What’s Wrong With a Sales Blitz?

From time to time it can be good to bring the sales force together for a massive, all-out prospecting assault. There’s nothing really wrong with a sales blitz from time to time. But it isn’t a magic bullet for poor sales results.

Here’s the analogy: You eat too much and stop exercising for a couple years, and then decide to simultaneously go on a starvation diet and run a marathon to restore your health. It’s a blitz all right, but it not something that’s going to produce the long-term results you are after.

When is a sales blitz is a bad idea?

1. If your sales blitz is designed to make up for poor numbers, then it isn’t a good plan. A short-term program won’t address a systemic problem.
2. If your sales blitz is designed to win business fast and you have a long sales cycle, it’s not a good plan. Your need for revenue does nothing to compress the sales cycle.
3. If your sales blitz is designed to build a solid pipeline of opportunities, then you really have a prospecting problem. A prospecting problem isn’t going to be solved by a sales blitz.

When is a sales blitz a good idea?

1. If you sell something transactional, with a short sales cycle, and feet on the street turn into revenue, a sales blitz is a good idea.
2. If you want to create some excitement around some new offering, a sales blitz is a good idea.

If you are going to do a sales blitz, you need to make sure that the goal is something that can actually be obtained by a sales blitz. If the sales blitz is an emergency initiative to save your quarter, you are better served dealing with your real, systemic challenges.

Questions

Why is a sales blitz such an attractive quick-fix initiative?

What are the real sales challenges that a blitz is designed to improve?

When is a blitz the wrong prescription?

When is a blitz a good idea?