Mohala Growth Partners

How to Improve Sales: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Good salespeople are highly valuable assets not only to the companies they represent but also to the clients they serve. They offer much more than products or services—they provide insight, guidance, and solutions tailored to their clients’ needs. Exceptional salespeople differentiate their organisations through the value they personally bring, fostering trust and building a relationship that sets them apart from competitors who lack these traits.

This differentiation is critical in today’s competitive markets. Clients value advice that helps them navigate complexities and align solutions to their strategic goals. Salespeople who can demonstrate this understanding and deliver meaningful outcomes stand out as trusted partners. Conversely, those who rely on outdated methods or fail to address the client’s unique needs risk damaging their credibility and losing opportunities.

The Good: Effective Sales Practices
Effective sales practices go beyond pitching products or services. They centre on understanding the client and creating a clear, differentiated value proposition. Here’s what good sales looks like:

1. Researching the Client

Before engaging with a potential client, top-performing salespeople invest time in understanding their business, strategy, and industry dynamics. They:

• Analyse the client’s strategic goals and challenges.
• Identify key trends and pressures within the client’s market.
• Tailor their approach to align with the client’s objectives.

2. Asking Insightful Questions

Good sales interactions start with listening, not talking. Salespeople ask questions that uncover:

• Strategy, objectives and challenges the client may not have articulated.
• Gaps in their current strategies or solutions.
• Opportunities for growth or efficiency improvements.

3. Providing Unique Insights

• Share insights drawn from their expertise and broader market knowledge.
• Offer perspective on trends and potential outcomes specific to the client’s situation.
• Demonstrate their value as trusted advisors rather than mere product representatives.

4. Aligning Solutions with Outcomes

• How their product or service will deliver specific outcomes for the client.
• How these outcomes align with the client’s strategic objectives.
• Tangible value that differentiates their solution from competitors.

The Bad: Common Sales Mistakes

While good sales practices build trust and differentiation, bad practices undermine credibility and create barriers to success. Here are some common pitfalls:

1. Over-Reliance on Features and Benefits

Salespeople who focus solely on listing features and benefits without considering the client’s context often:

• Fail to connect their offering to the client’s needs.
• Leave clients to interpret whether the product is relevant to them.
• Miss opportunities to differentiate their solution.

2. Generic Pitches

• Using templated presentations with no customisation.
• Neglecting to address specific pain points or objectives.
• Treating all prospects as though they face identical challenges.

3. Poor Listening Skills

• Overlooking critical information about the client’s priorities.
• Delivering irrelevant or tone-deaf recommendations.
• Creating the impression that they prioritise selling over solving.

4. Failing to Follow Up

A lack of timely and thoughtful follow-up is a missed opportunity to:

• Reinforce key points discussed during the meeting.
• Address any lingering concerns or questions.
• Build trust by demonstrating commitment to the client’s success.

 
The Ugly: Sales Practices to Avoid Entirely
Some sales practices don’t just fail—they actively harm relationships and reputations. These include:

1. Overpromising and Underdelivering

Making exaggerated claims about what a product or service can achieve damages trust when expectations aren’t met.

2. Neglecting Post-Sale Engagement

Sales doesn’t end with a signed contract. Failure to support the client post-sale can:

• Undermine trust and damage the relationship.
• Reduce opportunities for repeat business or referrals.

3. Pressure Tactics

Using aggressive sales techniques, such as limited-time offers or guilt-based persuasion, often:

• Alienates potential clients.
• Damages the brand’s reputation over time.

Actionable Insights: How to Improve Sales
For companies aiming to create a high-performing sales team, recruitment is the critical starting point. The process of hiring the right people determines the foundation upon which sales success is built. Effective salespeople that naturally exhibit ‘good’ traits differentiate themselves from their average counterparts by having an inbuilt ability to consult and they generally fall into two categories:

• Experienced Professionals: These individuals already possess the skills and track record that exemplify good sales practices. They know how to consult, engage with clients, and deliver outcomes aligned with business objectives.
• High-Potential Talent: While they may lack extensive experience, these candidates have the aptitude and capability to acquire relevant experience. With proper development, they can grow into consultative, high-performing salespeople.

AI-Empowered Buyers: How Technology Sales Professionals Must Evolve
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses operate, and the sales function is no exception. In the technology sector, buyers now have unprecedented access to AI-driven tools that empower them to research, compare, and evaluate solutions independently. This shift fundamentally changes how customers approach the buying cycle and, consequently, how sales professionals must engage with them.

While this transformation presents challenges, it also creates immense opportunities. Companies that embrace AI and adapt their sales strategies can position themselves as leaders, building stronger client relationships and driving sustainable revenue growth. However, this new landscape also exposes organisations that operate in traditional silos, as a lack of coordination between product, marketing, and sales becomes increasingly detrimental.

How AI is Transforming the Buying Cycle
AI has shifted control of the buying process firmly into the hands of the customer. Buyers now rely on sophisticated tools to:

• Conduct Independent Research: AI-driven platforms allow buyers to analyse data, compare products, and evaluate vendors without engaging sales teams.
• Personalise Options: With AI, customers can tailor solutions to their unique needs, understanding potential outcomes and risks before making a decision.
• Access Industry Insights: Advanced analytics provide clients with sector-specific trends, benchmarking data, and predictive insights to inform their purchasing decisions.

What This Means for the Buyer’s Journey
The traditional sales funnel, where buyers relied on salespeople for information, has evolved into a buyer-driven journey. Key changes include:

1. Delayed Sales Engagement: Buyers are now more than halfway through their decision-making process before contacting a salesperson.
2. Higher Expectations: Customers expect sales professionals to offer insights beyond what they can find online, focusing on value and outcomes rather than product features.
3. Increased Competition: AI exposes buyers to a broader range of options, making differentiation more critical than ever.

The Impact on Sales Professionals
Sales professionals are no longer gatekeepers of information. Instead, their role has evolved into that of a consultant and strategic advisor. To remain effective, they must adapt in the following ways:

1. Elevating Consultative Skills Salespeople must:

• Understand the client’s industry, challenges, and goals.
• Offer tailored recommendations based on deep expertise.
• Demonstrate how their solution aligns with the client’s strategic objectives.

2. Outcomes Rather Than Features
Modern buyers are well-informed about what a solution can do. What they need from sales professionals is a clear understanding of how that solution will deliver meaningful outcomes. Sales discussions dominated by features and benefits, without relevance to the customer’s situation, fail to add value.

Sales professionals must:

• Work closely with clients to align solutions to relevant strategic, operational, or financial outcomes.
• Move beyond generic pitches and focus on tailoring solutions to specific customer needs.
• Differentiate their offering in mature, competitive markets by showcasing the tangible results clients can expect.

3. Leveraging AI Tools

• Predictive Analytics: Identifying high-value leads and anticipating customer needs.
• CRM Enhancements: Using AI to track interactions and personalise engagement.
• Sentiment Analysis: Gaining insights into client attitudes and preferences.

4. Building Stronger Relationships

• Foster trust through authenticity and expertise.
• Focus on long-term partnerships rather than short-term wins.
• Continuously engage clients post-sale to ensure satisfaction and identify upselling opportunities.

Breaking Down Organisational Silos
While AI empowers individual sales professionals, its true potential is unlocked when product, marketing, and sales teams work together seamlessly. AI has the unprecedented power to bring together insight, research, competitive analysis, and innovation. It can act as a tool that addresses the wider issue of growth alignment, which leads to:

• Inconsistent Messaging: Disjointed efforts result in fragmented communication that confuses buyers.
• Outdated Insights: A lack of collaboration leads to decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate market data.
• Missed Opportunities: Teams working in isolation fail to capitalise on cross-functional insights that drive differentiation.

Aligning Teams for Success

1. Develop a Unified Strategy: Ensure product, marketing, and sales align on customer outcomes, market positioning, and competitive differentiation.
2. Invest in Cross-Functional Training: Equip teams with shared knowledge of AI tools and techniques to enhance collaboration.
3. Create Feedback Loops: Use data from AI-driven insights to inform product development, refine marketing campaigns, and improve sales tactics.

The Opportunity for Forward-Thinking Organisations

• Deliver Personalised Value: Use AI to understand each client’s specific needs and craft solutions that resonate.
• Enhance Differentiation: Leverage data-driven insights to articulate clear advantages over competitors.
• Drive Revenue Growth: Aligning teams and leveraging AI optimises the entire sales process, leading to better outcomes.

Case in Point: Industry Leaders

• Shortened sales cycles due to targeted engagement.
• Increased customer retention through personalised experiences.
• Greater market share by staying ahead of industry trends.

2025: From Goals to Growth!
Revenue Growth 2025: Focus, Ignite, Accelerate
The New Year is more than a change of calendar; it’s a chance to ignite your organisation’s growth strategy! January brings a sense of renewal, with teams returning from the holidays refreshed and motivated. This unique moment offers businesses an opportunity to reflect on the successes and challenges of the previous year while setting a clear path forward.
 

Driving Alignment Across Sales, Marketing, and Product Teams
In today’s competitive landscape, tightly aligned sales, marketing, and product teams are a the key to success. Alignment among these functions ensures a unified focus on growth, approach to market needs, differentiation, and customer engagement. Without collaboration, businesses risk disjointed messaging and missed opportunities.

Tips for Alignment:

1. Foster Cross-Functional Communication: Encourage regular meetings and shared platforms for open dialogue.
2. Establish Shared Metrics & Goals: Tie individual team objectives to overarching revenue growth targets.
3. Leverage Technology: Use collaborative tools like CRM systems and analytics platforms to centralise information and streamline workflows.

Setting Ambitious Goals and Turning Them into Actionable Plans
Ambitious goals are the foundation of growth, but achieving them requires actionable strategies. Clear, measurable objectives ensure that every team member understands their role in driving success. For 2025, tie goals across your growth function (sales, marketing and product) to strategic priorities, ensuring alignment at all levels.

Framework for Success:

• Define SMART Goals: Objectives should inspire, encourage and stretch the organisation.
• Break Down Objectives: Translate high-level goals into smaller, actionable tasks.
• Assign Accountability: Ensure each team member knows their responsibilities and how their work contributes to other business functions and the larger picture.

Creating a Culture Innovation
Innovation thrives in a culture of collaboration. By empowering team members to contribute ideas and take ownership of initiatives, businesses foster creativity and drive performance. Recognising and celebrating achievements further boosts morale, creating an environment where teams feel valued and motivated.

Strategies for Building Collaboration:

• Empower Teams: Provide autonomy and encourage innovative problem-solving.
• Celebrate Wins: Regularly acknowledge individual and team contributions.
• Encourage Diversity of Thought: Involve a range of perspectives to spark creative solutions.

An innovative culture not only enhances internal dynamics but also positions organisations to respond effectively to market challenges.

Energising Teams: Vision, Opportunity, Growth!
The beginning of the year is the perfect time to energise teams with clear expectations and meaningful conversations. Setting the tone for the year ahead involves more than just assigning tasks—it’s about inspiring enthusiasm and aligning everyone around a shared vision.

Tips for Effective Team Meetings:

1. Start with Purpose: Share the overarching goals for 2025 and why they matter.
2. Encourage Participation: Create a safe space for team members to share ideas and aspirations.
3. Focus on Opportunities: Highlight areas for growth and innovation to spark excitement.

These conversations not only align teams but also build a sense of ownership and accountability, driving collective success.

Embracing Customer-Centric Growth Strategies
In 2025, customer expectations will continue to evolve. Businesses that prioritise customer-centric strategies will stand out, building stronger relationships and driving loyalty. Tech sales teams must shift from merely selling products to delivering tailored solutions that deliver specific client outcomes.

Keys to Customer-Centricity:

• Understand the Customer Journey: Map out touchpoints and identify strategic intent.
• Deliver Personalised Value: Tailor to align with client outcomes – financial, operational, efficiency
• Gather and Act on Feedback: Use client insights to refine strategies and improve service delivery.

Leveraging Technology and Insights to Drive Results
Technology is a powerful enabler of growth. AI, market intelligence tools, and analytics platforms empower sales teams to deliver personalised customer experiences and optimise strategies. In 2025, equipping teams with the right tools will be a critical differentiator.

How to Leverage Technology:

• Embrace AI: Use analytics to identify high-value leads and tailor outreach.
• Optimise CRM Systems: Centralise customer data for seamless collaboration.
• Invest in Training: Ensure teams understand how to use technology effectively.

When used strategically, technology transforms insights into actionable growth opportunities.

Adapting to a Competitive Landscape in Tech Sales
The tech sales sector is more competitive than ever, with informed buyers and market saturation creating new challenges. To thrive, businesses must differentiate themselves by demonstrating clear value and expertise.

Strategies for Staying Ahead:

• Focus on Differentiation: Highlight unique value propositions that resonate with clients.
• Stay Agile: Adapt to market trends and evolving customer needs.
• Invest in Expertise: Build a sales team with consultative skills and industry knowledge.

By embracing these strategies, businesses can position themselves as leaders in a crowded market.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Sales in the UK Technology Sector: A Growth Strategy Perspective
Tech companies often pride themselves on innovation and rapid expansion, yet many find themselves quietly wrestling with stalled revenue, frustrated sales teams, and product pipelines or service offerings that fail to resonate with the market as strongly as they once did. Formulating a growth strategy is essential to overcoming these challenges—but it requires deeper alignment than most organisations have in place.
 
Research commissioned by Mohala Growth Partners in December 2024 examined the financial performance of the UK technology sector using data from Moody’s FAME business intelligence platform. The findings reveal a stark reality: 55% of technology companies with revenues between £10–£150 million face one or more of the following challenges:

• Revenue and/or EBITDA trending downward
• Low revenue and/or EBITDA growth of between 0–5%

Coupled with high investor expectations—especially from Private Equity—this raises the question of why these problems are so common in the tech sector. Clearly, many issues can affect growth, but there is often a pervasive thread running through numerous companies. It frequently stems from commonly held beliefs at the leadership level that may no longer serve growth as effectively as they once did:

• Leadership believes the entire organisation is focused on delivering the company’s growth plans.
• If growth stalls, the sales team must be at fault—“they just need more training or a harder push.”

Common Belief: “We’re Already Efficient at Achieving Growth”
Many technology leaders point to upbeat figures—like top-line revenue or daily active users—and conclude they are thriving. Indeed, the data is no doubt solid through one lens, especially if the business has historically enjoyed high demand, but it doesn’t necessarily mean revenue has been maximised. Whilst most organisations have strong processes elsewhere within the organisation, it is commonly found that many lack robust processes for connecting the product and service owners (product/proposition teams), marketing efforts, and sales execution. 
A False Sense of Security You might observe:

• Hitting quarterly targets consistently—but only by offering large discounts.
• Positive brand perception—yet new business growth is flat/more challenging.
• Marketing reporting high lead generation—while sales complains of poor conversion.

Common Narrative: “We need to focus on the Sales Team”

When growth stalls, another widespread belief emerges: the sales force must be the focus. Perceptions range from “not trying hard enough” or “they lack the necessary skills” to all out rehire or transformation. This narrative often goes, “We hired the wrong people” or “Our sales team needs better training on closing techniques.” While training can help—and poor sales performance does happen—it typically overlooks deeper structural issues.

Sales Teams as the Tip of the Spear Sales teams are on the frontline, dealing daily with evolving customer requirements and tough competitor pitches. If Marketing has not studied the competition, or if Product does not deliver the outcomes customers expect, sales staff will bear the brunt. An under-informed or under-supported sales team is not the root cause of growth struggles; it is typically a symptom of broader organisational misalignment.

The Reality: Siloed Functions and Conflicting Metrics

Despite having a clear growth strategy, many tech companies aren’t focussed on the connection between Sales, Marketing, and Product Management – meaning each operates as a separate unconnected department. With distinct and often unlinked priorities, there’s no interlock to ensure each of these functions is solely focussed on collaboration to maximise the growth potential meaning:

• Marketing might optimise for lead volume, social media reach, or brand recognition.
• Sales could be fixated on quarterly deals and short-term conversions, potentially neglecting broader brand goals.
• Product Management may chase cutting-edge features or new technology without validating alignment to genuine customer needs.

Conclusion

The challenge with tech sales is not that companies lack an efficient sales engine or skilled salespeople. Instead, many tech companies suffer from disjointed Sales, Marketing, and Product teams, perpetuated by structures that haven’t adapted, disconnected metrics, and leadership blind spots. Addressing these structural inefficiencies is essential for unlocking sustained revenue growth.

By realigning departmental goals under a single vision, encouraging open communication, and deploying data-driven methods to guide product and marketing decisions, businesses can revitalise their growth strategy and achieve sharper innovation, quicker reactions to competitive threats, and healthier long-term revenue growth.

If your sales teams are missing deals or your marketing campaigns fail to convert, it might be time to look deeper into how your teams collaborate.

Accelerating Revenue Growth: The Leadership Challenge of 2025
Leaders are under relentless pressure to accelerate revenue growth while simultaneously delivering on wider strategic objectives. With markets maturing and client expectations evolving, the challenge grows, making it increasingly important to gain clarity on how the business is driving growth. In other words, “how do we know we’re effective in our approach to growth?”

To fully realise market potential and optimise growth opportunities, there is a well-established correlation between the rate of growth and the alignment of the three core functions that drive it: sales, marketing, and product/proposition management.

Recent research from LinkedIn’s Organisation of Tomorrow Survey, however, highlights that just 35% of (2000) organisations agree their growth functions are highly aligned. These findings are the latest in a series of analyses by market analysts and academic studies, all of which highlight the strategic advantage of growth function alignment and business growth.

The consequences of this misalignment are stark: missed revenue opportunities, slower growth, and an overreliance on existing customers.

The Hidden Costs of Misalignment

Misalignment within the growth function—the interconnected efforts of sales, marketing, and product management—often manifests in several ways:

• Growth stagnation: Revenue growth stalls, lags behind the market, or depends too heavily on a shrinking base of existing customers.
• Cross-functional struggles: Marketing campaigns fail to deliver ROI, sales teams struggle to sell on value and outcomes, and product teams lack clarity on competitive differentiation.
• Team morale and blame-shifting: Sales teams complain about low-quality leads, while marketing insists those leads aren’t being followed up effectively. Meanwhile, product teams feel disconnected from both.
• Siloed efforts: Teams work hard but remain isolated, with no shared metrics or collaborative strategic planning to unify their efforts.

These challenges don’t just create inefficiencies; they sap the energy of high-performing teams and limit an organisation’s ability to seize market opportunities. Misalignment becomes a bottleneck, preventing leaders from achieving their growth ambitions.

Alignment as a Strategic Advantage: Unlocking the Growth Engine

Alignment is increasingly viewed as a critical driver of competitive advantage. Research from Forrester reveals that highly aligned organisations grow 19% faster than their poorly aligned peers. This level of alignment allows businesses to:

• Ensure their teams are collectively focused on strategic objectives.
• Break down silos, fostering collaboration that amplifies the impact of their efforts.
• Maximise the return on their investment in people, processes, and tools.

Aligned teams transform effort into impact, creating powerful growth engines that deliver consistent results. Leaders who can harness this alignment are better positioned to outperform their competitors and achieve sustainable growth.

Growth Diagnostic: A Baseline for Success

While the benefits of alignment are clear, achieving it effectively requires an impartial and unbiased perspective from which a business can baseline itself. The Growth Diagnostic from Mohala Growth Partners provides this bridge by providing impartial benchmarking, analysis and insights to create greater alignment.

One of the most significant barriers to unlocking growth potential is the difficulty of maintaining objectivity. Internal biases, competing priorities, and day-to-day pressures can cloud judgment and result in inaccurate viewpoints being formed.

A common finding for example, is a perception that the business is fully focused on growth. This is often not the reality, but can be masked very effectively: departments focus on the metrics that drive their individual success which may or may not align with the growth function or indeed the growth strategy itself.

Perception and reality can be very different, with misalignment acting as a silent killer of growth. By providing a clear, data-driven view of current performance, the Growth Diagnostic helps leaders:

• Identify gaps and inefficiencies in their growth function.
• Avoid unnecessary expenditure by targeting areas with the highest potential for optimisation.
• Reduce the pressure on teams by creating clarity and shared purpose.

This baseline provides leaders with objective insights, focusing their efforts on the changes that will have the greatest impact. It shifts the conversation from reactive problem-solving to proactive growth planning, giving leaders the confidence to move forward with purpose.