I have worked in a marketing and sales capacity for several companies over the past 20 years – both as an employee and as a consultant. However, I am amazed at how often sales managers are unable to differentiate between a salesperson throwing out excuses for a lack of sales, and a salesperson putting forth viable reasons why sales can’t and won’t happen anytime soon.
There is an important difference between the two and companies must be able to identify these differences in order to increase their market share through increased sales.
It’s obvious when a salesperson is putting forth excuses. This typically happens when the market demand is high but one salesperson is unable to consistently close orders. Yet, it could occur in a situation where the entire sales team is selling but one individual isn’t. Anything less than the salesperson saying “I have to do better” is nothing more than an excuse.
In this case, excuses are offered when opportunities abound and one salesperson can’t win new business. It's a question of one member of the sales team that isn't pulling his or her own weight.
However, sales barriers are a different thing entirely. Sales barriers can often be seen as market-entry barriers and or roadblocks to sales, ones that must be removed by the company, its directors and its upper management. In fact, it's ultimately their responsibility to improve the landscape for sales.
Examples of sales barriers might include a sudden and drastic market decline, one where customers are unable to purchase new products due to an excess amount of inventory on their shelves and or an immediate halt to market demand from end-users.
Sales Excuses versus Sales Barriers
Another barrier might be poor service, an issue best defined by inadequate customer service and non-existent after-sales service and support. Another barrier might be the company’s inability to offer a competitive price and or its unwillingness to reduce pricing to capture market share in a declining market.
Still, another barrier might be a subpar product offering, one that can’t match up with what the competition is offering, or worse, a product that by all means is a complete failure. In fact, a product that is rejected by customers isn’t one that can be sold anytime soon.
Now, if all these things are present, then sales is at best hopeful and at worst impossible. However, these aren’t excuses. These are facts and when companies are unable to understand these barriers then they are unable to remove them as going concerns and improve the landscape for sales.
Competitive Analysis: Why Are Your Competitors Winning?
It doesn’t matter if you’re Google, Apple, Samsung, Chevrolet, McDonalds or any one of a myriad of businesses in multiple industries; your job is to understand why your competitors win business when you don’t. These aren’t excuses. They are reasons and your company must be able to deconstruct what your competitors do and how they beat your company.
Without this essential approach to business, all your company is doing is ignoring the obvious. You are literally ignoring why your company is losing to your competition. You are ignoring why your competitors are better than you, and most importantly, you are ignoring how you ultimately fix this problem. In fact, no strategy can be put forth unless the company has a thorough understanding of the market in its current state and the company's lack of a solid value proposition.
Performing a Competitive Analysis
There are several approaches to performing a competitive analysis.
First, you can use a market and competitor SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis like the one outlined below.
Second, you can do a more involved competitor SWOT analysis to improve your customer service. The outline below provides some guidelines.
Customer Service SWOT Analysis
The above video explains the differences between using a SWOT and TOWS analysis.
Third, you can assess your company’s overall approach to market by clarifying if you are focusing on the right market segments.
Are you focusing on the wrong customer segments?
Finally, you can simplify your analysis by using a Deconstruction Sales Strategy, one that identifies why your competitors are winning and one that allows you to poke holes in their offering. In this case, you are defining why competitors are coming out ahead and how your company can reduce the impact or lessen the value of their offers.
A Deconstruction Sales Strategy is exactly that. You are deconstructing your competitor’s offer and approach to market by understanding what they do and how they do it.
- What is the competition's value proposition?
- What is the competition's price?
- Does their price include delivery or are there costs that aren’t properly defined?
- Can you distinguish between the competition's price and the customer's cost to purchase?
- Are there any hidden costs to purchasing from your competition that your customers aren't aware of?
Try not to shoot the messenger. Separate the information provided by your salespeople versus the customer’s own voice. In this case, rely upon voice of customer (VOC) data when assessing whether the salesperson is merely presenting excuses versus presenting cold hard facts as to why your company continually loses out on bids.
There are inherent consequences to ignoring the obvious. Your company can not come up with a strategy to grow market share if you are not willing to understand why your competition continually beats you. Without this ability to assess the current situation, your company will always lose business.
Instead, do away with the immediate response of calling out salespeople on the assumption that they are just putting forth excuses. Once you get past that, take the time to truly analyze why you aren't winning business when your competition does.