Sales

Hello!
I think that declining sales performance can mean that sales is declining. It could be high on it's way down, or going from bad to worse. In other words, there's definitely an element of negative growth in sales.

On the other hand, low sales growth is just that -- the sales is generally flat. It might not be a good or bad thing in itself; you will want to check how this has changed over time and vis a vis the industry. If it's low growth but you are 50% better than the industry average, that's sort of good news.

In both cases, if this comes up in a case interview, it's a good idea to clarify with interviewer. Ask him to help you define and quantify this, and do also check how it's changed historically and how it benchmarks to competition.

Hi,

It's quite simple:

• Declining sales = declining trend (e.g. 100M -> 90M ->70M)
• Low growth rate = growing sales with the growth rate not satisfying the shareholders (e.g The company is growing 2% while economy is growing 4% or competitors are growing 6%)

Best

Declining sale performance isn't very specific... I understand it to mean that either sales are actually dropping, or that sales growth isn't as good as in previous times. 

Low growth sales I believe means growth, but in relatively lower percentages... 

Either way - I'm confident it's perfectly ok to ask an interviewer to clarify