Bugbears of a Sales Person

ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND
BARRIERS TO SUCCESS
Sales in 2015 and beyond
A research guide into the bugbears of a salesperson
An eBook by

Unfortunately, the answer is not a simple one. The
frustrations, obstacles, and niggles that plague the modern
salesperson are diverse, and more often than not they’re
unavoidable. Of course, in order to confront the challenges
facing salespeople, it’s essential to understand what these
challenges are and how they lead to sub-optimal
performance and revenues.
First, it’s important to recognize that no two sales teams
are alike, as the sales profession spans multiple industries
and sectors, and the issues each organization faces vary
according to factors such as the economic health of its
market, its budget for additional staff members, and its
overall technological aptitude.
We’ve done some research, surveying 283 sales pros from
the UK and the US, and have identified the challenges
commonly faced by professionals across organizations of
different sizes, in different areas, and in different trades.
really bothers
salespeople? Why
aren’t they winning
more business?
What’s keeping them
from selling more?
Sales in 2015 and beyond: issues, challenges and barriers to success
In this report, we’ll offer insights into the banes, burdens
and bugbears salespeople face on a day-to-day basis.
The findings are presented in this eBook, and should prove
a valuable resource for any business leader looking to
correct deficiencies, boost sales, and improve customer
relationships.
1
What
www.sales-i.com

Respondents are primarily based in North America (62.9%)
and the United Kingdom (35.0%). However, within this scope
was a range of companies of different sizes, operating
within different industries.
2
1.
www.sales-i.com
THE SALESPEOPLE
So, who did we speak to?
62.9% USA/Canada
35.0% UK
2.1% Rest of the world
Smallto medium enterprises (SMEs)werewell-represented,
with 44.9% of respondent companies having under fifty
employees, while organizations with over 250 members
of staff amounted to 30% of those surveyed. The ‘middle’
groups, with 51-100 employees and 101-250 employees,
amounted to 13.8% and 11.3% respectively.
What is the size of your company?
44.9% Less than 50 people
13.8% 51 - 100
11.3% 101 - 250
30.0% 250+

The 283 surveyed individuals, working for an eclectic variety
of businesses, provide a more than sufficiently diverse
foundation for the remainder of this report. With this range
of salespeople to draw on – from large corporations to
tiny startups, from builders and car manufacturers to office
suppliers and food companies – we have a far greater idea
of the challenges facing the profession as a whole.
industry does your
company operate in?
3
Which
www.sales-i.com
17.7% Automotive
19.4% Building & construction
9.5% Food & drink
11.0% Jan/San
8.1% Office supplies
34.3% Industrial supplies
Industrial
Building
Automotive
Jan/San
Food & drink
Office

Sales professionals face a number of challenges on a
day to-day basis, both in customer-facing and internal
capacities. Often, it seems like the job requires employees
to be in several places at once, and the resulting pressure
can be overwhelming for them and detrimental to the
company’s revenue.
So, what do sales professionals worry about the most
before they get out of bed each morning?
4
2.
www.sales-i.com
THEIR BIGGEST DAY-
TO-DAY CHALLENGES
What is your biggest daily challenge?
49.5% Understanding which customers are
falling in sales and new opportunities
6.4%
4.6%
23.0%
16.6%
Preparing for meetings
Compiling sales reports
Upselling to existing customers
Having visibility into what my sales
team is doing
Falling sales
Preparation
Sales reports
Upselling
Visibility

there any other
challenges that
salespeople face?
5
Are
www.sales-i.com
General administrative tasks posed a problem for a (not so
insignificant) minority: 4.6% listed ‘compiling sales reports’
as their biggest challenge, while 6.4% claimed ‘preparing for
meetings’ was theirs. These are tasks quite separate from
the meat and potatoes of selling, so it’s understandable that
professionals might balk at them: they’re time consuming,
mentally draining, and don’t seem to have any direct
correlation with increasing revenue.
Admin
Many professionals also found transparency to be a key
issue. 16.6% said that visibility into the activities of the sales
team was their most significant daily challenge. Without
insight into the way staff members are dividing their labor,
there’s no means bywhich to understand their inefficiencies,
productivity (or lack thereof) or areas for improvement.
Often the result of this is, at best, a stagnant sales team and
at worst, one in active decline.
Visibility
Still, this wasn’t the biggest challenge facing our survey
respondents. 49.5% of respondents said their main problem
was understanding which customers were falling in sales
and identifying new opportunities, while 23% were troubled
by upselling to existing customers.
These have long been issues for salespeople. While the
traits commonly thought of as essential to success in this
profession are still important, all the personal charm in
the world won’t keep a neglected customer from going
elsewhere – and it won’t unearth new leads or business
opportunities on its own. Equally, in order to upsell a
product to a regular customer, it is necessary to convince
them that they need it, but some part of them must need it
in the first place.
Sales is often a delicate balance and, if nothing else, our
survey respondents have demonstrated how difficult it is to
get right.
Finding opportunities

should you and your
team do about it?
6
What
www.sales-i.com
Automate admin by using technology. Get rid of time
consuming routine tasks in favor of high-value, customer-
facing work.
Automate admin
Use analytics tools to track and measure employee activity.
This will provide greater visibility into how your sales team
is spending their time, and will highlight areas in which
productivity may be down.
Track activity
Use customer data to your advantage. Analytics can
identify buying patterns and trends. Understand what your
customers want before they even know they need it.
Track activity

Not all of the difficulties contemporary salespeople face are
so dramatic. While most professionals can easily identify
an issue with lead generation or upselling, problems with
process are often of equal significance – collectively, if not
on their own.
Frequently, it’s the smaller operational tasks that cause the
most delay and preclude them from superior performance.
On their own, they might seem mildly annoying;
cumulatively, they can have a drastic impact on profits and
workplace productivity.
7
3.
www.sales-i.com
OPERATIONAL
HEADACHES
17.3%
9.5%
28.3%
11.3%
33.6%
Manual data entry
Using Excel for sales reporting and
analysis
Too much information stored across
different systems
Accessing information when I’m out of
the office
Getting hold of timely information to
use when selling
Some of these seem like necessary administrative evils.
For example, 17.3% identified issues with manual data
entry, which will have some crossover with the 9.5% who
found trouble with using Excel for reporting and analysis.
With technological solutions widely available, it is not
even necessary to have administrative assistants doing
this work, let alone dedicated sales professionals: their
energies should be concentrated on tasks more relevant to
increasing the company’s bottom line.
Data entry
But the biggest complications by far are all to do with a lack
of information. Whether you’re hawking beauty products
door-to-door or sealing big B2B deals, sales was, is, and
always will be a mobile profession, and to get the best
results, consultants can’t go in blind. With this in mind, it’s
understandable that 11.3% have trouble when they can’t
access information outside of the office.
Furthermore, 33.6% indicated that their main problem was
acquiring timely information to use while selling which can
be borderline crippling for a business’ profit margins. But
even when information is accessible, a lack of consolidation
means that 28.3% are wasting time attempting to retrieve
it from different formats simply because the organization
knows no other way.
Accessing information

should you and your
team do about it?
8
What
www.sales-i.com
Ditch manual entry. Invest in technological solutions and
save hundreds of man-hours. That’s hundreds more hours
of selling time.
Remove manual processes
Cut down on unnecessary processes by using a single
platform to access all your customer information.
Use one system

If you’re a business owner with a sales team, you’ll know
all too well how willing they are to take credit for success.
Every deal signed is the result of a moment of Ricky Roma
style brilliance; every dollar or pound earned is one earned
by their sheer bravado, intelligence, and determination.
Naturally, when it comes to underperformance, they’re
a little bit quieter. Nevertheless, it would be pointless to
pretend that the problems plaguing sales teams have
nothing to do with the sales teams themselves, so it’s worth
taking a quick look at their decision-making processes.
9
4.
www.sales-i.com
MAKING DECISIONS
6.0%
13.8%
39.9%
40.0%
I go with my gut
I manually sort through customer data
to find the information I need
I use technology to analyze data which
informs my decisions
Based on the relationships I have with
customers
Gut instinct
Manually
Technology
Relationships

should you and your
team do about it?
10
What
www.sales-i.com
Of those surveyed, 40% said they made decisions based
on the relationships they have with customers. This is very
understandable, but hardly quantifiable. The importance
of solid rapport shouldn’t be understated, but it’s also
important to acknowledge that it isn’t everything. If it’s not
being measured, it’s not a reliable indicator of anything
other than how much a sales professional gets on with a
particular customer.
This trend of using unverifiable information to make major
decisions is also widespread – and even worse – with the 6%
who said they make decisions with ‘their gut.’ Again, instinct
is important, it’s just highly unlikely to make money on its
own on a long-term basis. A ‘feeling’ should be checked
against evidence and data before it is acted on.
Thankfully, there is some indication that, in other quarters,
sales professionals are wising up somewhat. 39.9% claim
to use technology for the purpose of data analysis and
decision making, while a further 13.8% manually sort through
data to find the information they need – an inefficient
approach, and one liable to fall prey to the old ‘correlation =
causation’ fallacy, but a (very tiny) step in the right direction
nonetheless.
Make decisions based on data and facts, not your gut even
if you ‘feel’ that it’s not correct.
Don’t use your gut

There are ways to remove the administrative burden
entirely and enable sales professionals to pursue the
business of actual selling. There are ways to, if not quite
read a customer’s mind, at least predict their movements
with eerie and profit-boosting accuracy.
There are ways to take that mass of marketing data and turn
it into actionable trends and insights.
There are ways to ensure you will never turn up unprepared
for a client meeting or customer call ever again.
This is the promise of sales intelligence technology. By
leveraging the power of big data analytics, it supplies the
people most important to your company’s success with the
tools they need to guarantee it.
11
5.
www.sales-i.com
RISING TO THE
CHALLENGE
“The biggest challenge? Taking the
leap in the first place.”

About
“It is a no brainer for distributors, and
the personal service is outstanding.”
sales-i is sales performance software designed to make
every sales call more personal and profitable.
sales-i enables sales professionals to clearly identify and
target high quality sales opportunities within their current
customer base. Equipped with customer buying behavior
alerts, salespeople can make insightful, personalized,
quick business decisions, realizing repeat sales, reduced
customer attrition and maximized profit margins as a result.
sales-i will change the way you sell. Get in touch for a free,
online demonstration and judge our software for yourself.
tellmemore@sales-i.com
www.sales-i.com
- Scott Bennett, Bennett Auto Supply
“One call using sales-i yielded a $5,000
order from an account that was leaving
us for a competitor, he felt we did not
care, sales-i showed him we did.”
- Ron Dahlhaus, Prostock Automotive
“We’ve closed off the financial year 58%
up on the previous year and attribute
this directly to sales-i and their sales
performance software.”
- Larry Sexton, Office 360º
We are the leader in sales performance
for distributors and wholesalers.

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