Nigel Cooper: drive sales.

In a recession, cutting costs is an essential business priority, always has been, always will be. It’s rule No1 in the economic handbook. However, equally, if not more important, is rule No 2 – how are you going to get out of it?

It’s time to ask yourself some serious questions about your sales strategy. Is it going to be:

• sit tight with your hands over your eyes and hope it all goes away?
• recognising market volume decline and trying to maintain market share?
• limiting your sales slowdown and improving market share?
• maintaining current volume levels? or
• looking for growth?

Whatever your answer, a well-structured self-financing incentive programme is guaranteed to provide extra motivation and improve performance. And, before you say nothing in life is guaranteed, apart from death and taxes, I did say the plan had to be well structured!

When the sales and marketing teams present their reports, how many times do you hear ‘it's the market’, ‘we’re doing well compared to so and so’ or ‘everyone's down, it’s a recession’?

Fighting for business

Sorry, but that doesn't sound like a highly motivated team fighting for every scrap of business; it does sound like a team beaten before they start, a team who are all too willing to accept that their ‘customers have no money’. 

Personally, I want to hear salespeople telling me how they have overcome the problem. I want to see creative thinking and see how they managed to get our products and services to the top of the customers’ priority list and how much they plan to grow this year. Yes, that's right growth! It’s almost a dirty word right now.

I hear statements like – ‘well if you’re making a profit that's good’ – no it isn't, it's totally defeatist. You might walk onto the pitch knowing your playing the best team in the world and almost certain to lose, but the result will be ten times worse if you don't even try. Ask yourself every day what you can do to keep what you've got and win more and you will have a better chance of success than abrogating responsibility to the recession. I don't mind people failing, but they had better not fail through lack of effort.

Start selling

Norman Tebbit once famously said ‘get on your bike. Well it’s time for us to get off our arses and start selling, and incentives are a key part. Imagine the impact of announcing an incentive to Mauritius! An instant buzz – ‘hey we're back’. Of course, you need a solid business plan and self-financing structure, but you will have a far more motivated team than your competitor where they are ‘lucky to have a job’.

‘People buy people’ is as valid today as it ever was and, ever will be. As well as their products’ technical abilities, we buy people’s enthusiasm, commitment and passion – it's infectious. By continuing to support and motivate your sales strategy, you will have the best and most-committed team and quite possibly be the ‘employer of choice’ in your industry. In fact, you might just end up with a lot of your competitors’ best staff and customers as well!

Authors of own success

Let me give you a recent example of a company combatting serious trading conditions and market perceptions with a well-thought-out communication and motivation strategy. We helped them become the authors of their own success through a structured, self-financing programme that addressed their business needs.

This major client used a pan-organisational incentive to motivate and drive performance across 350 sales and non-sales staff. By having clearly defined objectives, exciting levels of rewards and constant communication, the organisation achieved outstanding results in not just sales growth but business retention and employee engagement. Customer satisfaction improved and customer churn dropped.

Interestingly none of this was achieved by cutting prices; the average level of discount actually fell by a massive 40% so profit improved dramatically.

Staff were happier; business grew despite the difficult economic climate because the structure created the desire to succeed, and the return on investment meant the incentive paid for itself several times over. 

Adverse publicity

There's been a lot of talk about high-profile incentive travel with cancellations due to perception. We have seen events and incentives terminated not through financial need but by concern over adverse publicity.

Although understandable, it is extremely short sighted as the message it sends within an organisation is negative and promotes a feeling of inevitable failure rather than promoting a positive, winning attitude, which is essential if your staff are going to be firing on all cylinders. There is a need to be sensitive to public opinion but letting it dictate business strategy because headline-hungry newshounds are looking for their next sensational scoop is not helping UK plc. (I guess ‘headline-hungry newshounds’ have their uses, though, in helping promote incentive companies to our readers – Ed!)

Rebuild business

As a taxpayer, I want the banks to rebuild their business as quickly as possible so the government can clear our massive debts by selling their shares at £5 each rather than 50 pence! If a few hundred thousand, or indeed even a few million, on events and incentive travel helps to grow their business performance, then the banks and the government have a moral and economic responsibility to do what is best to drive profit rather than appease a few newspaper journalists. Constant referral to the recession causes people, and companies, to stop spending money and one of the first things to go is advertising, which impacts their own employer’s ability to pay their wages!

Look forward

Yes, it is tough out there but companies need to look forward and plan how they are going to make the most of every opportunity. Investing in your staff, ensuring there is clear communication so they can share your strategy and vision and motivating them to perform are the things that are going to drive business forward.

Cutting costs can only take you so far. There is a limit to how far you can cut before you are in a position where you don’t have the people, products and ability to pull your business out of an ever-decreasing spiral.
Cost-cutting alone can only achieve a short-term fix to lost sales.

The way to rebuild business is to drive sales back into the market place and to do that you need to make sure your teams are fighting for every scrap of business. Without incentives, motivation and a positive company attitude they are all too often thinking about which competitor to join rather than which of your prospects to call.

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