Sales teams rarely wake up one morning and discover they are going to miss their revenue target.
It usually happens much more gradually than that.
A few opportunities drift off course. A couple of deals take longer than expected. A few assumptions turn out to be totally wrong.
On their own, they might not look like much. Added together, however, they can be the cause of lost revenue.
Here are five of the most common reasons sales teams miss their revenue targets:
- Everybody Has A Reason The Deal Isn’t Closed Yet
Almost every sales team can think of at least one deal that should have closed by now, but they also have a long list of reasons why it hasn’t.
The decision maker has been away, the paperwork is taking longer than it should, or the client’s new budget hasn’t kicked in yet. There is always a reason.
Sometimes those reasons are perfectly legitimate, but the problem comes in because revenue targets do not particularly care why a deal is delayed.
They only care whether the deal closed or not.
- New Leads Get More Attention
Salespeople love the start of the sales process.
New leads bring possibilities. New conversations drive momentum. There is always the feeling that the next opportunity could be the one that turns the month around.
It’s the thrill of the chase.
The issue comes in because existing opportunities still need attention while all of that is happening. It is surprisingly easy for a prospect to go from “hot lead” to “I need to follow up with them” without anyone noticing exactly when it happened.
Very few opportunities disappear overnight. Most drift away one missed follow-up at a time without using AI to help.
- Pipelines Look Better Than They Really Are
Many sales teams feel comfortable when they can point to a long list of opportunities sitting in the pipeline.
The thing is, a busy pipeline and a healthy pipeline are not always the same thing. This is precisely why pipeline management is crucial.
It allows sales teams to see where opportunities are sitting in the sales process, which deals are moving full steam ahead, and where bottlenecks are slowing future revenue down.
- Small Problems Take Up Too Much Time
Very few sales problems start out looking super serious.
Response times get a little slower, conversion rates drop ever so slightly, and a few more opportunities start taking longer than expected to close.
None of those things set off alarm bells instantly, but small sales problems have a habit of growing while everybody is busy focusing on bigger things.
By the time they start affecting or impacting revenue targets, they have usually been around for a lot longer than anybody realised.
- Everybody Is Waiting For The Big Deal
Most sales teams have one.
The major deal that will save the quarter. It’s the one everybody talks about in meetings and around the water cooler. The one that would make the numbers look a lot healthier just as soon as it closes.
Revenue targets are often built through lots of smaller wins rather than one heroic finish. Sometimes the big deal lands, and sometimes it doesn’t.
When too much depends on one opportunity, missing a target can happen very quickly.
To End
One of the most frustrating things about sales is how obvious the mistakes look in hindsight.
The opportunities that were never really moving. The follow-ups that should have happened sooner. The deals that people were counting on before they were signed.
Looking back is easy. Spotting those things in real time is where the real challenge lies, so follow these tips above to give your sales teams the best chance of success.