When sales are falling, many salespeople fall into panic or depression that only exacerbates the underlying issues. Taking a deep breath and working out a cause and solution for the downswing before making a move will serve you much better in the long term. With that said, understanding the ‘Why?’ can be difficult, given the multitude of possible reasons your sales are falling. In this article, we’ll discuss three broad reasons your sales might be falling and how to work to stymy your losses with simple, effective actions.

The Market Is Changing

When sales are falling without an immediately clear reason, you should consider the possibility that your industry has shifted beneath you in some way. This could happen countless ways, so the only real way to confirm this as a problem is to stay abreast of industry news.

By the time sales are falling, the situation has become quite dire and may take a while to resolve; for that reason, and many others, it pays to keep your understanding of your customers’ needs and wants and the movements of tangential factors up to date.

Here are a few problems to keep an eye out for:

• Changes in buyer demographics
• Changes in how buyers buy (in person, by phone, online, etc.)
• Criticism of the product or industry from a notable source
• The rise of alternative solutions to the problem you solve

Your Competition Is Innovating

Sometimes sales are falling because a competitor has made the first leap forward in your product’s niche. If sales are falling for this reason, react quickly-a big enough gap in value will kill your sales completely.

If you realize sales are falling because of competitor innovation, you need to either catch up with the newest advances or work harder on the intangibles of your sales. Value outside of product features can easily close the gap when sales are falling. By being easier to purchase from or more pleasant to deal with on the back end you can develop brand loyalty that will combat competitor innovation-within limits.

Buyer’s Remorse

If sales are falling despite your best efforts, there may be underlying problems with the ‘final stage’ of the sales cycle, the Buyer’s Remorse stage after the purchase. This can be very difficult to handle as it often arises due to the failures outside of marketing. Poor customer service and low-quality products frequently result in dissatisfied customers, who produce negative word-of-mouth and don’t return as repeat customers.

That said, taking responsibility for what you can would result in more sales regardless of what others do in their positions. Working for more holistic sales with adequate post-sale follow-up can ameliorate the doubts inherent to any purchase. Customers who don’t regret their first purchase will buy again and produce positive word-of-mouth.