Selling In A Recession Might Be The Best Thing For Your Sales Career

Written by Jonathan London

The economy is challenging, more so than most of us have ever experienced. But, rather than getting mired in how bad it is out there; turn your thinking around because this may be the best test of your ability and most valuable lesson for you as a salesperson. With the right skills and attitude, you can be successful in any economic condition.

The following four elements will not only help you in this environment, but will also maximize your success in a healthy economy as well:

1.    Attitude
2.    Hard Work/Perseverance
3.    Intelligent Work
4.    Sales Skills

1. Attitude: The primary ingredient

There are 3 basic approaches that companies will take in a recession:

•    Be aggressive and grab market share.
•    Stay the course and be positioned to grow when the economy recovers.
•    Stop all marketing and sales activities – wait until the market turns around.

These three company approaches can be paired to approaches that we take as individuals. We can:

•    Work harder and smarter including doing everything we can to find and align ourselves with the aggressive companies.
•    Keep our focus and work hard or a little harder than you have been.
•    Get worried, depressed and downtrodden and stop working as hard.

As a sales trainer and a sales person, I find myself in the same situation as my clients. I am selling to the industries that are less affected or even prospering by the economy and, as much as I can, I am staying away from bad news so that it doesn’t overwhelm me. I am protecting my accounts and doing what I need to keep them and help them. By being creative, I am winning deals.

2. Hard Work/Perseverance: There is no substitute

There is no substitute for hard work in any economy. In a bad economy hard work will help you make up for the short falls in business. In a good economy, you can reap the rewards of people spending money. If you typically work 9 hours a day, work 11. Don’t fool yourself into thinking just working smarter is the answer.

Even in the best of times, there is a lot of rejection in selling. Multiply that ten fold in a bad economy. Find a way to keep at it. Celebrate the small victories. If you get only one appointment for every 100 calls, congratulations! Surround yourself with people who are thinking and doing the same. If you let yourself get down for too long, it will be too hard to get back up.

3. Be Intelligent: the smarter you are, the more you will sell

What does that mean?
•    Sell to clients that aren’t suffering as much.
•    Protect your base.
•    Be creative with solutions, packaging, pricing, terms and conditions, bundling, etc. What ever was working prior to the economic downturn may not work as well.
•    Use your time more judiciously. Don’t waste time on anything that doesn’t directly affect what you want to achieve.
•    Get more organized personally and organizationally. Stop wasting time in meetings or with bureaucracy that prevents you from selling or being in front of customers. Reduce steps and lessen bureaucracy so you can be more responsive to clients and sales situations.
•    As a manager, you should incentivize people for doing the right things. Avoid the temptation to reduce earnings or commissions.
•    Get to higher levels in your customer’s or prospect’s organization. If anyone has the will to do something, spend money, invest, it is at the higher levels.
•    If required, sell in smaller pieces so it is easy for a prospect or customer to digest. Big numbers can scare people away.
•    Only spend money where it directly impacts your goals.

4. Sales Skills: You must be skilled

You can do all the above, but if you are not good at selling, all will go to waste. The following five items are the most important skills in any environment:
•    Prospecting networking and marketing to get more opportunities.
•    Qualifying, discovering and taking control of the sales cycle early.
•    Creating and presenting unique and compelling solutions that address the objectives of your prospect or customer.
•    Resource management to help you expand your ability to do more things than you can by yourself
•    Effective objection handling helps you throughout the sales cycle and in the final stage of negotiation.

Other skills are important, but these are the most essential.

If you do the above, you will get through this economy and develop the right habits to make more money when the economy recovers.

Good luck and good selling!

Jonathan London -
	Jonathan London is co-founder of Sales Advisor and President of the Improved Performance Group. He has been in sales and management for 34 years. He was the #1 performer worldwide, for such companies as Olivetti Corporation, NBI Word Processing, IBM/Rolm, BusinessLand, Wyse Technologies and PictureTel. Jonathan founded IPG in 1994, has trained over 15,000 people in 23 countries using the same techniques that made his own selling career so successful. He has sold his way through 3 recessions. His book “An Entrepreneurs Guide to Selling” will be published Q2 2009. Visit www.ipgtraining.com Read More >>
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