Selling in a Down Economy

You may need hunters rather than farmers.

Here are a few thoughts for growing your sales organization in these challenging times.

First, stop accepting excuses for lack of performance… even if they have a basis in truth. It’s always easier for someone to blame the economy, the competition, the lousy sales leads, or even their own company than it is to accept responsibility. The fact is that successful people find a way to succeed regardless of the circumstances. Hardly anybody actually likes to prospect, but hungry successful salespeople who need to generate revenue will become prospecting animals. Are your salespeople making enough calls to generate the business you need? Are they doing everything possible to succeed?

In better times, many salespeople focused on telling prospects about the benefits and advantages of their company’s products or services. They sent lots of proposals and followed up consistently. Business was good. But as soon as the economy slowed, this approach stopped working. The reaction was often to cut price and to add extra value (often by throwing in extra functionality) in an attempt to close deals. Margins eroded and the sales pipeline slowed to a trickle. The very salespeople who seemed like Supermen in the good times now act like kryptonite is in their office.

There are two basic questions that need to be addressed in order to turn around a languishing sales organization.

First: do you have the right people?

Many successful “salespeople” really were more like account managers who farmed their existing client base very effectively. These “farmers” are patient and will say, “Wait until the economy turns around”, or “Nobody is buying right now”. Salespeople who are excellent account managers are not necessarily willing and able to prospect for new business (i.e. become hunters). Find those who have both a strong desire for success and a commitment to do whatever it takes, then get rid of the rest!

The second question is: do your people have the abilities and skills to compete in a tough selling environment?

Many sales organizations, especially those selling technology during the boom times, failed to develop the selling skills of their sales team. Some salespeople were functioning too much as order takers and simply didn’t need to prospect in order to meet their targets. Marketing generated an abundance of leads so the biggest challenge salespeople faced was simply following-up on what was handed to them. Everything was wonderful until the economy took a turn for the worse. Many formerly successful salespeople simply don’t have the skills to compete in this new economy, or they aren’t willing to do what it will take to be successful.

In order to answer the above two questions, consider evaluating your existing organization using some sort of objective assessment methodology. Like any good change process, establishing the current condition is essential in determining an action plan for future change. Knowing strengths and weaknesses of the sales team allows for an action plan to be developed. It is entirely possible that some on the team simply will not be effective in this new economy, so making personnel changes may be the first step. If training is needed, it should be targeted to address those issues that will have the greatest return on investment. For instance, if salespeople are too easily cutting price, then some intensive focus on a good budget step would be prudent. If they send out lots of proposals but don’t close enough, developing their questioning skills and closing strategies would be appropriate.

Additionally, a growing organization should look to systematize the selling process. Determine your best sales practices and then make sure the whole organization consistently follows those practices. What are the best ways to find new leads? How do they get qualified quickly? How are budgets determined? When and how will the decision be made? Answer all these questions BEFORE you spend a fortune on software. Contact management, sales automation, and customer relationship management (CRM) software is abundant and readily available for virtually any size sales organization. Unfortunately, software alone will not fix a weak sales process or a weak sales team.

Lastly, take the time and energy to hire salespeople who not only can sell, but WILL SELL for your company. When looking at those impressive resumes be sure to ask lots of questions about how much prospecting the salesperson did in the past. Many top salespeople inherited accounts and grew an existing base. If that’s what you’re offering them, then they may be a good fit, but don’t expect this former superstar to necessarily cold call and prospect consistently for new business. Again, use good evaluation tools to screen for those attributes that will insure success in your organization. Never hire based strictly upon your “gut”.

Put it all together and you’ll probably find that selling in a down economy really isn’t much different than selling in a good economy. Hire the right people, provide them with great training and tools, and don’t accept excuses. So when the economy picks up again don’t forget the fundamentals. Winners succeed because they are prepared more than others and are committed to be the best. Good Selling!

-- by Kevin Hallenbeck

Bringing it Back

Intuitively, you know that something must be done to offset the steep decline in revenues as demand lessens for new or interim staff. You want to do something, but are confounded as to what to do - it seems insurmountable and that any one thing won't be enough to turn circumstances around. Thus far, staring at the computer screen hasn't worked. Talking about how bad is the economy hasn't either, although it makes for a good excuse and makes one feel nervously better.

Confidence comes with action and it is an amalgamation of doing basic "right things" that work together to make business come around.

INTERVIEWS
it seems silly to interview when you have more candidates than jobs, but continue to do so in numbers and dig in a little deeper--where has the candidate interviewed, with whom have they been out on assignment, what employers have contacted them, who do they report to and to whom does their boss report? These are names, names that might be hiring. In times like these when the instance of hiring or needing supplemental staffing is less common, you must increase the number of chances to sell by increasing the number of potential hiring authorities on your prospect list. When you use interviewing as a means to gather market intelligence, you can, at the same time, cross reference the name to the profile of the candidate which can be used to target your marketing efforts on a go forward basis.

Going back to the files and pulling old applications is a target-rich source for names that were passed over when business was too brisk to pay attention to the details.

REFERENCES
Everyone hates to check references - they seem like an annoying obstacle to placing a candidate. But in reality, every professional reference is not only another name, but a person you have a good reason to engage in conversation. Grab up a pile of unchecked references and get busy dialing. Your "connection" ratio will increase multi fold when you are calling about a professional reference. It is an easy transition to turn a call like this to the business of learning about the individual, their organization's needs and prospective opportunities. Go back through old checked references, and voila...more names.

MARKETING CANDIDATES
Once you have a long list of prospective hiring authority names, cross referenced with the kinds of skill classifications that they hire, you can market great candidates on a more macro, but targeted, basis and reach a large number of prospective clients. Do a thorough job writing a profile of the candidate to market and what they can offer an employer, along with a compelling and persuasive overview of your experience and your firm's area of specialization. You will find that if you "hit the bulls eye," you will generate a business opportunity and if you present yourself in the right light, you might generate interest in your services for an alternate opportunity.

The adage - "It is a numbers game" has never been more true. The survivors of this downturn are the individuals and companies who leverage high volumes of data with high levels of activity to touch prospects on a frequency that "makes your own luck" by increasing your chances of being "in the right place and the right time."