Sales is not what it used to be. And choosing the path of a sales career can offer you many benefits that you will not find in other fields. There are many benefits of choosing a sales career. The compensation is usually top notch, with many opportunities to earn more if you are great at your job. Having a career in sales gives you freedom in other ways as well. Basically, I am interested in sales because I have great interpersonal skills and I’m passionate about providing excellent customer service.
However, with these advantages come challenges in a sales role. Climbing to the top and being a successful sales rep is not easy. To succeed, you must learn to overcome the biggest challenges in a sales role, like the ones described below.
When faced with a challenge, look for a way, not a way out – David Weatherford
The market has turned into a battlefield where businesses are happening to show case them as the best among their competitors. They are following the strategies such as giving many freebies like discounts and lowering the prices in order to attract the customers.
Most of the sales reps get to hear statements like “The X competitor is offering a product at a much lower price” or Y competitor is giving 4 months free subscription to their service. This is a common challenge being faced by most companies.
Sales reps will have a greater number of deals registered under the pipeline they are working. They need to remember all the information and the current status of the leads with whom they are working, but it’s not that easy to remember all the data since they will be working with many leads on daily basis. If things aren’t organized more time is wasted in searching for information. Sales reps do not get enough time to focus on strategizing and selling.
Getting a response from the prospect cannot be made that simple, after a few initial interactions, most of the prospects will stop responding though the tool fulfills their requirements. Several sales reps get demotivated by this silence. In those cases, they will stop having follow-ups with them very often and will focus on other deals to achieve their sales target.
Most sales reps will face this situation where they will be not sure about the answers for the questions raised up by the customers where it will create a poor idea. In those cases it’s extremely important for a sales rep to know the essential concepts about the product which helps them to not rely on the other departments so then they can answer the questions confidently.
Lack of training is the primary cause of low sales productivity. Most of the rep’s face trouble meeting their sales goals. They need to spend a good deal of time in order to train themselves.
Marketing departments often will provide a greater number of leads where they’re able to produce without taking a deeper look at the quality of those prospects. While generating a bunch of leads is a great thing but, it’s pointless if those prospects have no potential to become our customers.