Selling in a Tough Economy Part 3
Times are tough less money is being spent which means all your hard work has to go into qualifying opportunities. Be honest you’re going to have to work harder to find them because there are less of them. And here’s the kick the challenge you need to accept is that you need to find more opportunities than in other times.
No you didn’t misunderstand what I just said I said there are less opportunities in the general market and now is the time you have to find more of them. Wait a second it might sound stark raving mad but bear with me because this is the real key to selling more. In a way you’re hedging your bets.
If times are tough and they are. And people slow their buying it means a variety of things. First there are less orders to go around. Secondly unless you are an infinitely better guesser than me which I don’t doubt you still don’t know which accounts are going to put off purchasing decisions or lose budget funding.
They might be your best prospects. By working and finding the deals that are the most promising and real opportunities you’ve taken the first step. Now by finding more opportunities and working harder to get at every thing you can will make temporary budget constraints, genuine reduction in purchases and longer sales cycles less painful. Chances are some of those things will happen and instead of scrambling you simply built it into your plan and will still be ahead of the game. What’s the worst thing that can happen none of that happens, you found too much business when everyone else is thinking there wasn’t any.
Stop and think when was the last time some one was mad because you sold too much.
Now you’ve set your goals, understand your customers and your own strengths and think you know what you need to do to get there Let’s bring it all together.
Find out where customers and help them reach those goals. Maybe they need help training their customers on their products. Help out there. Maybe they need assistance in technical support and resources for their customers. Help out there. The only word of caution I must give is that you must be in a position to utilize your internal resources to meet these needs. Uncover your vendors needs and fill those voids with solutions from your company. You’ve once again become a trusted advisor…this time to the person who already knows who in the marketplace is buying today and potentially what future opportunities there are within the customer!
Your internal resources are another valuable asset to bring to your customers and prospects. Have you reached out to your coworkers to see what projects they may be working on that you can bring as a value to your customers or prospects? After all, no sales professional can work alone. He’s only as strong as the team that supports him. Make sure that you’ve got the strength of your internal team. In the long run, you’ll be able to present true value to your customer or prospect because you will be able to bring in the extra resources that your customer or prospect needs when he needs them! Again, it’s back to basics in a slipping economy….technical or marketing resources may not be available to your customer, or they may be financially out of reach for your customer, and you can bring these to the party….but it all starts with a conversation to find out what your customer really needs and what his goals are.
In our world today it’s critical to change our thinking, to be successful and to grow within our organization. Following these simple steps can help you to achieve those goals.
Ask your customers for referrals! Both to other company’s that may benefit from your services and within his own company. I have a customer who was so pleased with the support and service that our company was providing him ( we helped him launch his business by guiding him through the maze of authorizations to sell the products that he wanted to sell, by helping him get financing when he needed it, by providing him the products that he needed and by helping his sales team get trained to sell more effectively) that he referred us to another customer, selling the same set of products, who has since become one of our customers as well. Simply by asking for a referral! Another customer felt that the services that we were offering were so helpful and valuable to his daily routine that he referred us to another division within this own organization to provide those same services and we’re now working an entirely new group of people that we weren’t working with just six months ago.
Set your goals in 6, 12 and 18 month increments….keep your plan handy and easy to refer to. You can chart and track your progress that way. In future recordings, we will discuss charting and tracking that progress and best practice methods of doing so.
Remember the simple, basic manners that you were taught as a child! In our fast paced world today we sometimes forget these basics….and now, more than ever, it’s a powerful differentiator between you and your competitor. Schedule time for a call with your customer, much like you’d schedule a meeting, when you feel that the conversation will be a lengthy one. Have an agenda for the call! This way, you’ll ensure that you are both available for the allotted amount of time, the person you’re calling will be equally prepared for the call, and your goal for the call can be achieved. Have a plan for your calls! Don’t just call for the sake of calling…this also shows respect to the person that you’re calling. Rather than being perceived as calling just to see if you can get an order, you will be perceived as calling with a purpose in mind. Send thank you notes, respond to peoples requests for information promptly and simply do everything and anything that you said you would These skills alone will make you different to your customer! They’ll remember you…and think of you as a person who genuinely cares about their business. After all, you want to be their partner…not just another sales person calling for an order. You want to be the professional that differentiates your behavior and actions from your competition. As an example, I recently had the experience where I was trying to win over a substantially large account from one of our company’s biggest competitors. Simply by following up in a timely manner, delivering the goods and services that I said that I would and be sending those thank you notes, I achieved my goal! The competitor never took the time to even realize that the business was slipping way…I don’t know if he even realizes it today! He wasn’t looking…or showing that he even cared about the customer.
As you revisit the customers that you’re already working with. Talk a look at their buying patterns and review your product set. Are there other things that you can be offering this customer to help him save money….and time…by combining his purchases from you?
Is your customer buying the complete solution that he’s selling from you….or is he spreading those purchases out over a variety of suppliers? Help him to understand that combining those purchases will save him time in his job, make his life easier and actually save his company money (less purchase orders to process thus saving the company much needed money!). You’ve now helped your customer be a valuable resource to his own company by directly affecting their bottom line.
