September 11, 2001, will live in the minds
of people forever. Three thousand lives were lost and our psyche
was struck that day. For a period, Americans were crippled with
fear. The attacks caused people to be cautious and hesitant. The
atmosphere debilitated our economy into stagnation. The momentum
we had worked so hard to create in our business had come to a
standstill.
We met with our staff to explore our
options. The attacks of 9/11 had a lesser impact outside of the
United States so we focused on further expanding our business
internationally. We composed a list of 23 countries where economic
and political conditions appeared to be conducive to the products
and services our company markets. We were able to identify and
contact many excellent prospects. We assessed each of our
candidates to help measure their suitability for success in our
business. Finally, we invited our top candidates to Waco to meet
us personally and tour our facilities. Twenty of the original 23
countries targeted for expansion entered into business with
Profiles International, Inc.
The message of this strategy is clear.
Maintain your optimism regardless of the situation. It may seem
like the sky is falling, but look for the opportunities you may be
overlooking.
Here are 10 tactics for coping in tough
times, all of which your sales organization can quickly put into
action. Some of these actions are specifically aimed at the sales
management level, others at every salesperson in the organization.
To maximize your chances of success, you need to implement every
one of them to balance the negative effects that weakened consumer
confidence can have on your sales volume in tighter times.
1. Cross-
and Up-Sell in Existing Active Accounts
Active purchasers/users of your products and services who
are buying from you currently may have a need for something else
that you do. Look at ways of up selling and cross selling into all
of these accounts. How could they blend one service/product they
currently use with another they have never used? What would be the
benefit to them of doing so? What financial/other incentive can
you give them to do so?
Formulate as many cross- and up-sell
strategies as you can for everything that you currently provide.
Look at packaging sets of goods and services so that you add value
and revenue to every sale you make. With a little imagination,
you'll find you can increase the value of each sale, and create
brand-new sales, with little additional effort. It doesn't have to
result in a doubling of the value of every sale you make, or in
doubling the value of every existing account. Even modest margin
increases will add up substantially over time. Look at how
McDonald's and Burger King approach every one of their admittedly
individually modest sales – "Would you like fries with that?" or
"Would you like a pie with that?" Go large!
2. Awaken
Hibernating Accounts
Review the records of everyone you've ever done business
with. You'll find there are some on that list who, for whatever
reason, have had no contact from you or your sales force for some
time. Good times are like that – we all tend to chase the
"low-hanging fruit" – the opportunities that walk up to us and
say, "Take me!" There will be some customers who have had
excellent experience with you, but who haven't done anything with
you recently because you simply have not asked. Get out and see
everyone. Things have changed since you saw them last – for one
thing, you're much hungrier and, if you've actioned the first
point above, you now have so many "packaged" offerings that you
must have something to interest them.
A key point when you undertake these
first two steps is to avoid the temptation to confess that things
are tight. Do that and you put your most valuable assets in a
situation where they may feel pressured to do something for you –
particularly if traditionally you have had good personal
relationships with the account contacts. Also, the thought that
you might be under any real pressure can grow into the concern
that you may not be around to service or implement any project or
product that they might buy from you. Be upbeat and treat this as
an account-development meeting – seeking more ways in which you
can help these valuable customers to meet their objectives,
thereby helping you to meet yours.
3. Revisit
All Recent Leads
In good times, there is always easy money to be made and,
therefore, prospects who express an interest in what we do. But
they either don't place an order or don't return our calls, and
they fall by the wayside. Review all of your recent leads. Filter
out those that came to nothing – but where, for whatever reason,
you never got to a no or to a formal decision on your part to
qualify out. If these folks contacted you looking for information,
attended a seminar, or requested a brochure, then at some point
they had a qualified interest. Chase down these leads. You'll find
that some never got around to making their purchase because they
were too busy and there was no salesperson driving their
decision-making process. Be that salesperson.
4. Seek
Referrals
This is classic, basic sales advice, but it is never more
important than when times are tough. In every encounter with
active customers or hibernating accounts, get into the habit of
asking for referrals. Look to existing accounts for referrals to
other contacts within the account, or for referrals to their
suppliers and peer organizations. Speak with everyone you know in
business and ask them to think of anyone to whom you should be
speaking. It will get results. Simple, but effective.
5. Cast
Your Net Wider
When business is good, the advice is simple: refine your target
audience. Know your customer base and market to it to the
exclusion of all others. It also means being fussy – going only
for the high-ticket, high-margin deals you deserve. When the going
gets tough, go for some of those smaller projects you would have
sniffed at in better times. Be prepared to come down from the
mountain.
Take that horrified look off your face –
we're not suggesting you compromise your values or your standard
of service, simply that you recognize that tighter times demand a
more flexible approach to deciding who merits your attention. You
will find that lowering your sights even a little will
substantially broaden the target base with which you have to work.
Be careful, however. What you sell to one
class of prospects may not appeal to another, perhaps smaller,
purchaser. Look carefully at your offerings, and at the new
additions to your target base, and repackage what you do to appeal
specifically to them. Is there a way to "modularize" what you do,
breaking it down into individually priced elements that smaller
customers can use on an as-needed basis? Can you provide financial
payment terms that make it easier for the customer with shallower
pockets to work with you? What can you do to broaden your appeal?
You may have to create a brand-new range of product/service
offerings and marketing approaches to hit this wider target base.
6. DON'T
Reduce (or increase) Costs
…but DO increase value. The moment you start the "bargain
basement" approach, your existing customers will imagine that they
smell "blood in the water" and this may shake their confidence,
driving them away. No prospect or customer ever ran away from more
bang for his or her buck, however. Look at how you can deliver
more – better service, higher quality, better payment terms,
whatever – for the same money. Do this by looking at what your
targets value and what your competitors deliver. You'll find that
you can very often up your value proposition by 100 percent and
still elevate your true cost of sale by only a fraction of that
percentage. And – need we say it? – don't even consider pumping up
your prices in tough times.
7. Invest
More Time and Money
…in marketing and promotion. You've heard it all before: sales is
a numbers game. These numbers – particularly the key ratio – are
completely different when things tighten. If you were working a
100-10-1 model previously (100 suspects producing 10 prospects,
which in turn produced 1 sale), then you know you're going to have
to ramp the input to this funnel to a much higher level to
compensate for the slowdown. Do you have to double it? Triple it?
Whatever the multiplier, you'll find you need to have your
prospecting machine running continually, in parallel with other
activities, seven days a week. Look at what you can realistically
aim to sell to your target base and set about designing as many
ongoing prospecting activities as possible. Ramp up your public
relations, run value-added seminars and road shows, engage in
coordinated mail and fax broadcasts – do whatever you have to do
to get your message, and ultimately your sales team, in front of
as many prospective customers as possible.
If you have not already done so, consider
dedicating some of your team to prospecting alone. Now is not the
time to skimp on the promotional budget. You have to invest in
chasing prospects out into the open.
8. Build
Lifetime Customers
In general, the easiest and most profitable business to win has
always been that won from existing satisfied customers. Delivering
excellent customer service is essential when there is less
business to go around. If you are a direct part of the sales
organization or effort in your company, you are one of those with
ultimate responsibility for development of profitable customer
relationships, and with customer retention. No longer can you
shift the blame for implementation or delivery to someone else in
the organization. To ensure your future sales, you must take
complete ownership and responsibility for the success (as
perceived by your customer) of all of your sales. This means
taking a perhaps unprecedented interest in the successful and
quality implementation or delivery of every project, product or
service you deliver to your customers. It means ensuring that
everyone involved in delivering what you sell understands that you
expect them to go the extra mile to satisfy your customers
spectacularly. Ensure that all of your sales result in delivering
the success and benefit the customer set out to achieve. That way,
you start making headway on tomorrow's sales today.
9. Ask the
Troops What They Think
Before you charge into implementing these suggestions, see
if your team has any more to add. Call for input from every
department on what people think you could do to up revenues and
drive sales. Don't confine this to your sales and marketing people
– frequently your technical and administration people have a
keener awareness of what your customers would really like, or
would be willing to pay extra for. Besides drumming up new ideas,
this process will make everyone feel an important part of the
organization's positive drive for increased success – people will
much more effectively implement actions they feel they helped to
formulate than ones they feel have been imposed on them.
10. Keep
Your Chin Up
Hey! We're not Pollyannas! But we can assure you that
unless you stay optimistic, you are dead. Don't feel that you or
your business is unique in its suffering, and that all is lost.
It's that kind of thinking that fuels dipping consumer confidence.
Whatever you're facing, you'll find that others have come through
worse and that things always get better – and this happens faster
for those who keep their heads and remain focused and optimistic.
Too many people fold up their tents and head for home at the first
sign of bad weather. Don't be one of them. Businesses can survive,
and even thrive, if their owners and managers remain calm and do
what needs to be done to cope with more challenging times. Decide
what you need to do to ride the storm out, and then focus all of
your energies upon doing it.
The sky is never really falling unless we
collectively wish it down upon ourselves.
*From the book 40 STRATEGIES FOR
WINNING IN BUSINESS by Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku. © S&H
Publishing Co., 5205 Lake Shore Drive, Waco, Texas 76710-1732. All
rights reserved. Contact S&H Publishing Co., (254) 751-1644, for
reprint permission.