Remember when IBM was International Business Machines, Coke was "the real thing," and KFC would actually admit that its chicken was (gasp!) fried?

If these three venerable, multinational companies are willing to take a long, hard look at themselves and say, "Selves, we need to make some changes in order to improve sales," then there is absolutely no reason your company shouldn't do the same.

Especially if your sales process is antiquated, out of touch, or worse: convoluted to the point that it's confusing.

In other words, if your sales process was designed before Facebook became a force, if it's focused more on price than solving problems, and if it's too complicated to coach... it's broken.

There are only two things to do with a broken sales process: understand why it's broken and fix it.

Here's a look at the five most likely reasons your sales process is broken – and surefire ways to fix it.

1) It's old

Aging might work wonders for a fine wine, but it doesn't do anything good for your sales process. Whether your process is measured in minutes, days, weeks, months, or even years, it needs to be evaluated and updated on a regular basis. Otherwise you could wind up with processes that aren't making the most of modern technology, training that doesn't address the latest trends, and opportunities that get stuck in the pipeline.

2) Your CRM is DOA

Information is power, and if your sales team isn't using your CRM (or using it correctly) to document, record, and share information, your company just might be powerless. There are myriads of reasons why CRMs die – the sales processes dictated within them no longer match the way your customers make purchases, undisciplined sales forces, not enough time, et cetera. Your job is to find out why people aren't using your CRM and then create tools to make sure they start using it – match the sales steps to the real world, provide incentives, bolster your training.

3) Ineffective training

In some sales circles, training might as well be a proverbial four-letter word. Truth is, companies that invest in effective sales training see incredible results. Hence, you need to make sure that your sales training is effective. That starts by understanding how your sales and marketing employees process information, tailoring your training to their needs, providing follow-up, and measuring its effectiveness. If you do these things – and keep making your training better – sales training will result in a four letter word that every likes: P-A-I-D.

4) Sales and marketing are disconnected

What happens when a salesperson comes in contact with a prospect who is not quite ready to make a purchase? If you don't know, your sales process is definitely broken. What should happen is this: the salesperson sends the prospect's information to the marketing team (along with detailed information in the CRM) and the marketing team follows up with targeted materials that move the prospect closer to becoming a conversion. That's what should happen, but too often, it doesn't – which is why you need to fix the process.

5) It's not focused on problems

There was a time when consumers simply wanted the lowest price, and there was a time when consumers could be wowed by a product that offered a few seemingly fantastic features. But now, the time is today, and today's customers don't want to feel like they are being tricked into buying the latest, greatest gadget. They don't want to simply pay the lowest price for a product. They want to work with a sales person who sincerely understands their problems and their goals or vision and who can  provide a solution that works.