Tried a New Market. No Orders — Should We Stop?

The sales team tried selling to different customers. No orders. The salespeople’s time has been paid for, proposals have been sent, and now the head of sales is asking to continue. Why bother when there is no return?

A fair question. But I would not choose between stopping and another month just yet. First, I would examine the work already paid for: where the buyer actually said no, where they are still deciding, and where no one has properly reached them.

Take a packaging supplier. Shops regularly buy its boxes. The company decided to offer the same standard boxes to small manufacturers. By the set date, there are no new payments, but the report contains an encouraging line: the buyer is testing a sample.

Let’s check the correspondence and dispatch records. The buyer gave the product dimensions and asked for a box to check the fit. The salesperson recorded the request, but no one checked whether it had been sent. The sample only went out the day before the report, when the head of sales started gathering the results.

Now the team is waiting for the buyer. Until yesterday, the buyer was waiting for the team.

How much time to give a buyer who has not received anything yet

It is too early to declare the new market unpromising based on an episode like this. The buyer has not tested the product yet. But simply asking to extend the work is weak too: some of the time paid for was lost inside the company, yet the delay is being explained as time the client needs to decide.

I would go back to the date of the request. Who was supposed to arrange dispatch? Was the sample in stock? When did the salesperson promise to send it, and when did the head of sales first check that promise? The answers are in the correspondence, the task and the dispatch confirmation. Here, you can establish what happened without guessing about the salesperson’s character or how difficult the market is.

If a suitable box was unavailable, the team should have said so before making a promise. If it was in the warehouse and the task was only remembered before the report, the head of sales failed to check that it was done. If it was sent on time and the client had given a date for checking the fit in advance, the wait is explained by the client’s own work. Each case needs its own decision: clarify whether supply is possible, correct the checks on dispatch, or wait for the agreed test.

The request for a sample itself promises little either. The salesperson needs to find out what purchase it is intended for, who will test the box and what will be needed after a successful fit check. Otherwise, even a suitable sample may stay on a shelf: no one discussed the next order.

Alongside this are rejections that have nothing to do with samples

Let’s continue the same example. Other rows in the report list presentations sent to general email addresses. Who read them is unknown. Several other buyers gave specific answers: they need custom printing, while the team is offering boxes without it.

A single total for payments brings together very different work. Some buyers have not been reached. Others cannot use the current product. Another has only just been sent what they need to test. This cannot give you a single timeframe after which the prospects for the new market will suddenly become clear.

First, I would ask the head of sales to narrow the task: which manufacturers could use a box from our catalogue without any changes, and how will their next purchase work? The conversation then needs to cover dimensions, printing requirements, the testing process and the order date. You can establish whether the company is suitable for this attempt before sending a sample.

If several people say printing is essential, the head of sales brings their answers to the owner. A choice is then needed: look for buyers for the current product, or separately work out the figures for an offer with printing. Increasing the call target does not answer that question. The salesperson will simply collect the same rejections faster.

After emails to general addresses, the first thing to check is the way of making contact. The head of sales chooses another available way to reach the buyer and assigns someone to test it. If the necessary conversations still do not happen, that tells us about this way of reaching these companies. We still know little about their willingness to buy boxes.

When extending the attempt, the head of sales must change the task

Let’s return to the sample sent late. The buyer really will need time. Meanwhile, the team has work to do today: confirm receipt, agree on the test and understand what decision will follow it. The head of sales assigns these tasks to the salesperson and sets a date to return to the deal.

Separately, the head of sales corrects their own oversight. For subsequent dispatches, they check the promised date and whether the sample has actually been handed over, while there is still time to put a delay right. If they only remember this again when the results are due, the extra time will be spent on the same mistake.

This is what changes the case for continuing: you can point to a step the buyer has not completed and the team’s work after which it will be clear whether the buyer has moved closer to an order. Saying that the salespeople will make more calls does not explain this.

You also need to agree on a test result that would allow you to abandon the attempt. The sample does not fit, and there is no other one in the catalogue — the current offer is unsuitable for this task. It fits, but no purchase is planned — the deal is no longer counted among the orders expected soon. The buyer confirms that it is suitable and asks for the order terms — the salesperson prepares a proposal, and the head of sales checks the next step. Until payment is made, this deal may still fall through.

When the agreed day passes without a reply, the date does not automatically shift. The head of sales finds out whether the salesperson failed to contact the buyer, the test was postponed for a specific reason, or the client is no longer willing to discuss a purchase. In the first case, the task must be carried out. In the other cases, they need to decide whether there is a reason to keep waiting and remove the unconfirmed payment from the forecast.

The owner has the right to stop before there is a full answer

Here the objection is tougher: why should I also pay to correct work I have already paid for?

A fair question. There are two separate jobs: fulfil the team’s commitments and test buyers’ responses. The missed dispatch belongs to the first. Testing whether the box is suitable belongs to the second. The head of sales must explain both, rather than simply asking the owner to pay for more waiting.

Money already spent on the attempt does not oblige you to continue. Before a new decision is made, the head of sales shows how much more of the salesperson’s time the work will take, whether additional samples and delivery are needed, and how long the wait for the buyer will be. The owner decides whether to commit those resources. Correcting the oversight will also take the team’s time, even if there is no new payment to a contractor.

You can end the attempt with incomplete knowledge of demand. For example, a suitable client will make a purchase, but the company is not willing to wait that long. That is sufficient reason to stop spending now. But that must be the reason recorded for the attempt. If you write that manufacturers do not need our boxes, the next head of sales will inherit a claim that no one has tested.

Payment has arrived. What exactly did the client buy?

Suppose an order came in while we were discussing whether to stop. Now there is a temptation to add more salespeople. I would first look at exactly what was bought.

Did you intend to sell a standard box, but agree to a special product, a separate delivery and a special price for the sake of the first deal? The order may be useful to the company. But the salesperson will offer the catalogue to the next buyer again, and the experience of this deal does not tell us whether that buyer will agree to buy from it.

First, the head of sales separates the terms that can be repeated from the exceptions. Then they test selling to suitable companies on those terms. Even the purchase of a standard box is only a reason to repeat the approach for now. Before expanding the team, you still need to understand whether the approach can be repeated, whether it remains profitable and whether the company can fulfil that volume of orders.

At the next review, more than the date should have changed

Take one attempt that the team proposes continuing. Have the head of sales prepare a short note: who was offered what, which step was reached, what evidence confirms it and what answer is still needed. Alongside it, record the salesperson’s next action, the date for the head of sales to check it, and the limits on time and spending agreed with the owner.

After a working week, check this note against the original tasks and correspondence. Was the sample sent on the promised day? Has the result of the fit check been received, or has the buyer explained the postponement? Did the head of sales return to the deal on their own initiative and decide what to do next? If the purchase date is still ahead, the absence of revenue for a week does not yet prove failure. But another missed dispatch will already show that the extension has not corrected the team’s work.

At RENTROP, this daily work is part of “turnkey sales management”. The head of sales sets tasks, checks that they are carried out and changes actions based on the facts. The business development director checks the head of sales’ own decisions: why they are asking to continue the attempt and whether they have removed the cause of the delay. AI analysis of available data and communications helps identify oversights and repeated rejections; the person in charge draws the conclusion.

Market choice, product changes and the budget remain with the owner. You can hand over the management of an existing sales team. You cannot promise on behalf of buyers you do not know that they will buy.

Extend the attempt until there is a specific answer, not until the next request for patience.