Recognizing that all top professionals (athletes and sellers) go through slumps makes you realize that how you approach your work is essential. This can include dedicating more time to prospecting, attending more networking events, and identifying new strategies to gain access to decision-makers.
- Build on small wins: While hitting your sales goals may depend on closing some larger deals, it is important to recognize that deal size also has some randomness. Therefore, it is important to celebrate closing smaller deals since it builds confidence and momentum. For example, a career home run slugger needs to appreciate getting on base with singles and doubles when they struggle at the plate.
Skills Development:
- Prospecting: A sales slump may be partly due to existing customers buying less. As a result, sales professionals should start identifying opportunities to expand their relationships within existing accounts (i.e., other divisions and business lines…) and acquire new customers. The challenge is that many experienced sales professionals don’t like to prospect and that developing new sales enablement tools and social selling platforms requires a more modern approach to prospecting.
- Call Planning: This is likely the most important step, especially given the number of stakeholders involved in making purchase decisions. Top sellers often get overly invested in key relationships without understanding that purchasing dynamics are changing. Pre-call planning includes account mapping to identifying key influencers and decision makers, research to identify customer priorities and industry trends. These steps provide a much better understanding of the customer’s situation and set the stage for a more informed sales conversation.
- Sales Conversation: Thinking about selling as a conversation as opposed to a “pitch” is essential. Asking well-thought-out, open-ended questions allow customers to express their needs and priorities. While experienced sellers may already know (or think they know) this information, it is still essential to get the customer to share their priorities and why solving those needs is important. Saying it for themselves, instead of being told, significantly increases their willingness to move forward with a purchase decision.
- Solution Alignment: Align the solution you present with your customer's needs and priorities (i.e., keep the conversation focused on the customer). As a starting point, restate the customer's objectives and share how your solution addresses those requirements. This squarely aligns the solution with their goals and allows the customer to confirm that it achieves their objectives.
Remember that a sales slump implies prior success (i.e., slumping from some higher level of previous performance), so these seven recommendations will not only help you break out of a slump, but you can apply them at all times, which is a hallmark of top performers.
