50% of salespeople say biggest challenge is understanding fall in sales

Almost half of salespeople worry about falling sales and identifying new opportunities to replace lost customers even before getting out of bed in the morning.

This is according to a study by leading sales intelligence software supplier, sales-i.

The report, which also reveals that 23% of salespeople are troubled by upselling to existing customers, is based on data collected from 283 sales professionals across the UK and USA.

It also reveals that 17% of sales managers said that visibility into the activities of the sales team was their most significant daily challenge, while 34% indicated that their main problem is acquiring timely information to use while selling.

Paul Black, CEO of sales-i, comments, “Sales is a notoriously competitive profession and while the best of the best are typically driven, charismatic and competitive by nature, businesses must do more to help them overcome the daily challenges they face so they can ultimately sell more. This survey provides some fascinating insight into what exactly these challenges are and what businesses should be doing to combat them in order to get and stay ahead of the competition this coming year.”

Some of the key findings of the study were:

Admin issues

General administrative tasks are also a problem, with 4.6% of respondents stating that ‘compiling sales reports’ is their biggest challenge, while 6.4% claim that ‘preparing for meetings’ is theirs.

Lack of transparency

16.6% of respondents say visibility into the activities of the sales team is their most significant daily challenge.

Problems with processes

17.3% of respondents identified issues with manual data entry, while 9.5% reported trouble with using Excel for sales reporting and analysis.

Limited access to information

33.6% of respondents reported issues relating to getting hold of timely information, and 28.3% said too much information was stored across different systems.

Decision-making dilemma

40% of respondents say they make decisions based on the existing relationships they have with their clients, while another 6% claim to ‘go with their gut’.

To download the ‘Sales in 2015 and beyond – issues, challenges and barriers to success’ report for free, please click here.