You know how it is. You go about your sales, day after day. Then the economy takes a dive – not your fault – and suddenly you have to sell your way out of a recession. Sales targets are high and the pressure is on. It’s time to regroup, strategise and launch a fresh attack.
Check out these ideas and free (and/or low cost) resources to help you beat the market.
- The critical focus for you has to be your client-base. The key to surviving the recession is to diversify your sales pipeline. If you are reliant on a few large clients to bring in your target, then you are vulnerable. Use all of the points below to grab new clients, in new areas. Spread your risk, then if one market drops, you still have a rich pipeline to keep the deals flowing.
- Don’t sell on discount. If you drop off this cliff who knows how far you will fall! It’s about value, not price. Focus on the added value that your product and your company brings. Educate the prospect that cheapest is not necessarily best. Highlight the hidded costs of the competition (remember to make sure that what you say is well founded; we are not in the business of slating the competition) that they haven’t thought about. It’s the old principle of fear, uncertainty and doubt – but it works!
- You’ve heard me mention methodology before. If you haven’t got one, you need to get one. The Productive Seller recommends Keith Eades’ excellent The New Solution Selling (Amazon.co.uk link).
At the very least, you’ll gain a fresh perspective on selling and boost your motivation. At best, you’ll add a whole new dimension to your selling and even to that of your company. Nothing will boost your sales career (and if you’re not thinking about job security, you should be) like driving the success of not just yourself, but your whole team.
- Jill Konrath (author of Sales 2.0 mainstay Selling to Big Companies (Amazon.co.uk link)) has a series of free two-minute video tips for salespeople too. Take a look and you’ll be taking the first step on the path to reinvigorating your sales greatness.
- Never forget the basics. Remind yourself of the critical points of professional selling with this great free video.
- In a recession, selling is all about having a powerful Return on Investment case for your prospect. Check out this great free article by Michael Nick et al, authors of the definitive book on the ROI selling (Amazon.co.uk link)
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- Look at your goals and your motivation. The road ahead is tough and you need to stay focussed. We’ve mentioned it before, but here’s a great free article from Zenhabits on motivation.
Finally, if you’re feeling burnt out, don’t worry. In the next few weeks, we’ll be running an article on the practical things that you can do to deal with sales burnout.
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Keep your chin up and sell smart.
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