It’s every salesperson’s nightmare. You love your company and you understand and believe in its purpose. You’re working hard and you understand your industry. You’ve read all your company and product literature. You’ve listened to other people’s calls and you can answer all the relevant FAQs you can find.
But nothing seems to be working. You’re starting to slide a bit because others are still to closing business. You’re making the calls but still nothing. You’re even giving demos, but you’re not closing anything!
At some point you’re ready to give up.
Does this sound familiar?
Over my 35 years in sales, I’ve seen this scenario many, many times. I’ve even faced it myself. It can be challenging, but don’t lose hope!
What To Do When You’re Getting No Sales
1. Believe in yourself.
You won’t achieve anything if you’re not confident. The first sale is to yourself. You have to have faith in yourself and your sales acumen. Assure yourself that you’ll be able to assess your situation, adapt, and get back on track. “No sales” isn’t necessarily a reflection of you as a salesperson. It’s generally a matter of your mindset, the degree of effort you’re putting in, the strategies you’re employing, and other factors that you’ll be able to adjust with some thought and persistence.
2. Review your goals, record your stats, and compare them.
It’s important to understand what’s expected of you when trying to address a lack of sales. Review your targets and remind yourself of the specific milestones you’re supposed to achieve, and as you conduct your sales efforts, document how well you’re performing relative to those benchmarks.
Having that reference point can give you definitive objectives that help you understand and appreciate the progress you’re making. It lets you see the ground you might be making up, and as you start improving your efforts and landing deals, you can get a much-needed morale boost to help you ride your rough patch out.
3. Make sure you have a growth mindset.
This point is similar to the first on this list. It’s about keeping a positive, proactive frame of mind that will drive you to overcome the obstacles you’re facing and consistently refine your sales efforts. Take challenges as learning experiences, persist through any setbacks, be receptive to criticism without letting it demoralize you, and appreciate and learn from your peers’ success.
A growth mindset will both help you work through periods of no sales and allow you to be constructive in your contribution to your team’s general efforts and overall culture.
4. Do the little things right.
Attention to detail is key to boosting poor sales results. Be particularly thorough when doing your pre-call planning. Make sure you know whatever sales processes or methodologies you’re expected to use.
It’s solely a matter of effort. Make sure you’re doing everything in your power to improve your lacklustre sales performance — this is one of the few factors that are purely in your power to change.
5. Review progress with your manager or coach
Discipline is obviously an important component of giving your sales efforts some life, but that trait often doesn’t occur naturally. It might take a little push to get there — some degree of accountability. In many cases, check-ins with management or a coach to track your progress and pinpoint areas for improvement can keep you on your toes and set you in the right direction.
If you keep your issues to yourself, the trouble you’re having might get away from you — and if your manager goes without knowing about your problems for too long, you could find yourself in some serious hot water when they find out.
6. Connect with other people who’ve been through it before.
You’re not the first person to into the kind of problems you’re dealing with. No salesperson is perfect, and everyone, in almost every line of work, runs into a rough patch every now and then.
Don’t be too reluctant to ask for help. Hitting a wall is a reality that any salesperson can face at any point in their career. Making no sales can be demoralising, but it’s important you keep your head up when you reach that point.
It’s crucial to remain patient, persistent, and proactive in the face of zero sales. Don’t let a rough patch break you. Leverage the resources at your disposal, and seek guidance from anyone who can help set you on the right course. And above all else, keep working … there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.
If you’re struggling to make sales, then check out our sales training and coaching programmes, or get in touch for an exploratory call to discuss the options.
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