Sucks when it happens to one of your reps.

Even worse when it's multiple salespeople on the team, and usually when you need the sales more than ever (end of the month, quarter, year).

It’s almost like the more you want them to perform, the worse it gets.

The Problem: Not Just Under Pressure

Not just that they aren’t performing under pressure, it’s that they just aren’t getting results.

As you listen/watch them, they aren’t doing the basics that you know work. They aren’t following the process. They are talking too much. They are pushing prospects too hard.

Part of you wants to applaud their persistence. But you have a feeling that their level of ‘persistence’ is not helping.

And that is what is causing the slump:

• Talking way more than listening (including monologuing/lecturing)

• Putting too much pressure on the prospect/conversation

• Not following the proven process

The intersection of the salesperson thinking they know how to sell and the desperate level of pressure.

The "I Have Arrived" Mentality

Before the ‘higher pressure’ phase came the “I have arrived” sales mode. Where they feel like they have arrived – they have closed enough deals and know what they are doing. The sales process, guide, blueprint for success goes out the window. “That’s only something new people have to follow. I don’t need a process. I just need to talk to people.”

I have heard that type of sentiment – or exact thing – from salespeople so many times. Typically, when I chat with them after looking at their less-than-rock-star level of results. In their mind they are a rockstar. Stats indicate another story.

The real struggle I have is with sales leaders who don’t see it that way. They think that since that salesperson was good before – closed deals, exceeded goals, produced what the company needed – that they are in a perpetual state of being trusted to know how to sell.

If they aren’t selling, it can’t be something they are doing.

But most likely it’s them.

The Solution: Getting Back on Track

So what can you do to help them get back to their glory days level of sales results?

It’s actually pretty simple for them:

• Get back to the basics
• Listen more, speak less (2 ears: 1 mouth)
• Ask more questions, be curious (stop thinking you already know all the answers, which causes salespeople to not even ask questions)
• Follow the process that you know works
• Remove the desperate energy, trust the process, trust the numbers, focus on each person to the fullest

Want to help your salespeople pull out of a slump? Focus on those five bullet points above. That’s really it.

Conclusion

By the way, slumps aren’t a onetime event for new salespeople. They will happen…over and over again…as long as they are in sales.

They will get in their head. They will fluctuate with feelings of being so amazing that they can just do whatever feels right. They will have things that happen in their life that will throw them off (life happens to everyone, often). They will let their lack of performance push them to “try” too hard.

I have seen slump cycles for salespeople be an every 6-8 week event.

So be ready, keep your eyes on the metrics and ears on their conversations, keep your head out of the sand (thinking they don’t need your help anymore), and help keep from getting too low in the dip that will surely happen.