Most Sales Teams Are Racing With The Parking Brake On
NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD
You know that scene in Armageddon where Bruce Willis is looking at NASA’s version of his drill? He’s just grabbing parts and throwing them aside like “what is this… we don’t need this… what is this?”
That’s your sales process.
I’ve worked with over 150 sales organizations, and here’s what I see everywhere: 19 stage sales processes that would make a government bureaucrat proud.
Lead qualification, initial contact, needs assessment, stakeholder mapping, technical evaluation, proposal preparation, executive review, legal review, contract negotiation, implementation planning…
Stop.
Your people aren’t going to remember 19 stages.
Hell, they’re not going to DO 19 stages.
You don’t need complexity. You need four things: find someone who wants to talk, figure out if there’s really an opportunity, make sure they can actually buy, then close it.
But even if you simplify your process, you’re still missing the bigger problem.
Most sales teams are starving for conversations.
I tell every CEO the same thing: there are two variables that determine everything. Enough activity to create opportunities, and early conversations with people who can actually make decisions. That’s it.
The math is brutal and simple.
If your team needs 10 conversations to get one meeting, and they need 3 meetings to close one deal, then they need 30 conversations per sale. If they’re only having 20 conversations a month, they’re closing less than one deal. The math doesn’t lie, but most leaders never do the math.
Here’s what’s really killing you though.
You’re spending those precious conversations on deals you’ll never win.
I tell my clients: if you didn’t help write the RFP, don’t respond to it. I know that hurts. I know you think “but we might win this one.” You won’t. By and large, if you didn’t initiate it, if you didn’t influence the specifications, you’re just helping them validate the decision they’ve already made.
Charlie Munger talks about inversion all the time. Instead of asking “who can we win,” ask “who are we definitely not going to win?” Then stop chasing those deals. I’ve seen companies waste six months on opportunities that were dead before the first call.
One of my clients spent two weeks preparing a proposal for a $2M deal. Forty hours of work across multiple people.
I asked three questions:
Did we influence the specifications?
Are we the incumbent?
Do we have a champion inside who’s lobbying for us?
Three no’s.
I told them to walk away. They fought me on it.
The RFP was just a formality… the company was required to get multiple bids, but they’d already decided to renew with their current provider. Six months later, exactly what I predicted happened.
The incumbent won, and my client had wasted 40 hours on a deal that was never really available.
You want to know what’s really happening?
Most sales teams are like NASCAR drivers racing with the parking brake on. They’ve overcomplicated the track, they’re not going fast enough, and they’re heading toward walls they could avoid.
The fix isn’t motivation. It isn’t CRM software. It isn’t better commission structures.
It’s this: Simplify your process so people can actually follow it. Generate enough activity with the right people. And stop chasing deals you can’t win.
Do those three things and you’ll double your results with the same team you have right now.
Keep overcomplicated it, and you’ll keep getting the same results you’re getting.
Your choice.
What’s your approach to sales development? Are you building systems or hoping for magic bullets? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Reply to this email or drop me a note on LinkedIn.
Want to discuss how to build a development system that actually sticks?
Let’s talk.
Until next time.
Questions our sales training programs? Email me at adam@thenorthwoodgrp.com
