Top 5 Sales Gaps in the IT and Software Industries

“Is your sales process be considered an asset or a liability when it comes to closing deals?

Most of the time, it’s easier to see the blind spots of others than our own. In sales, ignorance is a disadvantage. In order to become effective in sales, you must learn to recognize the things you don’t know in your sales process instead of focusing on your competitors and see the reality with an objective eye.

According to Apttus and Adobe 2014 Sales Survey, many organizations are unaware that their processes are lengthening sales cycles and bleeding top – line revenue.

When we say blind spots, we’re not only talking about Sales Reps. I‘ve divided this article to highlight how we can help Sales Reps, as well as CEOs and Sales Managers in IT and Software Industry recognize the biggest and the most common blind spots they tend to neglect in their sales process.

Here are some of the biggest blind spots of CEOs and Sales Managers in IT and Software Industry.

#1: “We hire professional and experienced sales reps, so we can save money on training.”

IT and Software industry have their own language. If your sales reps are not familiar with some of the technical words used, then they’ll have a hard time getting the message across your prospects. Lack of product knowledge makes agents lose confidence when calling. Even if they have the skills, they won’t be able to handle objections well because they don’t have enough knowledge and understanding of what he is offering.

#2: “We have good relationship with our clients.”

Good job! But do you know about their plans next year? Have you met with them face to face? Does that mean they will continue to patronize your product or service? We all know that there are a lot of competitors that can also provide good and quality service and they might consider later on. Having a good relationship with your client isn’t enough. You have to evolve and continue to provide better services that you used to. You can even offer them a referral promotions and make them refer you.

#3: “Salespeople are motivated by money.”

Sure, money is a great way to motivate your reps to perform well. But money isn’t everything. Many American corporation spends nearly $50 billion on incentives every year. There are other ways to incentivize your reps. Travel and merchandise awards can motivate them more and are remembered longer than cash incentives. Also, salespeople want to be recognized based on their performance.

On the other hand, it’s easy for Sales reps to see the problem with the script and list that they’re calling. But they have a huge blind spot on how they deliver their calls and the process on how to do it.

Here are some of Sales reps’ most significant blind spots when calling:

Over or Under-Selling

You might think it’ll do you good. However, over or under selling usually do harm than good. If a salesperson continues his sales pitch even after the prospect has expressed his interest may annoy your prospect and could change their mind. Under selling on the other hand simply shows lack of product knowledge or a lazy sales rep that’s not doing his job well. A good salespeople knows how to identify when to close a sale and when the customer is ready to buy.

Solution…

Provide your sales pitch to prospects but only highlight those important details.

Forgetting Warm Leads

You‘ve encountered a prospect who’s interested in your product or service but is not available to discuss about it when you called. The following day, you report to work flooded with return emails and phone calls and you’ve forgotten to follow up on that warm lead. Chances are you’ll lose that sale. Multitasking can make sales reps forget something because a lot is going on inside of their head.

Solution…

Always set a reminder for yourself with complete details as to what happened on the call.
Keep details of some of his concerns to answer any questions that may arise.
Prepare before making a call. This way, you won’t forget anything and eventually close the sale.
If you’re not available to follow up on them, ask somebody to do this for you and provide all of the information needed.

#4: Leaving little but important tasks unfinished

During a phone call, sales reps tend to neglect little tasks that might help them on their calls because they think it’s not important. Leaving a job unfinished means leaving money on the table. You might think it’s just a small task but it may be useful for you in the future. The most important part of a salesperson’s job when making a call is to maximize every call.

Here are some of the little but important task that sales reps tend to forget when making a call:

Not asking for the best time to call.
Not maximizing the call and look for other decision makers to talk to.
Not gathering information especially if decision makers are not available.

Solution…

It’s hard to get hold of IT Managers, IT Directors, VPs and C level people because they are always busy. List down all the things that need to be accomplished on your call and practice doing it on every call.

#5: Maximizing all possible opportunities

Maximize all possibilities to close a sale. Dropping the phone when prospect says they’re not interested at the beginning of the call without them knowing your product is a lose opportunity. You need to get an answer on every call even if the prospect answers “No”. Also, offer other products or services offered especially if they need something else but you also provide those services.