“If you only pay peanuts, you only get monkeys!”

I have been confronted with these mistakes very often in companies and agencies:

1. wrong sales strategy

My first question before starting in a new company was “What is the sales strategy?”
About the answers to this, I could tell long stories….

In some cases, there was only a nebulous strategy or no strategy at all. “We sell to anyone who wants our product.”
You can do that, but it only leads to inefficient sales and costs sales in the medium term.

As long as I, as the head of sales, have not thought about what I am selling with whom and how to which target group at what price, sales is nothing more than “poking in the fog”.

Even if a sales strategy existed in rudimentary form, it was often incorrectly dimensioned or designed.

Either there were too few sales managers or there were many who did not know what to do.

Another mistake due to the lack of a strategy was a focus only on new customers or the “more comfortable option” only on inbound leads.

Most often, opportunities for intelligent up-selling or cross-selling were neglected. These are just a few practical examples of the lack of a sales strategy.

2. insufficient sales marketing

Especially in the B2B area, the marketing department is often perceived only as a cost factor whose employees are responsible for sales documents, trade shows and the website.

A sophisticated marketing strategy that serves the most important communication channels (online and offline), strengthens the B2B brand and makes it more visible, and thus supports sales, is missing.

3. lack of market/customer focus

Even if it is a truism, often B2B Sales is not oriented enough to the customer. Take a look on my other blog posts

4. wrong pricing policy

I have often experienced, that prices were arbitrarily set by management and that the internal calculation was not correct. A price which is too high and which “calculates me out of the market” is just as damaging as a price which is too low and which reduces my profit or may even lead to losses.
And then there is the aspect of value. “What costs nothing is nothing” is often said by the vernacular.

Only a few B2B customers are deterred by (overly) high pricing. My experience: negotiating down is always possible, negotiating up is much more difficult.
And to orientate only on the competitor is only a help, not a strategy.

One of my favorite books on this topic comes from Robert J. Dolan and Hermann Simon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/068483443X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1_eU4uzbYSZR5FW

5. wrong personnel policy

Competition for good sales professionals is fierce in an already depleted job market.
Many no longer want to put themselves through the stress of selling. And in the B2B sector, expertise in the industry is also in demand.
Whereby, typically German, these are often overrated.

And then there is the negative job image of the salesperson. Fewer and fewer career starters want to sell.

All this often leads to a wrong selection of personnel. Either true to the motto: “If you only pay peanuts, you only get monkeys!” Either only cheap personnel is hired, which often already fails during the probationary period, or top employees with little practical experience are hired for expensive salaries, who have little operational sales experience.