Selling In A Recession

Officially the world economy hasn’t become a “Recession” as such but every business person knows we are in a recession and time will tell if it is actually a depression or a deep recession, either way companies are hurt and in the US a lot of people are personally hurting. The number one topic today is how to save money? Companies that have been making money are looking at the future with uncertainty and are trying to be proactive; the standard acceptable norm is to cut 10% of your work force now and get ready to cut more from sales in early 2009 if you’re off target. Along with the cut back in employees companies all have the same marching order “NO NEW EXPENSES".

For sales and marketing this is the worst of times. Sales people are asked to sell more and Marketers are asked to produce more both with fewer resources at hand. As a Sales person how do you sell in this type of volatile market? And Marketer, how do you get more Leads for your sales teams with less?

Businesses will continue to buy new products and service during recession the only difference is that the sales cycle will involve more decision making and take twice as long. If you can prove your service or product can help your customer make more money or save money people will still buy. Marketer, your days of spending loads of money on products and services that produce little or no leads or revenue for the company are done. These types of expenses in the past have always been written off as brand recognition. Brand recognition today will be the companies that survive during these tough times. So concentrate on providing highly qualified leads to your sales team, spend the money on what is proven to work, make sure you have the ROI to defend your purchases, if you do this you and you company will prosper.

Sales folks your lives are changing as well, the days of flying all over to meet potential customers have ended, along with the golf, the extravagant lunches and any other perk that was associated with wining and dining a potential customer. Sure you have to keep your customers happy, so you will continue to do those things but just not like you have in the past, everything will have a purpose and everything will need to have positive results for your company. How you sell will also change, in most cases you will have to prove your product/service does what you say it does, you will need to be flexible and will need to work with your customers to make them comfortable, they need to know what they buy from you will work and will make them look good in the end. You will need to be prepared to run pilot programs so clients can see that your product/service will work for their needs. Unfortunately it is no longer going to be about company X is using our service so why don’t you,those days are gone.

Sales in a recession are possible, actually if done right you can really prosper. The good thing about a recession is eventually it will end and the companies that survive will be the ones that have a good product/service that really is relevant and has proven to work for the masses. Be prepared to listen to the customer and flexible enough to meet their needs, prove the ROI and more importantly have a product or service that does what it says it does.