They didn’t need it;

There were no compelling reasons for the prospects to buy;

Your salespeople didn’t have the best solution;

Your salespeople didn’t have the best relationship;

Your salespeople didn’t differentiate themselves from the competition;

The prospects couldn’t afford the solution;

It was more than their prospects wanted to spend;

It cost more than the price for what the prospects perceived was a similar solution;

The prospects weren’t sold;

The prospects weren’t ready.

Regardless of the reasons your salespeople didn’t get the sale, the issues listed above could have all been dealt with earlier in the selling process. Your job, should you decide to accept a true sales management assignment, is to make sure your salespeople recognize these issues before presenting or proposing a solution.

In Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball, your salespeople don’t reach 2nd base unless the prospect needs what you sell, has compelling reasons to buy, and your salesperson has developed a good relationship while differentiating himself and your company from the competition.

They don’t reach 3rd base until they have completely qualified the prospect to do business with your company and completely qualified your company to do business with the them. So all of the issues listed above would have been covered early enough in the process to proceed with confidence or exit gracefully.

Coaching calls for both pre-call strategizing and post-call debriefing. While most sales managers are very ineffective at coaching, you can excel at it if you know when in the selling process these issues need to be addressed and your salespeople are properly prepared to address them.

For more information about Baseline Selling visit