Good article for my former “quota carrying” students. I’d like to add another reason why salespeople lose business: being so self-absorbed in your company’s sales process that you fail to make a human connection with the person sitting on the other side of the desk!
Top Reasons Salespeople Lose Business – Harvard Business Review
It’s the question asked by anyone who’s ever lost a sale: What went wrong?
Was it something I said? Was it something I /didn’t/ say? Or was our product not up-to-snuff versus the competition? Over the last decade I’ve interviewed over 1,000 decision-makers as part of the win-loss studies I conduct for clients. I’m always fascinated by how they describe their selection process and why they made their final decision. One of the most interesting parts of the interviews is learning why the competing salespeople lost.