Headlines: doom and gloom.

Doom and gloom! At least that is what they are saying in the newspapers and on the television and, if you are not careful, it may be what you will be thinking too.

Before you go into your own version of a depression, though, here is a positive thought for you to contemplate: cometh the tough times, cometh the hour of the professional salesperson.

Rather than being something which we should all be worrying and panicking about, tough times really present a golden opportunity for you as a professional salesperson to prove your worth – while it may be more difficult to win business it is possible. In fact, tough times are actually professional salespeople’s opportunity to remain consistently successful (even to increase their levels of success) whilst lesser mortals around them fall by the wayside.

Quick tips

To help you succeed where others fail here are some quick tips to abide by:

1. be proactive – keep on prospecting;
2. keep moving projects through your sales pipeline;
3. get more focused on your customers, prospects and suspects;
4. differentiate your offer; and
5. justify and demonstrate your value for money.

Let’s look at these individually in more detail:

1 Be proactive – keep on prospecting

Regular prospecting activity is the key to continued success, and it is never more important than when an economic slow-down is predicted. Dedicate a period of time each week to finding new prospects to speak to. Discipline yourself to do this. In tough times this is not an option … it is a must. Set a target for the number you will find.

The age old rules apply; look for prospects who are similar to your existing customers (their competitors perhaps?) or who are located in similar geographical areas, share the same demographics (ie size, turnover, application for your products or services, circumstances), then take the necessary action.

Ask for referrals whenever you are speaking with your existing customers, make the phone calls, write the introductory letters or knock on the doors, however you do it… just do it! The lesser mortals I mentioned earlier are too busy worrying about how bad it is, or will be to be doing this!

2 Keep moving projects through your sales pipeline

With new opportunities being sought and identified ensure the ones you have are being moved through your sales pipeline. Identify the steps you take to progress an enquiry through to becoming an order and create a sales process (structure) which you can use to identify where you are, see where you need to go to next and what you need to do to ensure you get there.

In our company, we use a generic sales process model called ‘The Seven Steps from Interested To Sold’ which are simply:

• Reason for buying or at least talking to you – which is generated by a prospect who has identified a need and makes an enquiry with you (a reactive opportunity) or by your contacting the prospect with something you believe can help them (a proactive opportunity);
• Investigation of their current situation – and of where they will be with your help;
• Benefits of your solution – to create differentiation (see point 4 below for more detail);
• Verification that this is a live opportunity that can become a sale;
• Generating your presentation – matching your benefits to their needs;
• Objection-handling if needed – and too often it is because too many of us do not always cover the first three stages as well as we should do or because our prospects may not have told us everything we needed to know; and
• Yes – asking for and obtaining commitment.

I would advocate you break down the steps involved in your sales process; then identify the actions you need to take for each step, along with the tools or information to use to best achieve a successful outcome from the action.

This can be represented as a process map on which you can monitor your progress and prepare for the next stage (as demonstrated below).

You can write down the actions you need to conduct at each stage, identify the information you need and the questions you need to ask; use this to set objectives for your sales calls and activity to ensure projects keep on moving through, so you keep on turning prospects into customers and opportunities into orders.

Figure 1 (below) shows our seven stages mapped out and highlights a few pointers we need to consider when contacting a prospect and instigating the conversation (an outbound proactive sales call). We have this completed for every stage and also identify what tools we need (at the reason stage we would use names of other clients, testimonials, referrals and measures of success to make the opening message more powerful).

Figure 1: Seven Steps from Interested to Sold for a proactive call.

In tough times, your prospects will need you to be thorough in terms of understanding their needs, capable of demonstrating you have understood them, able and willing to fulfil them and will need to feel even more confident and secure that you are the ideal supplier/partner for them than in easier times. They may also need more assistance in making a decision which, in less challenging times, carries less pressure. (When you have developed your sales process model send it to us and we will gladly give you some feedback and make recommendations on how to improve it further.)

3 Get more focused on your customers, prospects and suspects

Know as much as you can about the people and the businesses you are working with. Spend time researching them and understanding them. Who are they? How do they operate? How much do they turnover? What do they spend and with whom? Who makes the decisions and how do they make them?

Recognise the value you bring to them and make sure they recognise it too. Research over the years has identified that a supplier can usually increase its business with its customers by around 20% by taking a fresh look at them and what they buy (and understanding why they buy it) – yet often businesses do not do it because they are too busy doing what they do already. They spend lots of effort (and money) chasing new business and yet are not maximising their existing customers!

Wherever we have worked with a client on this a 20% increase has been achieved through simple sales monitoring and management tools.

You may get away without knowing as much as you could know in easier times: you won’t in tough times. You need to know who they are, how you can help them and prove the best case that you genuinely have something to help them (after all it will be tough for them too). You can only do that by having the knowledge and applying it – and that is the sign of a true professional.

4 Differentiate your offer

In tough times it is imperative you differentiate your offer. If you want to be seen as being different you need to be different!

You especially need to do it in tough times as your prospects and customers may be looking to cut costs, source the cheapest provider and, if that isn’t you, you could be in trouble. If your prospects can see that you are – that from you they get something they can not get anywhere else – they will pay different, even if it means paying more.

Know what makes you different. Is it your product or service (what you sell)? Is it your company (your brand, how long you have been in business, your reputation, people and facilities) or is it how you do what you do (the experience)? Whatever it is, and it may be one of these things or all three combined – you need to demonstrate it, enthuse about it and make sure your prospect gets it or you are in a Dutch auction and selling has finished – bring on the pricing exercise and watch your profits take a hit!

5 Justify and demonstrate your value for money

Tough times don’t change the fact that your price reflects your quality and service and that your perceived value (what your prospect is willing to pay) will be based on what they perceive they are getting.

In tough times, the salespeople who can demonstrate that what they are offering provides excellent value for money will continue to win sales where others don’t (even when you are selling at higher prices!)

For too many salespeople, the price objection is often the most difficult to overcome simply because they do not know what makes their price worth paying (they do not know how it is arrived at) and too often wrongly assume it is all about the product or service they are providing. In most cases this isn’t their fault, though, as they are not told anything different by their company; they are just expected to go and sell it, simply being left to justify what they do not understand.

Develop a model (as below) of how your price is arrived at and put values against each of the components that make up your offering. The component parts of it will include the product or service itself, the level of support you provide, account management (if appropriate), technical knowledge and assistance, your unique selling points (USPs), stock and availability.

Remember to include profit

Identify all of the appropriate components and put a value against each, remembering to include profit. Don’t be worried about putting a value against this as it is definitely there – you need to make it to survive and grow – and your customers and prospects need you to make it in order for you to continue to look after them (even though they may sound like they are saying something different).

Your model, if developed as a bar-chart will look something like figure 2.

Figure 2: total price model.

Selling aid

You can even produce this as a selling aid in your presentations to demonstrate your value (what makes you worth your price) although you may not wish to produce this to scale or with actual values against it. It is only a visual representation of the value you bring and a visual justification for your prospect as well as a memory-jogger for you to discuss all of those things and build value.

Remember the key here is always to discuss these components and the benefits they bring (the value) before you give the price to eliminate or at least minimise the price objection.

Believe in your product and service; believe in your company and the value you offer. Believe in your ability to make things happen.

Apply the above and you will not only survive in tough times, you will be able to thrive in them. You really can sell your way through tough times providing you do what it takes to succeed. Think better, do better and you will succeed!

I wish you every success in applying this programme and invite you to contact me should you have any questions: steve@sales-elite.com or +44(0)1782 283283. Please mention that you have seen this article in ‘ModernSelling.com’.

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