If your company is struggling to close the deals that you’re going after, this is the post for you.

On a recent episode of the B2B Revenue Acceleration podcast, I interviewed Adam Honig, Co-founder and CEO of Spiro.ai. Adam shared the top 8 reasons customers might not be buying from you. Understanding these issues can help you course correct if you’re struggling and increase your success in going after deals.

Here we go:

#1: You Don’t Have a Unique Selling Proposition

You would be amazed at the number of sales people out there that are trying to build relationships or make connections, but never say “hey, here’s the thing I can really help you with.”

That’s a major problem for a lot of people.

You need a unique selling proposition.

And you need to communicate it clearly to your clients.

We encourage everyone to make that a part of the conversation very early on as soon as you start engaging with a prospect.

#2: You’re Targeting the Wrong People

What we mean by “the wrong people” is that you’re not talking with the person who’s actually going to sign the contact.

You may be talking to an influencer, but not the ultimate decision maker.

And as you get further into the sales process, you lose perspective if you’re talking to the wrong person. You forget what matters most to the ultimate decision maker.

When you’re in sales, you tend to think the whole world is your oyster. You think you can convince anyone of anything.

That attitude is great to have, as being enthusiastic is super important.

But you can really waste a lot of time going after everyone.

In fact, if you’re a great salesperson, you can actually make a lot of progress with the wrong people, only to realize at the end of the process that they’re not going to buy from you.

You’ve got to really know who the decision maker is and make sure they’re part of the process.

#3: Sometimes the Product or Service You’re Selling is Just Not That Good

New products are like caterpillars. There’s a natural growth of a product over time that can make it a butterfly.

Adam Honig

This one can be difficult for us to think about.

It can be common for younger salespeople to blame the product or its lack of features for lackluster sales.

But sometimes, that actually is the issue.

This can be a hard reality to face, especially if you’re an entrepreneur and you’ve poured your heart into building a business around one specific product.

But, just because you might be selling the wrong product doesn’t mean all of your hard work is wasted.

New products are like caterpillars.

There’s a natural growth of a product that happens over time that can turn it into a butterfly.

But a lot of early stage companies aren’t really focusing on the growth that their product can achieve to make it into something more valuable.

The goal is to sell the customer on the benefits of the butterfly, showing them the path of how to get there.

#4: You’re Selling in a Very Competitive Market

Markets can become oversaturated.

If you’re selling something that can easily be purchased from many vendors, how do you differentiate yourself?

Sometimes, you’re just not in the right market and you have to niche down, get much more specific about what you’re trying to do to help you stand out.

And this is one of the reasons why you need to have a great USP — it helps differentiate you in a crowded market.

#5: Your Buyers Are Getting Overwhelmed

Studies show that the more choices people have available to them, the less satisfied they’ll be once they actually make a decision. They just don’t know if they’re really making the right decision.

Adam Honig

These feelings can prompt them to make an immediate “no” decision.

In fact, a lot of studies show that the more choices people have available to them, the less satisfied they’ll be once they actually make a decision. They just never know if they’re really making the right choice.

Again, think about what differentiates you and whether or not you might need to narrow your focus.

#6: Your Product is Not Valued Enough

We see a lot of companies that are selling something that’s the fifth or sixth priority that an organization has.

But it really needs to be one of the top three priorities to make the cut these days.

Unless your product is in one of those top three slots, it’s just viewed as something that would be nice to have. Not something that is essential.

What are some reasons your product might not be a top priority?  

Well, maybe the ROI isn’t strong enough, or it’s just hard to quantify. Or maybe your product or service just doesn’t fit with the corporation’s strategy.

As a salesperson, strive to understand the corporate strategy of your client, so you know how to make the case that your product will enable that strategy.

#7: Your Sales Reps Are Not Building Trust

As salespeople, we are there to help the customer achieve something, whatever that something is to them.

Adam Honig

So, people have to rely on other clues to know if they’re making a good decision.

They tend to rely on what we might call emotional hunches.

One of those is how whether they trust a salesperson or their organization.

One mistake we see with salespeople is that they go for the close prematurely.

Doing this causes the prospect to lose a little bit of trust, because the salesperson is trying to make something happen on their time frame, instead of on the client’s time frame.

Keep your customer first and focus on building trust with them.

#8: Your Sales Reps Are Being Too Pushy

There’s a lot of stories from customers who just feel like salespeople are being too pushy.

That kills as many sales as anything else.

So, how do you find the balance between being too soft and being too pushy?

Again, it starts with keeping the customer in mind.

As salespeople, we are there to help them achieve something, whatever that something is to them.

We start to get too pushy when we try to make something happen for ourselves, maybe when we’re approaching the end of the month or the end of the quarter.

The other thing that can make us too pushy is when prospects don’t respond to us in the way that we would like them to. That frustration builds up and we lose sight of keeping the customer first.

It’s our job to take what they need and merge it with what we need, but not try to push our own agenda on them.

As long as you’re doing that, you shouldn’t come across as too pushy.

If you’re struggling to close the deals, spend some time figuring out if one of these issues might be the culprit.

Dig deep to understand your customer, their key strategic initiatives, and what’s going on in their industry. Focus on how your product can help them to increase your chances of getting the deal.

This post is based on a B2B Revenue Acceleration podcast with Adam Honig. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe here.

If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen here.