The question is almost always asked too late and too broadly. Increasing sales can mean five different problems, and they do not share the same answer. This page offers no universal method. It helps you identify which of those problems you actually have, before committing time or money to a solution.
The problem as it presents itself
The observation is usually the same: turnover flattens or falls while the team works no less than before. Orders still come in, customers do not complain, and yet the curve stops rising. It is all the more unsettling because no particular event explains it. In practice, stagnation rarely has a single cause. It comes from an ageing customer base, from selling time absorbed by service work, and from the absence of a decision about which markets to develop. The first job is to separate those elements rather than hunt for one lever.
Why it happens
Five causes recur in B2B SMEs. The customer base concentrates: a few accounts weigh too much, and a slowdown in one of them drags the whole figure down. Selling time disappears into administration and service. Quotations leave too late or are never chased. No new segment has been opened for several years, so nothing replaces natural attrition. And pricing has drifted, with each salesperson negotiating to their own tolerance. These causes usually coexist, but their relative weight differs from one company to another.
Diagnostic questions to ask
Six questions frame the situation without external research. What share of turnover comes from the top ten customers? How many new accounts placed a first order last year? How many days pass between an enquiry and a quotation? What proportion of quotations issued gets a follow-up? What was the real reason behind the last ten lost deals? How many genuine visit days does a salesperson achieve per week? Even approximate answers already point towards the dominant cause and spare you a broad, expensive programme.
What your own data can show
The information needed is almost always already inside the company. The sales journal shows concentration and attrition. Quotations issued show response time and win rate. Invoices reveal the real price dispersion on the same product, usually wider than management assumes. Half a day of extraction is enough for those three readings. The exercise has a further benefit: it replaces impressions with figures, which makes a conversation possible with the people who sell, without putting their work on trial.
Commercial actions that usually help
Depending on the cause identified, the actions differ sharply. Against concentration: open a limited number of new accounts in one chosen segment, with dated milestones. Against lost selling time: remove two specific administrative tasks from salespeople. Against slow quotations: set a differentiated internal commitment and measure it. Against missing follow-up: fix the follow-up date at the moment of sending. Against price drift: write down the negotiating latitude for each level of responsibility. Each action is judged on one simple indicator, agreed in advance.
What rarely works
Three reflex answers almost always disappoint. Cutting prices across the board: this damages margin without releasing volume, because a customer satisfied with their supplier does not move for a few per cent. Hiring a salesperson before defining what they will sell and to whom: the person arrives into an organisation that does not know how to use them. Multiplying marketing activity without capacity to handle inbound enquiries: the contacts generated are lost and the company wrongly concludes that the market is not responding.
The order in which to act
Sequence matters as much as the choice of actions. First correct what loses business you already have: response time, quotation follow-up, price consistency. Those corrections cost little and show an effect within weeks. Next, free up selling time, which requires an organisational decision. Only then open new segments, a long piece of work whose results appear after several months. Reversing that order is the most common mistake: searching for new customers while existing business continues to leak away unnoticed.
When external support makes sense
External support is justified in three cases. When the diagnosis exists but no internal capacity is free to apply the decisions. When management is too close to the subject to arbitrate, particularly on long-standing customers who have become barely profitable. When a new segment must be opened that nobody in the company knows. Conversely, if the problem is a lack of method within the team, the answer belongs to training or individual coaching, not to further analysis or additional field capacity.
How Swiss Sales Partners approaches it
Swiss Sales Partners starts by examining what exists: lost deals, lead times, the customer base, prices actually charged, then proposes three or four applicable decisions with an owner and a date. The approach rests on more than 30 years in B2B sales, field sales, commercial management and sales management, with experience gained in the environments of Hilti, Egli Fischer (efco), Berner and Bouygues. No growth percentage is announced in advance, and the work stays within what a written mandate defines, with review dates set from the outset.
FAQ
Where should we start if turnover is falling?
With the business you are already losing: response time to enquiries, follow-up on quotations issued, price consistency. Those three points correct quickly and require no investment.
Does cutting prices increase sales?
Rarely. A customer satisfied with their supplier does not switch for a few per cent, and an across-the-board discount reduces margin without creating new volume.
Do we need to hire a salesperson to sell more?
Only if the shortage is genuinely one of selling time. If it is a shortage of method or direction, hiring adds a person to a system that does not yet work.
How long before we see an effect?
A few weeks on quotation lead time and follow-up discipline. Several months on opening new segments, depending on the sales cycle in your sector.
Do we need market research?
Rarely at the start. Your quotations, orders and lost deals contain most of the answer. External research is mainly justified for a sector you know nothing about.