12 Top Tips to Beat the Recession
By Tim Rooney
How can you, your team and your company stay ahead of the sales curve in these tough economic times? Through its programs of training, consulting, marketing and recruiting, Rooney, Earl & Partners helps companies and individuals grow and sustain their revenues. Here Tim Rooney shares his 12 top tips with MB readers.
Don’t Stop!
Don’t stop your prospecting activities. Yes, selling cycles will be longer, but people are still going to buy. The sales cycle is simply going to get longer!
Be Focused
Longer selling cycles mean your time is even more precious than normal. Make sure you target the right prospects.
What makes you different?
In today’s commoditised world, you often look and sound just like your competition, so be clear about what truly makes you different.
ABC to ABQ
In the movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, Blake’s mantra was “always be closing!” In today’s internet-savvy world, your prospect often knows as much – if not more – than you do. A more efficient mantra therefore becomes “always be qualifying”.
Don’t waste time trying to qualify prospects who don’t need your services, and don’t use manipulative, outdated closing techniques.
Live by the 70/30 rule
In a consultative type sale, you get paid as a salesperson - not for the information you give out, but by the good questions you ask. On a typical first sales call, the prospect should be talking 70% of the time, and the salesperson 30%, primarily asking questions and learning to figure out if there is a problem for which his/her service is a good fit.
Take really good care of your existing accounts
Remember: it’s five times more difficult to sell a new customer than it is to retain an existing one. Also, your best customer is always your competition’s best prospect.
Control your ‘Head Trash’
While you can’t bury your head in the sand, how much bad news do you need to take in? The media makes money from bad news! Control the amount of bad news you absorb. Remember the acronym – GIGO – “Garbage-in garbage-out”!
Be on the look-out for new markets
In tough economic times, certain market segments are going to go down and new ones are going to be created. If you have a very high market share in an existing but declining market, look at new market segments you might want to target.
Your net worth is your network
Sometimes your real worth can be measured not so much by the money you have in the bank, but by the support network you have built up both personally and professionally.
Nobody is perfect – but a team can be!
We all have our own unique skills, so be open to learning from those on your team who have been there before you, and who have already paid the price of learning from their experience.
Invest in YOU Inc.
Recessions don’t last forever. Invest in new transferable skills that will help you through the current tough times and put you ahead of the curve when better times return.
To find out how RE&P can help your company, visit www.rooneyearl.com, or contact Tim Rooney at tim@rooneyearl.com
2600 John Street, Unit 207, Markham, ON L3R 3W3 T: 905.475.5222 F: 905.475.6369
