Let me start by saying I don’t think we are in DESPERATE TIMES as a whole. However I do believe that there are certain segments of our economy that are in desperate times.
What does this mean to a sales rep? The obvious thing is to avoid the places that are having bad times. Does this just sound too easy? It probably sounds easy, because it is easy.
I have said on other posts that every day we make our own decisions. As outside sales reps we usually decide where we go and who we are going to see each day. (If your company decides this for you keep reading I have advice for you also) You need to do your homework. READ the business section of your local newspaper. You need to know what companies are growing and which ones are in desperate times. READ trade journals and magazines. These will give you good insight as to how the overall industry is doing. SURF the internet and keep up with what is being done by government agencies that may affect your customers. LISTEN to your customers, but read between the lines. Don’t listen and only hear gloom and doom from them, in many cases today they are using this as their method of blowing you off and telling you no. Try and listen to what they may be leaving out, or what they say in a round about way. These can either lead you to their biggest pain or give you insight as to what is really happening in their business.
Once you have read, surfed, and listened you are then capable of deciding if and when you need to come back to a customer. It may be that the customer is saying no now, but hints that they are about to get a big contract and that business is about to get better. Reading the newspaper you confirm it to be true. It may be that the customer leads you to believe that they may be closing their doors, and while surfing the web you see that the entire industry is falling rapidly which adds credibility to what you thought was happening. Possibly your customer is saying they are in dread but everything you read and research tells you their industry is doing better, this can give you an opportunity to help the customer with your solutions to get back on track and catch up with their industry. Either way, you now have information that will help you to avoid the depressed markets and focus on the stronger and growing markets.
If you are a rep that doesn’t get to decide who you are going to see each day you need to use a different approach. Maybe you are in route sales, or you are given a list of customers or prospects you need to call on. Your boss will be checking up on you at some point so you need to make the calls. Your choice is not who to call on, but how long to spend with the customer or prospect. The homework you do is the same as for reps who make their own call list, Read, Surf and Listen. Once you know the market you can decide how long each sale call will be. If you are in a depressed industry and the customer is telling you that they are in trouble (and you believe it) don’t invest a lot of time with the customer, move on to a prospect or customer that has better potential.
Yesterday I went to a Time Management seminar. It was good to hear someone else reinforce what I have been teaching my entire career. We all have the same amount of time, 24 hours a day, and 168 hours a week. That is all the time in the world. The Forbes Richest People in the World list was just published for 2010; Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico leads the pack with Bill Gates close behind. I just missed the list this year but I still have a lot in common with Carlos and Bill, we all only have 24 hours a day and 168 hours a week.
I will write a post about time management soon, but for now realize that time is the differentiator. It differentiates hot prospects from cold, good customers form poor, successful sales reps from failures.
As sales reps we need to learn to be at least as smart as our customers when it comes to running our business. Focus on the things that will advance us and help us make sales. Sometimes it is focusing on what NOT to do as much as what to do.
Lorin
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