Effort Is Not To blame

The Hidden Friction Slowing Down Your Sales Team

Sales teams do not fail because they are not working hard enough. They fail because the process they follow is too complicated.

The more steps you add, the slower everything moves. Every new tool, report, or internal approval process creates obstacles that prevent sales from happening.

The result is longer sales cycles, lower close rates, and frustrated sales reps.

Here is how to remove the hidden friction and make it easier for your team to win.

More Tools Do Not Mean More Sales

Most companies try to fix sales problems by adding more technology. They buy software to track calls, analyze emails, and manage pipelines. Each tool is meant to make the process better. Often times it does not due to an undefined problem.

With each recorded call there is a new correction, with each new data point there is a new step. The fix for one lost opportunity is a problem for the other opportunity.

In the end, salespeople spend more time entering data and switching between systems than talking to customers. Information is scattered in different places, making it harder to see what is working. Managers focus on tracking activities instead of helping their team close deals.

Instead of looking for another tool, remove the ones that are slowing your team down. A simple, clear system that everyone follows will outperform a complicated one.

Remove Unnecessary Steps

The best companies do not win by doing more. They win by removing everything that does not help.

The first step is to identify the biggest problem slowing your team down. Are deals getting stuck because of long internal approval processes? Are sales reps buried in admin work? Find the one thing that is causing the most trouble and fix it.

Next, reduce the number of steps in your sales process. If a handoff between marketing and sales takes too long, simplify it. If reps spend hours filling out reports that no one uses for improvement, eliminate them. Every step should exist for a reason. If it does not help move a deal forward, it should go.

Finally, create a simple, repeatable process for selling. Every salesperson should know exactly what to do and when to do it. The fewer decisions they have to make, the faster they can move.

Find the Hidden Friction and Remove It

Most companies have sales processes that were built over time. People added steps for good reasons, but when consistently adding you forget to remove unecessary steps.

The best way to fix this is to map out the entire sales process from start to finish. Look for points where deals stahl and the step adds no or little value to the client. Remove those instantly, no second guessing needed.

Approvals should only exist if they prevent major mistakes. Reports should only be created if someone actually applies improvement from them. If something does not make the process easier, faster, or better, it is slowing your team down.

For each report, for each data point ask when is the last time we have used this to increase our win rate? To increase our sales velocity? If longer than 6 months or worse, stop tracking that.

Companies that grow quickly are not the ones with the most advanced tools or the biggest teams. They are the ones that make selling as simple as possible. When your team spends more time with customers and less time dealing with process, sales will follow.