Sales is hard
SaaStr founder James Lemkin writes, and of course he is right.
Even the most seasoned and competent sales executives and professionals often encounter many forces in the larger business environment, or even in their own company’s respective disadvantages, against competitors.
Ultimately, for instance, a sales professional who closes all of his or her sales leads points to questions about a company’s marketing and prospecting.
Good sales processes don’t merely dispatch their sales professionals to leads that represent low-hanging fruit.
Difficult but possible to close
They dispatch them also in pursuit of sales that are competitive and even difficult to close, but are possible.
Sales professionals who routinely fall back on excuses for not closing opportunities, however, are problematic.
When some of the excuses Lemkin identifies (21 in all) are used repetitively, they can be an indication of a sales professional’s failure.
Partly true but can be overcome
By and large the common denominator in these 21 excuses is that they are partially true but ultimately represent the sort of impediment that a diligent and persuasive sales professional should be able to overcome.
One example: “Too expensive for them.”
