For Sales Managers: “You Can Always Sell More…By Being A Stronger Leader
In A Weaker Economy”

For Sales Pros: “You Can Always Sell More…Even When Negotiating
With ‘Recession Buyers”

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How is the current downturn in the economy affecting you and your markets? The majority of sales people are experiencing some degree of reduced sales right now. But even if your business is strong, this current economic slowdown will still have an impact on your selling efforts.

Which Phase Of This Economic Slowdown Are You Currently Experiencing? 

Recessions (or the more politically correct term…“Economic slowdowns”) tend to go through three distinct phases. Each phase is defined by your awareness levels as a salesperson compared to your buyers.  

The first phase is called the “Silent Recession.” Salespeople tend to be the first to notice when their customers start to delay orders or projects, reduce order quantities and become less interested in anything new. But because nobody else (including the press) is talking about any changes in the economy your customers don’t realize it’s the economy in general slowing down and not just their business. 

Economic news tends to only be reported as a “history focused” topic. News outlets only start reporting on the economic slowdown after multiple indicators have provided conclusive data to back up their stories. So even when the economy has slowed down most buyers are still unaware of this change in the overall economy. 

The Second Economic Phase – “The Empowered Buyer Recession” 

The second phase of a recession is called the “Empowered Buyer Recession.” This phase starts as soon as the media catches up to the economic realities and starts reporting on all the individual indicators that offer “one more validation we are indeed in a recession.” 

Now your buyer is aware of the slower overall economy and knows there is less buying. They also realize they can now start making additional demands for either pricing concessions or commitments of extra service. After all…fewer buyers means the ones who are left can start making more demands. 

Buyers also tend to increase their “vendor shopping” during a tougher economy believing they need to make sure they’ve considered all alternatives and haven’t missed anything new that’s happening in your industry. This is the time when your existing customers are most exposed to attacks from your competitors. This is also the time to make sure you are supporting your best accounts so you have the greatest chances of protecting your existing business. 

The Third Economic Phase – “The Secret Recovery” 

The third and final phase of a recession is called “The Silent Recovery” and occurs as the economy begins to recover. Again sales people will tend to be the first to notice when things start to open up again. But since the press hasn’t validated any economic improvements nobody else is talking positive. Even as business starts to pick up your buyers will most likely still believe times, and selling are still bad.  

Buyers tend to be surprised during this final phase as their significant demands and tougher negotiations that worked just a few months ago are now being resisted. You now face the competitive exposure of your customers confusing your lack of interest in agreeing to all their demands as a sign of you no longer caring about their business, instead of the realization that markets and profitability are both starting to return to a more normal, and healthy level. 

Each industry uniquely experiences any change in the economy. Some of my customers started seeing a significant reduction in their business as early as last May. Some are just now starting to see their markets deteriorate. While several are just starting to see things beginning to improve, others don’t expect any relief until the first half of 2009. 

But the reality of your unique industry’s reactions to this changing economy will usually be different than the perceptions of your buyers and what they’re hearing in the press. 

Some suggestions to help improve your ability to negotiate, and win more profitable business… 

The first overall suggestion is to make sure you’re offering more unique value than any of your competitors. The easiest and surest way to out-negotiate your competitors is to offer the best customer-focused value solution.

The most important thing for sales reps to remember during the first, “Silent Recession” phase is to keep your customer communications positive. Too many sales reps start complaining to their customers when they see their business slowing down due to external economic forces outside their control. But complaining to your customers about your slower business only means you’re educating and training your customers to increase their demands and expectations of additional concessions. Though you never want to lie to a customer or prospect you also don’t have to lay out all the grizzly details when sales are declining. 

You can still improve your ability to negotiate even when your customers finally realize your business has slowed down during this second “Empowered Buyer Recession” phase. Most buyers know they can receive additional concessions or extras when markets get tougher. But a number of buyers are more concerned that they got something to prove they won in their negotiations with you than the actual financial concessions they were able to receive.  

One of the ways to improve your negotiating outcomes with your buyers is to proactively offer bundled packages that include extras or involve special short-term pricing. Initiating and controlling the packaging of these offers can help you retain more profit for your company while still offering enough extras and “added value” so your customer feels they have won additional benefits for their company. 

Some sales reps are already starting to see signs their economy and business are starting to improve. You need to make sure you retain positive relationships with your customers during this third and final “Secret Recovery” phase. Be sure and manage your customer’s expectations by talking up any positive indicators or changes in buying that you see. Also be careful not to surprise your customers by having previous offers or specials disappear without warning or notice.

Your main buyers need to hear progressively positive news so you can train them that things are improving, at least for you and your business. Your main buyer contacts have most likely positioned others within their company to expect better terms and pricing due to the slowdown in the economy. You need to help them educate their company to the improving conditions so they don’t look bad when all the specials disappear. You also want to make sure your customers realize the removal of your special offers and lower pricing is due to the changes in the improving economy and not just your lack of interest in them and their business.

Motivational speaker W Mitchell shares his stories of personal challenge by identifying that “It’s not what happens to you….it’s what you decide to do about it.” This is a tougher market for most reading this article. You didn’t cause this economic slowdown but you can decide to do something to sell your way out of it. This is the time to improve your positive communications and personal attitude, increase your selling efforts, and creatively out-think and out-sell your competition! 

We know you’re good….now…are you good enough to sell your way out of this tougher economy?

For Sales Managers:
“You Can Always Sell More…By Being A Stronger Leader
In A Weaker Economy”

Listen

So how’s business? Are you and your sales team being impacted by the current downturn in the economy? Congratulations if you and your company are still going strong….because most aren’t today. The majority of sales people are experiencing some degree of reduced sales right now.

No matter how the economy is affecting you and your team, your job as their manager/coach is to help them to always sell more. So what’s it take to lead a sales team to maximize their sales? The answer is really straight-forward…work harder and smarter than your competitors so you can out-sell and out-position your competition.  

But getting a sales team to accomplish these simple efforts becomes even more challenging during a tougher economy. Sales reps tend to be emotional. They work harder and get giddy with excitement when times are strong and everyone’s buying. But they’re also the ones who tend to be negatively affected by any down-turn in sales. When markets get tougher most sales reps also tend to get depressed, work less and become reactive in their account coverage just going through the same old motions while they wait for their market and sales to improve. 

Where’s the current mental state of your sales team? Are they working as hard, and as smart as they can right now? Do you think they can get better?

A Weak Economy Demands A Strong Leader 

A weak economy demands a strong leader. Now is the time for you as a manager/coach to increase efforts to coach and lead your team. What can you do to increase your leadership efforts during this tougher economy and more challenging sales environment? 

The Six Steps To Improving Your Sales Team’s Efforts And Performance 

Improving your sales team’s efforts and performance requires you to increase the intensity and focus of your sales coaching and leadership. Consider implementing the following six steps to help your sales team “sell their way out of this tougher economy.” 

Step 1 - Become A “SWAT” Team

The first step to selling your way out of this tougher economy starts with you getting your people to act and feel like they’re part of a tight team of professionals. Most sales organizations are run as a collection of independent gun-fighters instead of as a cohesive “SWAT” team. Police “SWAT” teams have a philosophy of “what one learns all benefit.” The majority of sales people are independent loners and tend to do very little sharing of selling skills or ideas with their peers. But this is the most critical time to help strengthen and improve the skills and success of all members of your team. 

There’s comfort in numbers. You need your people trusting and relying on each other through this challenging time by creating a “We can get through this together” team attitude. It’s easier to generate a positive selling attitude and to keep everyone’s energy up when team members can share their challenges with each other. You’ll also notice a number of your people will work harder and will take more risks when they feel they’re under the protection of their team.

Hold weekly face-to-face or telephone coaching conference meetings with your team. Talk about how you want to lead them through brainstorming, planning and training to help them “sell their way out of this tougher economy.” Why not combine the IQ’s of your entire team so they can all benefit from working together as a “SWAT” team of selling professionals? 

Step 2 - Get Them Positive And Energized 

Once you have them functioning as a team then your next step is to get them to feel more positive and energized. They need to see some positives with their current environment no matter how bad sales have become. They need to feel empowered and to see and believe it is possible to increase their efforts and results. They need to see and believe there truly is light at the end of the economic tunnel. Positive and energized sales people work harder and will take more risks to initiate customer conversations. 

This is the time to identify what’s happening in your markets and that positive opportunities still exist. Even an “at least our sales suck less than our competition” can still be enough to help begin improving the attitude, energy and work efforts of your team. 

You as their leader will be the most important contributor to any change in attitude or energy. Consider how you communicate with your team. What percentage of your communications to your team is positive vs. negative? This is a critical time to increase your affirmations and signs of support for your team. The more comfortable and trusting they are in their own skills and abilities then the harder they’ll want to work in their territory. Your balance of positive to negative feedback will set the emotional energy level of your entire team. What can you do and say by focusing on the positives that’ll help inject increased energy into your team? 

Step 3 - Get Them Busy 

A major contributor to depression is inactivity. One of the ways to re-energize your team and their selling efforts is to lead them to increase their work efforts. It’s impossible to stay depressed and active at the same time. 

If business is slow and nobody wants to talk to you then get them doing something…anything to keep their energy up and to refocus their selling efforts. Two great areas to invest more energy and effort into is maintaining and growing your most important accounts and new business prospecting. 

Step 4 - Get Them Better Sales Tools 

A tougher market demands stronger and tougher sales tools. What can you do to improve your customer references? How’s your website working as a sale “brochure?” Are you still using any printed materials and can they be updated or improved? Even though budgets are tight right now this is still a critical time to take steps to improve your team’s selling “tool chest.” 

Also consider assembling some type of special pricing package or bundling of services. One of the ways to maintain your market share in a tougher market is to proactively go to market with some unique package of added values or extras to increase your value offerings for the price your customers will pay. 

Step 5 - Get Them Stronger Selling Skills 

A slower market is the best time to train because your team is otherwise less active than in stronger times. Helping increase the selling skills of your people is also a great way to re-energize and re-focus your team. 

Sales training doesn’t have to be expensive. Consider working your team through the sales article offered each month in this newsletter or an audio or video training series. The article, audio or video provides the content ideas and then you, as their manager, lead them through a discussion of how we can best implement these ideas. 

Step 6 - Get Them Stronger Sales Leadership 

Weaker times require stronger leadership. This is the time your people need the emotional support and strategic direction you as a coach and leader can provide. Are you doing everything you can to help your people maximize the business that’s still available?

We know you’re good….now the question is…are you good enough…and strong enough to lead your sales team out of this tougher economy?