Trim your sails for better sales
One of my favourite idioms is “a rising tide raises all ships”. Together we can achieve so much more than alone. However, a lot of sales people tend to be less instinctively collaborative and are more likely to be self-motivated and self-absorbed.
When times get tough, the salesman will tend to be even more inward-looking. But this is the very time to summon the reserve troops, to look to additional ways of finding leads and to building partnerships. After all, a lot of sales people have fewer leads to chase and more time to develop the pipeline.
The wise sales organisation is building partnerships now that will gradually yield business during the quiet times and be a springboard when the recover comes.
Strategic
You need to start working with what is left of your marketing department and be thinking of ways to attract the right types of prospects.
Maybe you could even be collaborating with companies that in the past used to be competitors. Recent episode of Nature’s Great Events showed dolphins and sharks working together to round up a school of tasty fish. Normally the sharks would be eating the dolphins not working with them. But tough times demand different solutions.
Tactical
Almost all my contacts are reporting that prospects are becoming increasingly difficult to contact. They are less likely to take your call and more likely to be rude if they do. So we need to sprinkle crumbs on the lake to attract the ducks, not throw great loaves.
If you contact lapsed or past customers then make sure you have a clear reason to do so. A reason that benefits them. This may be looking for articles in your contacts’ trade magazines and forwarding these to them. Or maybe you have learnt some useful technical tips that can enhance their business. Don’t worry about whether you can sell to them just yet.
Possibly you can go to your marketing specialists and come up with ideas and offer your time to them. You could organise a seminar on a hot topic, a roadshow or find an exhibition you can attend. There is a host of creative ways you can generate leads, rather than just doing more regular prospecting and trying to close harder.