FIVE STRATEGIES FOR SELLING IN A TOUGH MARKET
Here's How to Cope During the Ongoing Recession.
By Gavin Ingham
Can a recession be difficult? Sure, but you CAN survive and even thrive. Let's look at a few strategies for staying on top of things in tough economic times.
1. Believe You Can and Stay Positive--One of the problems with all of this talk about recession is that once people believe there is going to be a recession, they start to feel negative about their business prospects and only tend to see what they believe, rather than believing what they see. Once you believe there is going to be a recession, you tend to only notice articles, comments and statistics that support your beliefs.
What's more, your negative beliefs quickly affect your outlook and the way you feel about your business prospects.
If you thought 2011 was going to be a great year for business, your best year yet, how would you feel?
Conversely, if you thought 2011 was going to see a major recession and that it was going to hit you and your business hard, how would you feel?
Mighty different, huh? And remember, nothing's changed here other than your belief. Having a positive and supportive belief structure is essential if you want to succeed in any market, but it is vitally essential if you want to keep on selling in a tough one.
However, having a winning belief system does not mean that you need to be deluded. In the middle of the darkest recession, you don't want to have your eyes shut! But you have to understand that in a downturn, clients want to partner with the best companies. Suppliers they can rely on. Suppliers that support them. Suppliers who are going to be around tomorrow. And if your competitors struggle, that means more sales and more business for you.
2. Get Proactive--You need to be more proactive. Much more proactive. You need to do more marketing and more selling. You need to attend more events and do more networking. You need to do more promotion and more canvassing. You need to increase your sales activities, maybe dramatically.
In a recession, many companies cut their sales activities. They figure, "If we're not going to sell anything, what's the point?" Many individual salespeople do this, too.
But cut your activity, and you cut your sales. You're a living, breathing self-fulfilling prophecy! You believe there is not much business out there, so you feel negative. That in turn affects your activity and your activity destroys your sales results. Even if there is not as much business out there, you need to be more active, more focused and more targeted. If your competitors are easing off a little, now is the time to up the ante and grab your share of the market. Even if there is a blip, you will be strongly placed when activity picks up.
One of my friends went down to our local real estate agent this week to put his house on the market. he was told that maybe he should wait, as he might not get the price he wants right now. They told him the market was quiet and they might not be able to sell the house at all. Better to wait for the market to pick up. I walked past their offices later on that day. They were all sitting, chatting and drinking coffee. They were probably moaning about what a bad year it's going to be. If I had been in that office, I'd have taken my mate's house on and I'd have been on the phone drumming up some viewings. 50 calls. 100 calls. 500 calls. Whatever it takes. I'd have found someone.
Talk about killing your own market. If you see less business, then you need to do more sales and marketing, not less. That's common sense.
3. Sharpen Your Sales Skills--If a workman needs a spade and a farmer needs a horse, a boxer needs defense and a chef needs a recipe, what do salespeople need? The answer's obvious--they need sales skills.
Most salespeople do not spend enough time working on improving their sales skills and techniques. Sales training and development is not something that many salespeople spend their time on out of choice. Perhaps they can get away with this in a booming market when sales are easy. Perhaps not. But things will always change if the market tightens. Sales success will go to the salesperson who really understands why people buy and can help people make the right business decisions. Salespeople of this caliber stand to benefit from possible changes ahead because there will be more business for them as their competition falls by the wayside.
Sales will not go to the journeyman salesperson, the mediocre wannabee or the 9-5 order taker. Salespeople like these could well be in for a rough time.
When did you last read a sales-training book on selling? How many sales-training audios have you listened to over the last month? How many sales-training seminars have you attended in the last six months? For 80 percent of salespeople reading this, the answer is "zero."
4. Improve Your Service and Focus on Relationships--As I write this, many companies will be working out how to cut corners. They will try to save money by tinkering with their business offerings. They will try and eke extra profits out of their clients by cutting the bells and whistles from their offerings. This is not a good idea. A Swiss cow with no bells is just a cow, and no one would send postcards of them home.
If business is tight, you want to be wowing your clients with the best service that they have ever had, from you or from any of your competitors. You need to be going the extra mile. If a recession bites, many companies will try and discount to survive. They probably won't (survive), but you don't want your clients going to them as they try to keep their heads above water. You need to "lock in" your existing clients now, so that they won't even think about going anywhere else.
Spend time with your clients. Build stronger relationships with your clients. Make sure you truly understand them, their concerns and their businesses. Find ways to help them and add value over and above what they could have ever expected.
5. Leverage Your Efforts--In a soft market, many salespeople only chase the easy stuff. They don't chase the tough stuff. They're doing okay, so they don't have to. They're making the sales, right?
Wrong.
Most sales people have all sorts of opportunities which they squander every day and every month because there are seemingly easier things that they can be doing. This is particularly true in an industry or a company where leads have been relatively easy to come by, where sales targets are relatively soft, or where salespeople are overpaid and don't crave the business.
In a tough market, you must leverage all of your efforts. This is basic Sales 101 and should be things that you do every day, anyway. Here are just a few ideas.
* Always ask for referrals. Referrals are great business, but most salespeople do not ask for them because clients often say no. Learn how to ask for a referral properly and then build asking for a referral into your sales process and ask for one every time.* Upsell and Cross-sell. Whether through laziness, lack of knowledge or lack of ability, many salespeople sit on accounts where there is so much more business than they are currently leveraging. Extending your business with existing clients will not only make you more money, it will also strengthen your relationships with and value to them and their business.
* Contact dormant accounts. Most companies have hundreds if not thousands, of "dormant" accounts. There may be multiple reason for this, from changing business practices to fallouts with the client. Dormant clients may well be redeemable and may have been "lost" purely because someone forgot to call them or a salesperson moved on. Get in touch with them!
* Follow up on all leads. I recently contacted five health insurance companies over the web. Only one replied. You should not be burning leads like this in any market. Follow up on all leads professionally, using a proven sales system like the ones I teach in my sales-training seminars and you will close more business. New business is the lifeblood of any business in any market.
So there we are--five tips to help you sell in a recession. This year may well prove to be an interesting year for some businesses and individuals. Some of this will be down to the market itself. Much of it will come down to you and how you react and respond to what might be a challenging year.
Here's my prediction for the coming year:
There will be winners and there will be losers. Which are you going to be?
For more of Gavin Ingham's powerful personal development articles, visit: http://www.gaviningham.com
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