Stunned. Confused. These words describe the reaction of countless salespeople to the dramatic drop in their numbers. All of a sudden they have hit a wall and don’t know what to do.
Truth be told, no one knows what to do. Answers from the sales gurus are lacking, nebulous or less than convincing. Tell an audience of salespeople they should ask for referrals, and watch for eye-rolling to break out. Referrals are tough to come by in good times, let alone a recession.
Instead, if salespeople pay attention, there are important selling lessons to be gleaned from our current predicament.
• There are no more “silver bullets.” Many salespeople start looking for the next gimmick the moment they encounter a problem, whether it’s getting leads or setting up appointments. As one salesperson said after working on a new market for less than 60 days, “If this doesn’t work, I’ll need a different mousetrap.” Those days are over. Instead of looking for a fantasy solution, the place to look is in the mirror.
• Stop looking for a ray of hope. Optimism is the salesperson’s drug of choice. Without it there’s no getting up in the morning. Optimism does work – so long as there is another sale in the offing, something that isn’t happening often enough today. Just hoping things will change and the old magic will return is not only a waste of time, but it also prevents you from developing new strategies for reaching customers. For example, astute life insurance producers saw an opportunity when the stock market decline wiped out a considerable portion of people’s retirement funds. These salespeople are suggesting that life insurance can make up for what has been taken away. They have learned how to work with the hand they have been dealt.
• Reposition your message. Failing to change a sales message to fit the new economic reality is fatal. Leonard Lodish, a Wharton School marketing professor, makes this comment about sending the correct message: “If your company has something to say that is relevant in this environment, it’s going to be more efficient to say it now than to say it in better times.” The task is figuring out a message that addresses the customer’s situation.
• Do something new, but don’t cut prices. Yes, the fashion industry has slashed prices, including the normally sacred high-end. That was the right move since retailers were faced with high inventories. The fast food industry got it right fast. Wendy’s, for example, offers three “waaaay better” 99 cent sandwiches, but the price hasn’t changed on its regular products. In the same way, Apple is said to be readying a new iPhone to market, a lower-priced nano version. It certainly makes sense since the nano iPod became a huge success.
• Keep the right perspective. There’s nothing worse than phony optimism. Everyone can see through it. Still, despite the fact that bad news infects the air we breathe, it is still true that more than 90 percent of the work force is on the job, the freeways are packed morning and night, homes are being bought and sold, and on Friday nights the bars and restaurants are filled to capacity in many places. The cup is far more than half full.
• Avoid trying to convince customers what to buy. The best way to lose a sale is to tell the customer that you have what they need. That may have worked in the past, but it’s the wrong message now.
• Educate endlessly. The fact that today’s customers are more suspicious and less trusting than they were in the past is not a message that salespeople want to hear. Like it or not, it not only takes time, effort and patience for customers to become believers, but it also takes timing. TriFactor LLC, a leading material-handling integrator in the Southeast, understands the sales benefits of educating both current customers and prospects. It markets the company’s new Web site – trifactor.com – as “The Learning Center.” The company is committed to sharing its experience and its expertise. It’s built into the culture. Customers today connect with information, not sales pitches.
• Invest in tomorrow. Salespeople have a long history of being what might be called “today” people. Their focus is on what is happening at the moment. They are not known for thinking about the future. There is always a need for agility and adjusting to short-term objectives. At the same time, a study by Gary Lilien of Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business makes the point for a consistent approach to marketing and sales: “Companies that have been looking at marketing as an investment and not an expense, and have been running their business through customer knowledge, are the ones that are going to come out of this [recession] really, really well.” One of the best examples is Amazon.com. Even when competitors were suffering, Amazon was beating them by using its extensive knowledge base to stay close to its customers by providing them products and services that were based on their unique interests. It’s a powerful lesson for every business.
Selling is more about understanding the customer than it is about skill or sales techniques. Those who take seriously the challenge of connecting with customers in ways that speak to their issues and meet their needs will prosper whatever the economic circumstances. •
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing and sales consulting firm. He can be reached at jgraham@grahamcomm.com.
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