EIGHT WAYS TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT MAKING SALES IN TODAY’S ECONOMY
by John Graham
These eight selling lessons can apply in any economy.
Stunned. Confused. Shocked. These three words describe the reaction of countless salespeople to the dramatic drop in their numbers. All of a sudden they hit a wall and don’t know what to do.
Riding on a record of closed sales, a competent insurance producer didn’t know how to cope with a $28 commission check.
Needless to say, the sales ranks are thinning daily.
No one really knows what to do. The answers from the sales gurus are lacking, nebulous, or less than convincing. One such “expert” leaves his audiences rolling their eyes when he tells them that it’s time to ask for referrals. Referrals are tough to come by in good times, let alone a recession.
To help salespeople cope with the dramatic sales challenges facing them in today’s market, here are eight important selling lessons:
1. We’ve run out of “silver bullets.” Many salespeople start looking for the next gimmick the moment they encounter a problem, whether it’s getting leads or setting up appointments. As one salesperson said after working on a new market for less than 60 days, “If this doesn’t work, I’ll need a different mousetrap.”
For the past 15 years or so, closing sales was relatively easy. Customers were plentiful and most were in a buying mode. Unfortunately, many salespeople thought it was their skill that was driving their success, when it was more like order taking than anything else.
Today every salesperson faces the stamina test: “Do I have what it takes in a recession?” Instead of looking for a fantasy solution, the place to start is to look at ourselves.
2. Stop looking for a ray of hope. Optimism is the salesperson’s drug of choice. Without it there’s no getting up in the morning. Optimism works as long as there’s another sale in the offing. But not when the orders dry up, not when anyone wants to meet or even talk or not when every day is a Dead Zone.
Hoping things will change, that the next call will be different, or that the old magic will return is not only a waste of time, but also avoids developing new strategies and ways of approaching and reaching customers.
For example, astute Life producers saw an opportunity when so many people lost a considerable portion of their retirement funds with decline of the stock market. These salespeople are suggesting that Life insurance can make up for what has been taken away.
Instead of always hoping things will change, focusing on how to work with the hand we’re dealt produces the best results.
3. Re-position your message. Failing to change a sales message to fit the new economic reality is fatal. A human resources firm talks about “investing in retaining valued workers” at the very moment when layoffs are mounting. This approach might resonate with companies when there’s low unemployment, but not now.
Wharton School Marketing Professor Leonard Lodish makes this comment about sending the correct message: “If your company has something to say that’s relevant in this environment, it’s going to be more efficient to say it now than to say it in better times.” The task is figuring out a message that addresses the customer’s situation. Nothing else will work!
4. Do something new, but don’t cut prices. Yes, the fashion industry has slashed prices, including the normally sacred high end. That was the right move since retailers were faced with high inventories. The fast food industry got it right fast. Wendy’s, for example, offers three “waaaay better” 99-cent sandwiches, but the price hasn’t changed on its regular products.
In the same way, Apple is said to be readying a new iPhone to market, a lower-priced nano-version. This makes sense since the nano iPod became a huge success.
5. Keep the right perspective. There’s nothing worse than phony optimism. Everyone can see through it. If we were to go to the Web sites of The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Financial Times, and any one of a dozen others, there’s good reason for pessimism. Here were the top headlines in the Financial Times one day recently:
Consumers Rein in Spending
Fears Over Jobs and Falling Home Values’
Wall Street Downbeat on Stimulus Fears
Boeing and 3M Lead Blue Chips into Negative Territory’
Seeing “news” like this day after day takes a toll on anyone, particularly those responsible for making sales.
Although bad news infects the very air we breathe, it remains true that more than 90% of the workforce is on the job, the freeways are packed morning and night, homes are being bought and sold, and on Friday nights the bars and restaurants are filled to capacity in many places. In spite of all the bad news, the economy keeps on going.
No matter how much bad news there is, the cup is far more than half full.
6. Avoid trying to convince customers what to buy. The best way to lose a sale is to tell the customer that you have what they need. That might have worked in the past, but it’s the wrong message now.
A sales rep from a major radio station in the Boston market called, attempting to arrange a “20-minute” meeting. “I think we’re a good fit for your client,” she stated.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get the memo making it clear that what a salesperson “thinks” doesn’t count. She made no attempt to communicate that she understood the client’s goals. Even worse, the “product” she wanted us to recommend to our client was being touted to a variety of businesses. The bottom line was that the station expected the client to fit their program.
What might be “a good fit” for the radio station might not meet the client’s requirements.
7. Educate endlessly. The fact that today’s customers are more suspicious and less trusting than in the past isn’t a message that salespeople want to hear. Like it or not, it not only takes time, effort and patience for customers to become believers –it also takes timing.
TriFactor, LLC, a leading material handling integrator in the Southeast, understands the sales benefits of educating both current customers and prospects. They describe the company’s new Web site (www.trifactor.com) as “The Learning Center.” The company is committed to sharing its experience and its expertise. It’s built into their culture. They see the business as a total learning center.
Customers today connect with information, not sales pitches.
8. Invest in tomorrow. Salespeople have a long history of being what might be called “today” people. They focus on what’s happening at the moment; they’re not known for thinking about the future.
There’s always a need for agility and adjusting to short-term objectives. At the same time, a study by Dr. Gary Lilien of the Penn State Smeal College of Business makes the point for a consistent approach to marketing and sales. “Companies that have been looking at marketing as an investment,” Dr. Lilien states, “and not an expense, and have been running their business through customer knowledge are the ones that are going to come out of this [recession] really, really well.”
One of the best examples is Amazon.com. Even when their competitors were suffering, Amazon was beating them by using their extensive knowledge base to stay close to their customers by providing them products and services that were based on their unique interests.
This offers a poignant lesson for every business.
CONCLUSION
Selling is more about understanding the customer than it is about skill or sales techniques. Salespeople who take seriously the challenge of connecting with customers in ways that speak to their issues and meet their needs will prosper, whatever the economic circumstances.