Let’s get serious. Are your products and services bringing in the revenue you expected, based on your pre-launch market and customer research? Or do too many sales calls crumble and bring you rejection instead of revenue? It is true that most B2B sales conversations result in No instead of Yes—but is a flashing red light signaling that you’re losing an unacceptable number of sales?

Failed sales is a common scenario in businesses and sadly, those who face this problem for an extended period must close their doors. There are a few usual suspects known to hasten the demise, such as insufficient working capital/cash-flow (29%) and an improper product-market fit (34%). A walk through your neighborhood is bound to reveal empty storefronts where once a happy and hopeful B2C entrepreneur expected to find sustainable success and become a familiar face in the community. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that of the 34.8M active small businesses in the US in 2025 (82% solopreneurs), 20.4% failed in the first year and 45% failed within five years of operating.

If your sales expectations are crashing, you must take action in short order. Reconfirm who comprises your best customer groups and their motivations for buying your category of services or products by doing some market research. If you detect a shift in customer behavior regarding the need for your offering, extend your research to explore the possibility of providing another service, an offering that has a more extensive pool of customers that will welcome your new offering and will be accessible to you. Your adjusted offering—which might be aimed at another customer group— will become the launchpad for executing a sustainable pivot. While you research and strategize to correct your product-market problem, consider trying to get hired into a side-hustle job, so you can get paid and build up your paltry cash-flow.

There could be another, less obvious, obstacle to your sales problem. Think carefully; how do you describe the Unique Selling Proposition of your service or product and “paint a picture” that helps your prospect envision the value delivered by your offering? Your difficulty with closing deals and making sales might be the result of what you say, or do not say— a failure to communicate. Outside of a viable product-market fit, how you explain and position your service or product for the prospect is the most important part of your sales strategy. If you expect to make sales, it is necessary to help prospects connect the dots between their needs, goals, or pain points and the logic of your solution. Your failure to have successful sales calls might boil down to a handful of common misunderstandings that are fixable:

• Prospective clients do not understand the When, Where, or Why of your offering.

• Prospective clients are not convinced that your solution can solve their problem, or the benefit, as the prospect understands it, seems insufficient when compared to the time and money required to implement.

• You are trying to sell to the wrong prospect (product-market disconnect).

Know why customers buy your offering

Whether you’re wearing your sales hat or marketing hat, you must learn to communicate unambiguously the most important aspect of your brand story—why your solution is the best fit for the prospect’s need, goal, or pain point. Open your favorite note-taking app—or use the back of an envelope—-and list the core capabilities and benefits that your product or service brings to customers and articulate clearly what it all could mean to them. You must deliver a credible use case explanation that spells out how and why your offering produces the desired outcomes. Create a script that conveys a message that connects the dots and resonates with the prospect’s agenda. Your mission is to help the prospect understand how and why your offering will yield the best return on investment.

When re-assessing and re-booting your USP, remember that what may seem clear to you might confuse or overwhelm your listener—the prospect. Bear in mind that constructive feedback is your friend and can help you to more effectively articulate the message. The most effective way to obtain reliable feedback is to ask those who know your offerings:

• Ask customers. Those who have successfully used your product or service understand how, where and when to use it and they know how your offering performs in real time. You may be surprised by what a boots-on-the-ground perspective reveals about your product or service. Customer feedback can give you powerful insights into what matters to customers.
• Ask colleagues who know your market. Professional colleagues who are in an adjacent business to your own, or who have some familiarity with your customers or marketplace, may be able to give you a couple of pearls of wisdom regarding what your prospects may value about your solution.
• Investigate social media comment sections and industry publications. Information included in published research findings or case studies found in industry newsletters may give you the heads-up or a deeper understanding of any number of issues or anticipated changes in your marketplace. The user-generated content found in the comments section of social media platforms are another trove of grassroots insights and wisdom that flows from users of your category of service or product IRT. The commenters are not your customers, but you can still learn what is important to those who use a similar offering.

Are speaking to the decision-maker?

You know, identifying the decision-maker for your sale is not always easy. I’ve been gaslighted several times by someone who has a job title that makes it easy to masquerade as a decision-maker when that is not the case. I’ve also been told by certain prospects that s/he is the sole decision maker, when that is not the case. Heads-up—unless you’re talking to a fellow Freelance professional, there is rarely just one decision-maker for major projects. Obtaining access to an official member of the decision committee for your sale is not always easy. Moreover, speaking with the committee member who has the most clout might be impossible. Sometimes the heavy hitter prefers to hide in the background. Unless you have a friend inside the organization, all you can do is ask and hope that you get an honest answer.

The goal here is to avoid wasting time trying to sell to someone who is unable to green-light the sale. One of the most frustrating experiences in sales is devoting time and energy on a so-called prospect who doesn’t have the authority to make purchasing decisions. Serious prospects have the authority to buy. Masquerading prospects tend to be evasive or vague about the decision-making process. If the prospect repeatedly tells you s/he must consult with someone else and, especially, if the sales never seems to move forward, it’s likely that you have been hoodwinked by an imposter and you are wasting your time. Sharing key details with the other members of the decision committee is to be expected. Being unclear about the internal steps, such as the preferred delivery timeline or the budget for the purchase of your offering could be a red flag.

Early in your sales conversations, it’s essential to ask about the prospect’s decision-making process. In your first meeting, ask questions like, “Who else will be involved in the decision?” or “What steps will we go through for the final approval?” to help confirm whether or not you’re speaking with the right person. Note that genuine prospects will ask specific performance, delivery and pricing questions, or will want to know how your offering compares to a competitor.

 Product-market disconnect/wrong prospect

Not everyone is your prospect, even if it appears that certain potential customer groups should be interested in your solution. It’s disappointing, but even an excellent product or service cannot be of use to everyone. If you ask would-be prospects who point out their lack of interest in your offering, you might receive good information, which can be as good as money. Your queries could lead you to discover a product or service feature that you have the capability to offer and would open doors to a new customer group. But whatever—if you put into motion the remedies discussed above, you’ll likely have more than enough sales calls to make you forget about the one that got away.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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