Business coach shows how an underperforming sales team will lead to an unsuccessful business

LOCK HAVEN - A non-productive sales team is among the top dangers that cause many small businesses to fail. Studies reveal a large percentage of small businesses are unsuccessful because of underperforming salespeople who bring in, at a minimum, 50 percent less revenue than top performers, said Dawn Brown, Clinton County business coach for The Entrepreneur's Source. She cites research conducted by Dr. John Sullivan, professor of Economics at San Francisco State University. Brown expanded that the sales team is often the driving factor for revenue generation. "A business owner's job as a leader is to recruit sales 'hound dogs' and teach them how to hunt," Brown said. "Studies indicate that a common reason for poor performance in the sales department is a lack of focus and poor time management. It's vital for struggling small businesses to get their sales team on the right track." According to Brown, the sales department's role is to focus on their job - selling. Often, sales people are given other duties by management, like customer service or product development tasks, which leave less time for them to sell and make money for the business. This greatly impacts the amount of deals that a company loses. Brown shows an example of the losses by a typical salesperson: n If a salesperson makes 15 appointments a week, he or she is likely to get three to four sales out of those appointments - that's nine appointments with no sales. n The average income per sale is $1,000, which is a low average. n The lost revenue by this representative in one week would be $9,000. n If you have 10 representatives, that equals $90,000 in lost revenue in one week. Multiply this by 52 weeks and that's $4.6 million in lost revenue in one year from sales your team didn't close. "January is a good time for small businesses to review the performance of their sales team and make their sales objectives clear for the coming year," Brown said. "The Entrepreneur's Source believes it is important for business owners to know how many sales calls it takes to land a new client. Once that is calculated, then they are headed in the right direction." Brown said traditional consultants are more skilled at identifying problems than implementing solutions, and they are often limited to only their field of business. However, the Entrepreneur's Source is a leading coaching and advisory firm that specializes in helping business owners remove the blinders, see their company more objectively and make fact-based decisions to increase performance. "We specialize in offering rapid impact solutions to help sales managers make better hiring decisions, increase the bench strength of their sales team and maximize profits," Brown said. "I want the small business owners in the Clinton County area to know how to expect more from their sales teams and therefore meet their financial objectives." For more information about The Entrepreneur's Source in Clinton County, call Dawn Brown at 748-2208.