Better Get Ready

Sales Tip

As I write this article, just last week The Fed raised rates once again.  According to the news, there will be another rate raise before the end of the year as well as another in early 2023. What does this all mean to the average businessperson? Who knows at this point, but one thing is for sure: every small business should probably be ready for whatever does happen. Now, I am no economist, but I have been around long enough to know how the economy affects most sales organizations.  When tough times occur, there are things we can do to prepare ourselves.

Mindset: When the economy declines, oftentimes salespeople have a tendency to change their mindset from one of strength to one of weakness. Meaning, they start to get desperate with their sales approaches, they have a tendency to reduce their prices, make concessions and do things not in their best interest. We know from behavioral scientists that the average person has about 70,000 thoughts in a day. Of those 70,000 thoughts, 85% of them, on average, are negative in nature. Therefore, in tough times salespeople have the tendency of thinking negatively. For a small business or an individual salesperson in any economy there is plenty of business for them to have a great year. What happens is, salespeople get desperate in their behavior and that literally dictates their results. Think of it relating to sports. A football team is up by two or three touchdowns in the first half.  In the second half they come out flat because they try to protect the lead. They lose their aggressiveness, and don't pull out the strong plays that got them there in the first place. In result, sometimes the losing team starts making headway, the ball starts rolling in their direction, the momentum switches and the winning team starts to lose rapidly. Not unlike sports, sales reactions can be similar in nature. We start losing sales and we immediately react, cutting prices and taking jobs we shouldn't.  In our programs we teach individuals to “act as if” they are already successful and don't need the sale. We teach participants to have what we call an “abundant mentality” instead of one of scarcity.  For a small business, there is and always will be, tons of potential business. Whether or not we believe this, we are right.  The mind is a powerful tool. If used properly, we can control our own fate.

Prospecting: Because of this strong mindset that we now have, one can take that into our prospecting activity. When tough times occur, most of us hear the ring of the phone less frequently. We take that as a sign of negative news and that business is slowing down. However, we teach something a little different. It is correct that the phone may not ring as often. However, this simply could mean that we need to have a more proactive outreach to people to get the same results. There are literally tons of potential customers waiting for someone like you to come along to help them get to where they want to go.  They simply may be paralyzed and not reaching out.  That doesn't mean they won’t buy.  Although they may fear spending money, the proactive outreach can be just enough to have them move forward.  However, if we wait for them to call us, it may never happen. This has happened in virtually every downturn in the last 50 years that we've seen. People will spend money, they will invest, they will move forward on projects and spend a lot of money to get it done in any economy. However, we may have to be more proactive about our approaches. Get better at asking proactively for referrals.  Make more proactive phone calls.  Attend network functions, put yourself out there and get involved.

Creative offerings: Something else that may help get you business during a slowdown is to have creative offerings to potential customers. There is a real behavioral science around something called status quo bias. Status quo bias is the tendency for us to stay the same rather than change. It's a strong tendency that humans feel.  It’s a “better be safe than sorry” approach that is easy for us to adopt.  As salespeople, it is our job to disrupt, change people’s mind about something and have people look at their situation differently. That is why we teach specific questions and have strategic approaches around communication, designed to do this. In an article, it is difficult to go through the different approaches, but I can tell you that having a creative approach to the dilemmas potential customers face may be important right now. What can you do? Some suggestions are:

  • Suggest a potential customer does only part of the work now, saving some for the later.  It may be a more effective strategy for you to bring it up first, rather than waiting for them to suggest it.
  • Weave in some minor repair work into major jobs.  As example, a landscaper might take a sidewalk repair, a sprinkler repair or adjustment or a lawn or shrub treatment in hopes of inspiring an organization or homeowner to spend more.  Look for creative ways to entice a customer; something that won’t be too costly to you but will have you stand out to your potential customer.
  • Solve a problem that doesn't necessarily have to do with you. As example, I recently found out that a potential customer was having an issue internally with morale. Although that is not type of training that we do or that they were necessarily even looking for, we did some research and provided some content and ideas to help. It was received with open arms, and it helped us secure some training for other departments that was needed but they were reluctant to invest in because of their concerns with the economy.
  • Free assessment report.  Some organizations will do a free assessment, with the hopes of securing additional business.  In sales, this is called a “monkey’s fist”.  Getting a smaller sale in hopes of securing a larger sale later, once they have worked with you. Some companies will do this for any customer they've worked with in the past, simply to start a dialogue about doing future work.

Bonus: During difficult times it might also make some sense to make some key investments. These investments can include equipment, programs and even training for you or your good people.  Think about it: when times get tough morale can go down. By investing in your people and letting them know how important they are to you can pay big dividends. Invest in technology to make your people more efficient.  Invest in programs to make your people stronger. Invest in products and services that can get you a leg up on your competition. Do it now because if things do slow down significantly it'll be difficult to make these investments and it might even be too late.

In good times and bad, small businesses can be highly successful. It starts with the mindset and a decision that you are going to be successful. There is plenty of business for every small business, in any economy.  Poised with the right information and using unique entrepreneurial approaches you can continue to grow and reach your goals now and into the future. Good luck!