 Sales
Magazine
Create Your Own Economy
Business Down? What Are You Doing About It?
By Jim Marshall
Published: April / May 2008
Recently, a sales executive in our weekly training
sessions shared with us that he was having his best year
ever. His sales were pacing ahead of last year, his
closing rate was higher and he was having no difficulty
getting appointments with prospects and referrals from
his existing clients.
How can this be, several others wondered, given all the
talk of a recession, shrinking expenditures and
businesses pulling back? His answer was telling: “The
economy may be slowing down and we might be entering a
recession, but I choose not to participate!”
He had made a conscious decision to reject the naysayers,
redouble his efforts and rededicate himself to the
behaviors and beliefs that got him this far in his
career. He determined that now is a great time to grow
his business and pick up market share from competitors
who might have become less aggressive in their sales and
marketing activities.
How did he do it? I call it The Four “C’s.”
1. Change
One of the keys to growth in a recession economy is to
stop going to the same places and doing the same
marketing and prospecting to the same people.
According to Hoovers Online, there are approximately
28,000 businesses in the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater
metropolitan area with five or more employees, and
nearly 104,000 with four employees or less. While a
recession can be triggered by a 3-4 percentage point
decline in economic growth, a small business in our area
can achieve a tenfold growth rate and never see their
market share even approach 1%.
If you can expand your peripheral vision by only 15% -
20%, there are new customers and new markets that are
just beyond your field of view. The reality is that
there are plenty of customers for small businesses
today. But when market conditions change and businesses
make no changes in the way they approach and win new
customers, they can watch their business decline.
2. Control
Are you allowing the marketplace to control you (and
your paycheck), or are you seizing control of the
marketplace and creating new opportunities for yourself
and your business?
If you find yourself frustrated by the results you are
getting from your activities, you need to start looking
hard at yourself - what you do and what you believe. The
difference in results often stems from a difference in
behaviors.
Are you living off past successes and making fewer calls
than you did last year? Have you stopped prospecting for
new customers? What exactly do your new business
prospecting activities consist of? How many referrals
have you asked for this week? When you lose a customer
due to bankruptcy, retirement, or competition, do you
have a pipeline of opportunities that can fill that
void?
By creating, executing and tracking your own new
business plan, you are less likely to fall victim to the
marketplace and more likely to seize control of your own
destiny.
3. Commitment
Tim Brennan, a hiring consultant based in Canada
www.HiringSmart.ca,
has a handy method of classifying sales and business
executives.
-
Gainers are committed to
continuous improvement of their businesses. They
understand that their success is directly linked to
their ability to follow a well thought out plan, and
their willingness to consistently execute and follow
through with productive behaviors.
-
Maintainers are happy to
allow their businesses to perform at their own pace.
They will sometimes seek support to grow their
businesses, but will lack the ability to follow through
on projects. Quite often, they just get caught up in
day-to-day activities that aren’t directly contributing
to their revenue growth.
-
Complainers lack the skill
set to manage and grow their businesses, and are
constantly frustrated with their own performance. They
generally blame “outside forces” (their account list,
their products, management, the economy, etc.) as the
problem, rather than looking in the mirror.
What is your commitment
level to the success of your business? Are you willing
to make that extra call before punching out for the day?
Perhaps send a hand-written thank you note to a past
client? What percentage of your day is truly spent on
revenue-generating activities, as opposed to “minutia?”
4. Coaching
The best and brightest sports professionals rely upon a
coach to hone their skills and hold them accountable for
their performance. But there’s more. These coaches also
provide the emotional and psychological reinforcement
necessary for them to continuously master their craft
and maintain an ever-so-slight edge over the
competition. (Consider this: Who spends more time with a
coach, Tiger Woods or your local municipal “hacker”?
And, when Tiger won this year’s Buick Invitational by an
average of only two strokes per round, he earned a
whopping $400,000 more than the second-place finisher!)
The best and brightest sales and business professionals
aren’t intimidated by negativism, the competition or the
economy. They have the ability to shake off rejection,
not take it personally and focus on their goals and the
skills and behaviors necessary to achieve them. They
have the guts to plant their feet and be emotionally
tough. But rarely can they go it alone. It’s their
“personal trainer,” their coach, who provides the
encouragement and continuous reinforcement that drives
them to succeed.
The economy – the market – will inevitably improve; it
always has and always will. Your choice is surprisingly
simple: wait until it does, or do something about your
own fate now. Or, as our client says, “You can be part
of someone else’s plan, or you can be part of your own.”
Jim Marshall is Owner and
President of Sandler Training of Tampa Bay
www.jmarshall.sandler.com, a sales and management
training/consulting firm with offices in Clearwater, FL.
© 2008 Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. No
portion of this publication may be reprinted or used
without the express written permission of Sandler
Systems, Inc.
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