Excuses vs. Action

You can make excuses or you can sell, but you cannot do both at the same time.

There are dozens of reasons why salespeople fail, but the number one reason is replacing productive sales activity with unproductive excuses.

For many poor-performing salespeople, excuses rather than action define them. Sometimes excuse making is so ingrained that it’s difficult to root out this destructive behavior and shift their momentum. Many of these salespeople have become notorious within their organizations for their legion of excuses, negative attitudes, and lack of accountability.

The Top 20 Excuses for Not Selling

From my experience these are the most common excuses salespeople make for not selling.

1. The Leads Are Bad – Blaming lead quality instead of improving outreach strategies.
2. The Prices Are Too High – Claiming the product or service is overpriced compared to competitors.
3. The Economy Is Slow – Using external economic conditions as a reason for poor performance.
4. The Market Is Saturated – Insisting there’s no room to sell in a crowded marketplace.
5. I Don’t Have Enough Time – Poor time management leading to neglected prospecting efforts.
6. The Marketing Team Isn’t Supporting Us – Criticizing marketing for not generating enough demand.
7. The Product Isn’t Competitive – Saying the product lacks features or appeal to stand out.
8. The Territory Is Weak – Complaining about a poor geographic or industry assignment.
9. It’s Not the Right Season – Claiming sales are seasonal and this isn’t the selling period.
10. Customers Aren’t Buying Right Now – Asserting that customers are delaying purchases.
11. I Don’t Have the Right Tools – Blaming CRM systems, outdated tech, or lack of resources.
12. My Quota Is Unrealistic – Claiming targets are unattainable.
13. Our Competitors Are Too Strong – Focusing on the strength of rivals rather than finding competitive edges.
14. Prospects Don’t Answer Their Phones – Avoiding consistent follow-ups or exploring other channels.
15. I’m Waiting for Them to Get Back to Me – Passive behavior instead of proactively driving engagement.
16. I Haven’t Been Trained Properly – Using a perceived lack of training as a crutch.
17. I Don’t Like Cold Calling – Avoiding essential prospecting activities due to personal discomfort.
18. I’m Too Busy with Admin Work – Claiming non-sales tasks are taking up too much time.
19. Our Customers Don’t Understand the Value – Blaming the buyers instead of improving messaging.
20. The Company Doesn’t Support Us – General criticism of leadership, culture, or internal processes.

These excuses and more serve as barriers to action and accountability. The good news is they can be neutralized with awareness, coaching, and the adoption of a positive mindset.

Building Accountability Through Excuse Awareness

When I work with teams that spend more time inventing creative reasons for not selling than taking action, I’ll often use an excuse awareness exercise to put all the lame excuses on the table. Every time a salesperson comes up with a new excuse for why they’re not selling, it goes on a visible white board. Once the excuse is on the board, it cannot be used again.

For the team, tracking and logging excuses becomes a game. Team members rib each other as they compete to come up with increasingly elaborate excuses, which often cross over into outright ridiculousness. There’s always a lot of laughter which helps us neutralize excuses and create personal accountability in a positive way.

This exercise creates awareness of how often they salespeople make excuses rather than taking responsibility for their behavior. With awareness comes change. Soon, each individual must face the brutal truth: you can make excuses, or you can sell, but you cannot do both at the same time.

Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Sales

If you want to sell more, start by stopping the excuses. Since you might not even realize how often you replace action and accountability with excuses, the excuse exercise is an excellent way to build this awareness for yourself. Each time you make an excuse, write it down and commit to not allowing yourself to use it again.

As you run out of excuses for underperformance, you’ll naturally become more accountable for your success. The exercise will force you to look within and change your mindset. You’ll move beyond excuses and start investing in yourself to improve your skill set and fully leverage the tools at your disposal. You learn that the true enemy of excuses is accountability.

This process requires a long, hard look in the mirror to identify what you need to change, learn, and do to reach your potential. Soon, you’ll find new freedom, success, and joy in your work as you untether yourself from the excuses that have anchored you to mediocrity.

The top earning sales professionals are intentional about developing their confidence & discipline. You can do the same with these Professional Development Resources.