We are 0-for-30 in sales - what do we do?

“We Haven’t Gotten a Sale in 3 Weeks—What Do We Do?”

Three weeks without a sale isn’t a slump—it’s a shutdown.

In today’s Question of the Day, I address the urgency of this situation and what needs to happen immediately to get things moving again.

In this episode, we cover:

•  Why the first step is a ride-along—getting leadership eyes on the process to identify what’s missing 
•  The true severity of going weeks without revenue—and why it can’t be ignored 
•  How to evaluate whether it’s a people issue or a process issue
•  Quick-win opportunities to generate momentum, including strategic use of discounting to cover overhead and stop the bleeding

If your sales have stalled out, this episode gives you a direct, no-nonsense approach to diagnose the problem and start producing again.

Have a Question? - Submit your questions to chrish@nexstarnetwork.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the question of the day. Today's question is: we are a sales team of one person in the slow season right now, and we haven't made a sale in three weeks. How do we break out of this funk? This is a great question. We need to jump on this immediately. This is something we need to take immediate action on. And so I'm going to be very direct, very specific. Whoever the sales leader is in this situation, you need to ride along today. Today. So if we have a sales team of one person, probably not big enough that we got like a sales manager, but somebody's wearing that sales leader hat. Somebody is in charge of sales. And whoever that person is needs to ride along today. We need to get eyes on what's actually happening out there and we need to fix it immediately. There's no other priority, nothing else that takes precedence over this. This has to get done today. Because normally, normally, if I'm talking to a company and they go like three in a row, like three sales calls in a row, not three weeks, but three calls in a row where we don't get a sale. I would recommend getting out there to ride along and get eyes on it and see what's going on. This is potentially 10 times worse than that. Because let's say, let's say we run on average two calls a day over three weeks. That's like 30 calls, right? And if I'm half wrong, let's say one call a day, that's still 15 calls. That's a lot of that's a lot of calls. You would think, you know, I'm not trying to be funny, but you'd think we'd accidentally sell one, right? Like just one of those. If I showed up with a quote on a piece of paper and just handed it to him, you think one of those would sell. And so something's going on here. We have to get out, drop everything else. And if you're that sales leader, get out there and ride along today, see what's actually happening. Because as a sales team, our number one priority is to fill install spots. So if I'm a salesperson and there's an install team, my number one priority, my number one job is to keep filling those spots. Keep that team working. Now, a common problem is actually companies go too far the other way. They start filling spots two, three weeks out. Well, then we're we're booked too far out and the business isn't as profitable, and it's actually harder to sell because those spots are that far out. But but here we've got openings. We haven't sold a job in three weeks. We've got a lot of openings, and our number one priority is fill those spots so that our install teams have something to install. Because here's what happens: every time we have an install spot that doesn't get filled, we don't make any revenue for that spot. We budgeted revenue for every one of those spots, and every one, it's not just that we're not getting revenue, we have to eat the overhead. We have to operate the business. So there is a daily cost that I'm eating every day. Because if I was selling revenue, let's say in like real simple numbers here, right? Let's let's say I sold an item for five dollars, but it costs me as a business two and a half dollars to run every day, right? Well, that five dollars, two and a half covers the overhead, the other two and a half uh is above and beyond. And so I I that's what's happening here. I'm eating the cost of operating the business. And one, just one missed install spot in a week, just one, will completely erode all the profits you had that week. I'm gonna say that again. Just one missed install spot that we budgeted for, that we have a team for, just one missed one, because of that overhead we gotta eat, that erodes all the profit off the other jobs that I sold. If I have two, if I miss two, now I'm in a hole. I'm in a hole and I'm trying to climb out. But here, we haven't sold a job in three weeks. We're in a canyon. We need to stop the bleeding immediately, even if this means, even if this means discounting just to break even, discounting just to cover the cost of that overhead. Even that would just stop the bleeding. That would be better than what we're doing right now. And so we we we have to get a sale, even if we have to discount to the point of just breaking even to cover overhead. Because you're a team of one. Team of one means you're the sole revenue driver for the entire company for replacements, anyways. You're the sole revenue driver. If this was a larger company, this would be equivalent to just shutting off revenue for three weeks. How long do you think a large company could operate if they just shut their revenue off for three whole weeks? They'd go out of business. And that's what's going on here. We our our revenue has been shut off for three weeks. And so we we have to ride along today. So here's the quick and dirty of what I'd be looking for. And I'm assuming, I'm just gonna assume, because I don't know all the details, but I'm gonna assume I have the right person, right? Because I mean, it's very possible that you know you got the you got the wrong person, or they got a poor attitude, or they're on their way out, and so they quit selling, and or maybe they don't have capacity for the job. Like, I mean, there's there's a lot of different things that could be going on here. But I'm I'm gonna assume we got the right person. They've been selling like this, this is my salesperson. And so I'm immediately gonna get out there, I'm gonna ride along. But these are the things I'm gonna look for immediately, the quick and dirty uh process. I'm gonna be looking at that process. I'm gonna be using my scorecard and scoring that process, and I'm looking at any opportunities we have. Now, some of these are gonna be long-term fixes, but some of these are gonna be quick wins, like right now. And so here's some of those quick wins that I'd be looking for, that like the big important things I'd be looking for because we need something now. Number one, any glaring holes in the process, anything that would build value in the company, in the solution, in you. We gotta be building value in the company and you and the solution here. And so any glaring holes we can fill right away, fill them. Okay. Number two, are we asking for the sale? Kind of sounds like we're probably not asking for the sale. Because if we ask for the sale, I think one of these just would have accidentally sold, unless we're like peeing in the bushes before we walk in or something. Like if we'd be asking for the sale, one of these would have accidentally sold. So number two, are we just asking for the sale? You do all this work, you build all this value, you you focus on this process, you build rapport with the customer, you've earned the right to ask for the sale. Just ask for the sale, just do it. Number three, are we digging in to identify objections? Right. So when a customer says no, are we digging in and asking, well, what concerns you about moving forward today? Because we have to identify what that objection is. I can't do anything with the objection until I identify what it is. And I even need to learn of like what what's not a real objection, right? Like, because there's there's fake objections, like I need to think about it, need to sleep on it, need to pray about it, and sometimes even shop around. Like these aren't real objections. They're masking another objection. And so we got to be able to ask questions, what concerns you about moving forward today to identify what the real objection is. So that's number three, we got to dig into the objections. Number four, know how to overcome the objections. Once I identify it, do I know how to overcome it? So if we notice we're getting a lot of price objections, well, okay, well, I know price objections are coming. What do I say when I get price objections? But that also ties back to the process. If I build more value, price won't be as much of an issue. So, um, but I need to know when I get these common objections, what do I do with them? Right? Don't focus on the uncommon stuff right now, just focus on the common ones. Number five, we got to have some kind of high authority close to discount, right? And I have a very specific way that I go over this with the companies that I coach here. But we have to have that very specific high authority process. Like if I'm about to leave because of price, I'm about to walk out the door, I take that last chance there, I get the high authority on the phone. We have a very specific way that we discount even to the point of breaking even just to cover the overhead. We got to have that high authority in play as well. So, number one, any glaring holes in the process to build value. Number two, are we asking for the sale? Number three, are we digging into objections? Number four, can we overcome the common objections? And number five, having that defined process to discount because we need to get something on the board now, today. Now, like I said earlier, there may be bigger implications here. I I don't know all the details. I mean, we we might not have the right person, they might not have the right attitude, they might not have the right capacity. Um, any of these will become glaringly obvious, and then maybe maybe you need to make a switch, right? Somebody else. Um, but bottom line, we haven't made a sale in three weeks. We're drowning. Sales leader, ride along today. Get eyes on it, see what's working, see what's not working. Doesn't sound like it's a lot working right now. So see what's going on so we can fix it. That's today's question of the day. If you're enjoying question of the day, follow, share, give a rate, and question of the days on major streaming platforms. If you have a question, reach out to me via email. Uh, it's going to be listed below in the show description. Let's get your question answered. And if you're a next term member, schedule a call with me. Let's get this addressed one on one and get very specific to your situation. I'm Coach Chris. We'll see you tomorrow.