There is a well-known Chinese proverb that states, ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago and the second-best time is now.’ I love that message because it can remind us that it is easy to lose focus and get caught up in the noise of what may be happening and fail to take the very action that we need to.
In facing uncertainty and potentially turbulent times, I sometimes hear business leaders and sales organizations put heavy focus on just cutting cost. Sales organizations can start to believe that either no one wants to buy in these times or that if they try, they will just get beat up on price. I find that very successful organizations take more of a contrarian approach to sales activity and sales team development.
In great times, many firms’ success can sometimes mask flaws in their selling process and in tougher times, it can expose your competitor’s weakness. Organizations that have built healthy balance sheets, strong cash flow, and a sales process that creates value for their clients can increase market share in a downturn by taking a different approach than the competition. These companies can position themselves as the obvious choice for the clients of their choosing and at the prices they want.
Their entire sales process must be able to enhance and monetizing the value they create for their clients. This in turn fuels the balance sheet and cash flow strength. If an organization has not been able to effectively do this, then the best time to evaluate your sales process and development is now not after a recession. Here are the top three reasons that firms can take advantage of and position themselves in these times for tremendous profitable growth.
First, this is the time that your customers and prospects need you more than ever. They want to hear from you and know that your doors are open for business. This is a great time to not focus on selling but more on listening, learning and collaboration with your key accounts. Organizations need to know who exactly their core client base is, which puts them in a great position to focus strategically on their clients’ issues. Pushing your sales force to become more problem solvers than product pushers should always be the norm, but in these times creates strong relationships with clients. Engaging your sales team to meet with their clients and prospects to learn about their challenges, obstacles and fears can yield powerful information.
Using that data to potentially pivot into new business lines or enhancements to current products and services that solve clients’ problems can be big wins. In this time, be nimble for your dream clients and relentlessly pursue solving their problems. This creates strong positioning within the market.
Secondly, this is when your competition is the most vulnerable. Let your competitors sit on the sidelines and make excuses for why they can’t sell or cutting cost on development. This is the time when their dream clients need advice and are more receptive to opening their doors and minds to new ideas. I coach sales professionals to have their top 10 dream client list with them all the time. Focus first on your weakest competitors’ best clients. Connect with people that know these potential clients to gather much needed intelligence. Connect with your clients’ and prospects suppliers and partners to gain a strong grasp of what is happening in the industry.
The goal of meeting these dream clients is not to sell, but to educate them on what you are seeing in the marketplace and obstacles they may face. This is not the time for ‘ripped from the headline’ talk. Become informed about their industry and obstacles. Think deeply through how you could help them achieve their goals by partnering with them on projects. Furthermore, try to connect them to people within your network that can help them achieve their goals. If done professionally, this will position you as a trusted advisor and give you as a sales organization a powerful brand image.
Thirdly, look at your sales process for pipeline leakage by mining opportunities by looking forwards and backwards. First review the deals in your pipeline that are maybe 6-12 months out there and proactively try to move them up. Ensure that every deal has a logical next step. When contacting these opportunities, make it a goal to see if what you have been proposing still fits their needs and if enhancements can be added to accelerate the closing of the sale. Enhancement ideas could be simple low-cost things like adding or extending a warranty or guarantee or lengthened and adding favorable terms if they move the product sale forward.
Next, do a look back at the deals that you lost in the last 2 to 8 months and reconnect with them. They are your warmest leads because they already know you well and what you can do. I have found in my experience that when you do this about 10-20% of the clients that chose a firm over you are not happy with the choice. They might have been given unkept promises or the winning firm may not be able to pivot to your potential clients new and changing needs. This gives you a great opportunity to ‘save the day’ for them and solve a problem.
This is a great time for your sales team to be the voice of confidence with your customers and prospects. I have found that these dream clients will care less about price if you can solve a big enough problem. IBM famously raised their prices in the recession of 1973 which formed the famous saying, “You never get fired for hiring IBM!’ This is a time that we do NOT want to devalue our products and services as well as us a selling professional. When we stand with a customer or prospect in the tough times and help them solve problems, you can forge a powerful business relationship that are long-lasting.
Larry Young is and highly requested professional speaker and the author of Walk the Sales Plank and The Dominant Competitor Strategy. His company Boiling Frog Development helps organizations recognize, enhance, and monetize the value they create for their clients. He helps them to create alignment of their sales process, including sales team development, to win their dream clients and maximize profit potential. He can be reached at boilingfrogdevelopment@gmail.com or at www.boilingfrogdevelopment.com.
