A disease could be afflicting your business right now, and chances are you wouldn’t even know it. It starts off slow, attacking the central nervous system of your business – the sales department – weakening the effectiveness of your sales staff by diminishing its ability to do the one thing it was born to do – sell.

We call it sales sickness, and while its symptoms may seem like only minor inconveniences (sales staff bogged down with account management, a lack of time and resources to grow your client base, outdated sales methods, lack of a CRM and so on), together they form the ultimate… “Your Revenue Killer”.

How do you prevent sales sickness? Here are a few tips:

  1. Get Involved. If you’re a C-level executive and your sales folks are weighed down with managing a large account instead of prospecting for new business, get involved. A C-level person making a phone call to the customer and ramping the issues straight up the flagpole will show that you care, get issues resolved and allow your top sellers to do what they do best.
  2. Give your sales teams a “booster shot.” Long-tenured sales teams may no longer have the flair for creating new prospect opportunities. Create a system for those great “closers” to have warmed up leads and appointments made for them. They’ll love this! You can do this from within or hire a firm to warm up opportunities for you.
  3. We all understand the sales landscape has changed, your sales staff still deserve recognition. Bring back the quarterly incentives to close more business. Most companies took away these incentives when the recession hit. It’s time to bring them back and make sure you celebrate each success!