Why Your Sales Team Is Struggling – And How to Fix It.

Many leaders misdiagnose sales problems as motivation issues. The reality is that most underperformance issues stem from gaps in process, behavior, and accountability. Lack of motivation isn’t the issue. You need systems to hold people accountable. If you let them stray, they will sink to the path of least resistance.

In this guide, we’ll cover the signs that indicate your sales team needs developmental training and outline the steps to get started.

Recognizing the Signs of a Struggling Sales Team

Identifying signs of poor development training early allows leaders to correct issues before they impact revenue or morale. If you see these signs, it’s time for an update as soon as possible.

• Inconsistent results in the team. Suppose there are wide variations in team member performance and only a select few are consistently meeting targets. In this case, this indicates they do not have a clear and consistent strategy to work with.
• Low conversion rates. Low conversions indicate that there are skill gaps in soft skills such as communication, negotiation, and closing a deal as well as instilling buyer confidence.
• Slow movement through the funnel. If the funnel is sluggish, it indicates that your team needs training on keeping a lead motivated throughout the sales funnel, including how to hit the optimal emotional cues and the right times to move things along.
• Low average deal volume. A consistent trend of small deals often indicates that the team struggles with value-based selling, upselling, and cross-selling.
• Lack of tangible strategy before or after sales calls. Discuss with your team how they prepare for a call and their follow-up strategy. If team members do not have clear objectives, talk tracks, or next-step plans, they’re operating reactively.

If you see any of these issues, your team needs an update in their development training.

How to Develop Your Team

Sales development training is not a one-time workshop. It’s a continuous process of monitoring and building skills to help your team perform at its absolute best.

Diagnose the Core Issues

Start with a complete assessment of your people, processes, performance, and strategies. Identify where skill gaps exist, how your sales process aligns with buyer behavior, and where accountability breaks down.

• People. Do team members understand expectations? Are the right behaviors being rewarded? Do they thoroughly understand the products or services they are selling?
• Process. Is your sales process documented, measurable, and consistently followed? Do your team members have easy access to references?
• Performance. What metrics are the measure of success? What areas are team members underperforming in? Where do things typically slow down or stagnate in the sales funnel?
• Strategy. Does the team have a clear and actionable plan to achieve its revenue goals? Is it up-to-date with modern best practices?

This step is critical to avoid assumptions about the issues and dig into the real problems. If you want to resolve issues quickly, an expert sales consultant can help you pinpoint problems and implement solutions that yield results.

Provide Ongoing Coaching

Once you’ve identified the gaps, establish structured coaching sessions that target these gaps.

For example, if your team is struggling with sales volumes, training should incorporate elements such as modern negotiation and closing strategies, familiarizing them with the products or services they are selling, and the art of upselling and cross-selling those products or services.

The training program should be easy to understand, set clear goals and plans, and have clear standards to measure performance.

Conduct Call Audits and Deal Reviews

Call audits and deal reviews are among the most powerful tools for development. Reviewing fundamental interactions helps leaders pinpoint things like

• The whole context of what your team member experiences during a call
• The exact moment messaging breaks down
• Where opportunities and milestones are missed
• Where the team member’s strengths and opportunities to improve are
• Where coaching can make the most difference

The goal is to help each salesperson understand what effective conversations sound like and refine communication techniques.

Build Accountability Standards

Accountability is a crucial tool for maintaining peak performance. Without it, even the best training will fade back to old habits and the paths of least resistance. Keep your team members accountable with a system that:

• Establishes clear performance metrics and behavioral standards
• Includes tracking metrics like average deal values and pipeline velocity
• Outlines and documents all processes in a way that is easy to understand
• Should be flexible enough to adapt to evolving industry standards and market trends
• Leans heavily into behavior economics rather than a tired playbook
• Explains when and how they should expect their performance to be evaluated

When everyone knows what success looks like, how it’s achieved, and how it’s measured, performance goes from a sluggish flow to sustainable growth.

Rose Garden Consulting Offers Development Training That Creates RESULTS.

We don’t teach theory. We fix broken habits, fill the gaps in execution, and help your reps build the skills that actually close deals. We provide a comprehensive range of services, from behavioral economics training to team assessments, live call coaching, workshops, and other solutions that foster sustainable sales growth.

Whether you’re trying to scale a growing team, onboard faster, or eliminate dead weight, our sales leadership development programs give you the structure to get it done. Book a discovery call now to give your team the reset it needs to succeed.