Everyone who is in sales has probably experienced the dreaded sales slump. Your numbers are down, you have no great leads in the pipeline, and you feel stagnant with your progress and efforts. What do you do when it hits? How do YOU get yourself out of a sales slump and back on track, and what do you do to avoid sales slumps in the first place?

Lisa recently had the pleasure of speaking with a group of sales professionals at their monthly sales roundtable held at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia, PA. While there are so many reasons one might face a sales slump, Lisa and the group discussed some of their top culprits and shared ideas for overcoming and avoiding them.

Your process is poor or non-existent

If you don’t have a plan in place, and you haven’t set S.M.A.R.T. goals for yourself, you can’t be expected to make and measure any progress. Sometimes sales slumps occur because salespeople are just winging it and hoping for the best. A well-defined sales game plan is key, and it’s important to make sure it includes performing the right number of the right activities right to achieve desired results.

Your sales pipeline is not strong

Keeping up daily, weekly and monthly sales activity, and ultimately hitting your quotas, starts with having good, qualified prospects in your pipeline on a consistent basis. To keep your pipeline full, activity levels need to remain high as there is a direct correlation between the activities we do and the results we see. If we step up our efforts, the results will follow.

You’ve stopped networking and building connections

We all know that growing our network and making connections is an important part of our sales and business development success, but we need to be methodical with not only who we’re meeting but also with the introductions we request. If you are unable to describe the types of people you’re ideally looking to meet, your Centers of Influence can’t make great introductions on your behalf.

Your close ratio is down

There are so many reasons why this could be, and there are even more ways to increase it. Start by making sure you’re presenting proposals face to face and that you always set the next step at the current step so you improve your chances of staying in touch and being able to go for the close.

Your motivation is gone

It’s understandable to feel tired, discouraged and even defeated when things don’t seem to be going your way. It’s also very easy to lose confidence when you keep hearing “NO” and are just hoping to get one “YES” soon. We’ve said it before and it absolutely bears repeating: half of sales success is attitude and motivation. Determine what you need to do to reignite your passion for sales so you can once again commit to taking the steps necessary to achieve success.

Getting Out of Your Own Sales Slump

If you can understand what’s causing your sales slump, you can then determine what you need to do to climb out of it and, better yet, avoid it from happening again. What is the main reason for your sales slump? Is it one we’ve listed above or something else? Let us know in the comments below and we just might have an idea or suggestion that could help you get out of it!

Want even more assistance climbing out of your sales slump? Contact us to set up a time to talk.