The Tough Times & Difficult Market Sales Strategy

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but financial recessions have a strange regularity to them – a bit like waves hitting a beach.

If you’ve ever spent an hour or two during a summer holiday, standing waist-high in the sea, on a day when the waves are crashing into the rocks on either side of the bay – jumping to keep your head above the water and maintain your balance – then you probably got to a point when you thought you could almost predict when the next wave was coming.

But you never got the timing quite right, even though you could see them building on the horizon – and of course the biggest shock always comes when that huge, unexpected wave catches you and your friends unaware and knocks you all off your feet.

Which – on the beach, is thrilling and fun – but in business, that’s no fun at all.

If you take a look at the regularity of historical financial dips, it’s easy to see a system of waves.

The one that hit shore in 1930 was massive – so big they named it The Great Depression.

After that there was a series of smaller ones 1956, 1961, 1973, 1980, 1990 – and then another huge one in 2008.

There will be another one eventually of course – I don’t know when, I’m not a financial markets expert, I can’t even see if one is building on the horizon – but I’m not foolish enough to ignore that they keep on coming – in fact I’ve felt the impact of the 3 most recent crashes personally.

And that last one was more than 10 years ago.

When the late, great Jim Rohn was asked by a group of international business leaders what the next 10 years would bring, he replied;

“I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen. Based on the people I know and based on my life’s experience, I‘ve concluded that in the coming ten years it’s going to be like it’s always been.

The tide comes in, and then what? That’s right…it goes out. It’s been that way for at least six thousand years of recorded history, and probably for much longer than that. It gets light and then it turns dark. The next season after autumn is always winter.

True some winters are long and some are short; some are difficult and some are easy. But they always come after autumn.”

But there’s a positive marine-based business analogy too;

A rising tide lifts all boats

Because, it’s true, when things get better economically – absolutely everyone benefits.

I witnessed loads of mediocre business people do incredibly well between 1998 and 2006, just because they were riding that particular tide.

Which reminds me of another piece of great advice from Jim Rohn – when he shared his Ant Philosophy;

“Ants think Winter all Summer – and Ants think Summer all Winter”

Being prepared for the good times, while getting ready to make it through the hard times even though the sun’s shining bright.

With regards to Sales – and Business in general – there are a number of true, undisputable principles.

Simple, fashionable techniques can be easily learned and discarded, but principles are there to be understood and absorbed. Principles are what you build your life around.

I’ve spent years trying to polish and perfect my explanation of some of those principles so that I can break down and share how they can effect sales growth – even during tough times and difficult markets.

And this isn’t theory, these principles have been applied by myself and others at the frontline.

I’ve had incredible success with a number of clients who had genuine (and desperate) business growth requirements – and together we achieved some jaw-dropping results.

More than that – it’s laid a foundation for continuous growth for them (and me).

I discovered it when one of my own mentors shared his 3 specific points relevant to the growth in all businesses – which I adapted into the B2B sales process.

When given the correct amount of focus, those 3 seemingly simple areas have uncovered new sales opportunities and helped smash sales targets – and continues to do so for every team I’ve presented them to.

In fact I ran a free 45 minute webinar explaining those 3 points in June for my private client list, where I presented how to improve their customer attraction and sales systems – and create a comprehensive strategy to take them from where they were to where they wanted to be.

Here’s a taste of what I’ve been working on with a few of my clients since then…

=> How to focus on the part of the sales process that’s currently letting them down

=> A customer attraction technique that delivered a (previously unwinnable) $500K contract to one of my private clients in less than 2 months

=> How to close more deals, more profitable, more often

Anyhoo – there will be another recession coming soon, I’m not being pessimistic, that’s just the way these things work.

Germany was reported to be on the verge of one yesterday – reports show there could possibly one in the UK in the next quarter – some people will ride it like a wave, some people will be swept off their feet. Question is;

How ready will your sales team be when it crashes into your competition?

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Next UK Sales Training Workshops

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This one-day workshop was designed to provide delegates with a comprehensive introduction to the Selling with EASE process and to show how a thorough understanding of the four major steps – Earn the Right, Ask the Appropriate Questions, Solve the Problem and Execute the Solution – can help them to succeed in all genuine sales situations.

This interactive workshop is perfect for any salespeople who need to hit the ground running or anyone requiring a comprehensive sales “refresher”

In short – If your job remit requires you to convert sales meetings into profitable business relationships – then this workshop is the one for you.

At the end of this workshop delegates will be able to:

  • Explain why customers make the buying decisions and how they choose suppliers
  • Understand why your current pitch isn’t the solution to your prospects problem
  • Explain why setting yourself two different outcome targets to each call can lead to success every time
  • Demonstrate a high level of consultative questioning techniques
  • Use real life examples and case studies to sell concepts and solutions
  • Effectively overcome all genuine objections
  • Understand – and execute – the process of closing every sale opportunity

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LONDON        MANCHESTER        GLASGOW

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