5 Frustrations that Derail the Sales Force

I write a lot about the things that frustrate Presidents, CEO’s, Sales VP’s and Salespeople.  Yesterday, somebody asked what frustrates me so I attempted to tackle that question here.

I’m very steady and what you see on Monday, you’ll probably get on Tuesday and Wednesday too.  That said, there are things that will make me eat faster or more often, and here you can read my top 5:

• People Don’t Follow Through. This refers to people who don’t do what they said they will do.  When it comes to my world, this can include clients, their sales and sales management personnel, my Expert Reseller network, my own salespeople, my staff, vendors, and yes, prospects too.  Please follow through as promised!
• Salespeople Suck.  When salespeople let sales opportunities that were right there for the taking slip right through their fingers as a result of not being thorough enough I don’t understand how they can be so lackadaisical.  Come on – how can you make those mistakes?
• Inverted Pipeline.  When salespeople lose their prospecting momentum and fall out of the habit of scheduling new appointments it drives me nuts.  They’ll have some lean times ahead but it affects more than their success and income. It affects their sales managers, their teams, their company, their morale, and others who work with them and wonder, “How come he gets away with not scheduling the appointments?”
• Interruptions.  I can control phone calls, email and the calendar but hate walk-in interruptions because even 20 minutes could mean not getting the 20 hours worth of work completed in the available hours I have. I know, I could simply shut my door like most people do but that gives the impression that I’m not in the office – no visibility, no presence, not really there, so why go to the office at all?  Why even have an office?  I could work poolside, gradually work less and less and suddenly, not even have a business!  This is what interruptions do – they cause one to become unfocused.
• Can’t Find What I’m Looking For. I know where my stuff is but when I’m looking for the real-time data that is supposed to be in the CRM Dashboard, that’s an entirely different story.  Is it really lost, or did someone not put it back where it belongs? How hard is it to update your opportunities every day?

OK, those are mine.  What frustrates you?