There are really only two problems that you ever have to fix with your sales force. The first is they're not prospecting for new business. The other is they're not closing deals in the pipeline that they should be closing. In other words, you either have a prospecting problem, or a selling problem.
But here's the bigger problem: when you have a prospecting problem, you probably don’t have enough in the pipeline to know if you have a selling problem.
I am shocked by how many companies don’t realize that they have a prospecting problem. This normally happens when their sales force is selling to existing clients for a large percentage of their time. If the pipeline is thin or non-existent—even if they tell you they are prospecting—they are not. So why don’t they prospect?
Here are some reasons:
Basically, they don’t think that prospecting will work. If they did, they would be doing it.
If you are not getting enough new business to meet your goals, stop looking for fixes that aren’t centered around fixing prospecting problems. It really is that simple. If your people were prospecting effectively and regularly, the pipeline would be full.