MoneyWatch

How to Sell in a Down Economy, Pt. 1

By Geoffrey James

Updated on: February 27, 2009 / 10:36 AM EST / MoneyWatch

Oy! Such a stock market! We're clearly in for a recession, so it's time to provide some more advice about how to thrive (and not just survive) in difficult times. For the next few workdays, I'm going to post advice on sales strategy from the smartest folk I know. Here's the first...

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the Selling Power Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco. One of the more enjoyable aspects of attending a Selling Power-sponsored conference is hearing opening remarks from the publisher of Selling Power magazine, Gerhard Gschwandtner, who always brings an original perspective to the issues of the sales business.

This time he shared a six-point program for succeeding in a down economy. His list is tighter and more strategic than my (well-visited) post "How to Sell MORE during the Meltdown" so I thought I'd share it with you. Here's what I heard him say:

Go on the offensive. This isn't the time to hunker down. If you get on the defensive you're dead. Get aggressive, set aggressive goals.
Select better targets. Improve your methodology so that you don't waste time on customers who aren't going to buy.
Don't lower prices. Find new and innovative ways to lower the risk of purchase. Make it an easy entry and a better customer experience.
Focus on the customer. If sales people get nervous, they're cooked. Don't go into high-pressure mode. Ask: how can we help YOU to win?
Send the CEO out to sell. If the CEO hasn't spoken with ten customers in the past week, he isn't doing his job.
Improve everything. You can't sell the way you sold 2 month ago. You need to improve people, process, and technology.

What I particularly like about Gerhard's list is the idea that that CEO should be out there selling. That's absolutely true...and not just of the CEO. If there's ever a time for the entire corporation (and especially the management team) to help sales to close business, this is it.

I also like the idea that a downturn is a good time to invest in sales. I think that any company that cuts its sales training budget during a downturn is shooting itself in the corporate foot.

This post is continued in "How to Sell in a Down Economy, Pt. 2."

Readers: Just out of curiosity... does your CEO help you sell? If so, does it, well, help?

Full Disclosure: I write for SellingPower magazine, the producers of this video,
which also has a distribution agreement with BNET for video content.