Tough economic times demand staying focused

Richard H. Grant, founder of Reynolds and Reynolds, famously said, "a salesman, like the storage battery in your car, is constantly discharging energy. Unless he is recharged at frequent intervals he soon runs dry. This is one of the greatest responsibilities of sales leadership."

This is never more important than during tough times in the economy. Selling is a tough job in a growing economy; it's an exhausting job in a slowing economy.

With so many negative messages coming at sales professionals from all directions, it's tough to find the motivation to keep shaking the bushes.

There are three main issues that sales people and their managers need to focus on during this phase of the economic cycle.

1. To which customers are our products and services crucial to their business success?

Knowing the significance of your products or services to your customers overall success is important at any time; it is vitally important during tough times. The more dependent they are on your product (or the type of product you sell), the more likely you are to keep some or all of their business.

If you are selling components that are used in manufactured products, there may be a little more certainty in your relationship, if your customers have tight specifications to work to. But if the slowdown decreases the requirement for your customers' finished goods, then that will impact the volume of business they give you.

The questions you need to be asking yourself, about all of your regular customers are:

• Who buys what my customers sell?
• How are those buyers behaving in this economy?
• How can I help my customers succeed in this more challenging sales environment?

If you don't know the answers to these questions, you are not getting close enough to your customers, and your relationships are vulnerable to outside competition.

Ask your customers for a meeting. Explain that you wish to understand how the current economic outlook is likely to affect them and their business operations. Explain that you wish to learn how you can better serve them at this time. Explain that you wish to help them position themselves for success when the economy improves.

Whatever affects your customer's success affects your success. Some factors of the economic slowdown may have a greater impact on your client's business than others, depending on what they do. Knowing what challenges and opportunities may be ahead for your customers enables you to position your business as the one they should partner with for future success.

2. How can we protect our client relationships from hungry competitors?

Rarely do we have absolute security in our sales relationships but when the market shrinks the competition heats up. Suddenly your clients are going to rise to the very top of your competitors' prospecting list. This is the time that those well-established, intimate relationships with your clients will truly pay off. But you cannot take it for granted that your clients won't be tempted to look at what your competitors are offering.

You must work harder than ever to prove to your clients that the decision to work with you today remains as valid as it was yesterday. Take every opportunity to reinforce your relationship by demonstrating the full package that you bring to their enterprise.

The one thing that your competitor cannot bring to your client is you. You need to be as important to your client as any product or service that you sell. You are the personification of the business that you represent. You can become the added value that makes it impossible for your competitor to steal the deal:

• Share your technical expertise freely with clients (except, of course, when your expertise is what you sell)
• Become a real expert in your business and industry
• Bring resources to your clients that will serve their strategic plan that are not necessarily resources that you sell
• Share referrals to improved business opportunities … potential vendors as well as prospective clients
• Provide evidence every time that you interact with your clients that their success drives every action you take on their behalf

This is hard work, requiring strong commitment and great self-discipline, and it requires an unswerving focus on the future. Part of the quest is simply to stay in the relationship until better days return.

Remember, this is a tough time for your customers too, so staying tight with them to let them physically experience your dedication to their success is vital. Be visible, be attentive. Empathize when they face major challenges, and remind them of your ongoing commitment. And when they share good news acknowledge it and celebrate each success with them.

3. How can we keep our sales groups' heads up as they work harder than they've ever worked … potentially for less money?

Even in good times, too many sales meetings focus on challenges rather than opportunities. In a tough economy it is imperative that we build positive energy by focusing on successes and opportunities. There is business to be had, even in the toughest economy, so sales meetings should focus on strategizing how to win it, rather than adding to any negative feelings that are developing within the sales group.

Make time every day to remind your sales group how accomplished they are. Make time every day to remind them of the difference they make to their clients and customers. Make time every day to remind them that they are not alone; that they have the support of the whole organization every time they walk into a meeting with a prospect or client.

Encourage success

• Send e-mail blasts as soon as successes occur; don't wait for a sales meeting to celebrate
• E-mail sales reps with updates on in-house activities, so that they experience being part of the organization
• Post thank you notes and testimonials in the sales office, and forward them to the sales reps out in the field
• Find excuses to remind them about past successes … send an e-mail to acknowledge the anniversary of opening an account with a major customer
• Send an e-mail acknowledging the anniversary of a significant milestone in the business

Maintaining and growing sales is the job of the whole organization. Everything a business does directly or indirectly affects the relationship with the customer.

Making sure every employee understands their role in the sales process, and how to execute their role to produce the maximum benefit for the customer will create a sales organization that is hard to beat.

Jacqui Sakowski is president of Sakowski Consulting, a Middleton-based sales coaching, training and consulting company.