It has been a few years since we have seen such sudden hikes in gas prices. It seems like yesterday I was paying less than $2.50 a gallon and today I paid $3.09! The last time this happened I saw some very good sales reps take the road to self destruction because they stopped making sales calls and tried running their business by phone.
The experts are saying that gas could hit an all time high in the next several months and with the unrest in the Middle East there is no telling when things will settle down. So here we are at a crossroads in our business. Do we stop making sales calls because of the high gas prices or do we accept a cut in our income and keep doing what we have been doing?
I am not a big advocate in pay cuts neither am I a big advocate of failure, so what we need is a way to serve our customers and save our wallets. What we need to do is take a good look at our business and make decisions as to what is the best way to service each customer.
It isn’t going to be possible to treat each customer the same. If you make sales calls you will need to evaluate each customer and decide the frequency or even the necessity of making the sales call. What I am talking about is ranking your customer base. I will admit, this doesn’t work for some reps. If you sell only one product or service and every customer is paying the same and using the same amount then there is no way to rank your customers. I will discuss a plan for you in the next few paragraphs. Right now I want to address the reps that have customers which buy different products, services, use different amounts and pay different prices.
Where is your time and money best spent? Is it with your best customers trying to keep them happy? Is it with your worst customers trying to make them better? The answer is your time and money are best spent where you have the most potential to make sales. That is always the answer! In most cases your best opportunity for growth is where you don’t have the majority of the customer’s wallet for your products or services. These are the customers that are buying but you are not the primary source for your type of products or services.
You have a relationship with these second tier customers, they usually have a good degree of trust in you, and they know what you sell and the value you bring to the table. Now is the time to go for the gold by asking for and EARNING more of their business. Why do I say this? Most sales reps will be cutting back, they will be making less calls and leaving the door open for smart aggressive reps to capitalize on their “FRUGALNESS” (a nice way of saying they are cheap)While all the other reps are servicing customers less and cutting back, you start to give them more service and showing up more regularly. As they become discontent with the other reps you work your way up the food chain to become the main supplier.
The real work here is making the decisions as to which customers you are going to make the push with, which customers you are not going to change anything with, and which customers you are going to decide to give less and in some cases NO service too at all. These are hard decisions, but so are deciding between paying your rent and eating.
Now back to the reps that have no way of ranking their customers, you have another question to ask yourself. What does each customer expect? Because you can’t rank your customers by the amount of business they give you and the amount of potential they have you need to look for other ways. Expectations are one way. You may be calling on each customer equally today, but does each customer expect that? You may have customers that only need occasional touches rather than weekly or monthly sales calls. Some customers may be served as well over the phone as they are in person. One good way to help you make these decisions is to ask the customer. I wouldn’t tell them you are getting cheap and trying not to make calls, they may get the wrong idea (ya think) but I would say that you are rebuilding your territory and need to change your schedule, what is the frequency you would like to see me?
However you do it, ranking by the amount of potential or expectations, changes are going to need to be made to stay ahead of expenses. The most important thing is to remember, we are all in this together. Gas may vary by 20 cents from station to station but overall we are all going to feel the crunch, how we react to it will make the difference.
Lorin
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