Why Sales Suddenly Feels Like the Hunger Games

There’s never been a more important time for salespeople and entrepreneurs to know how to effectively prospect for new business.

And as life starts to get back to some level of normal again, it’s going to be an essential business skill.

Honestly, if you think things are tough now, wait until everything starts opening up properly.

Anyone who has a business that has survived the last 18 months – will more than likely witness some kind of Hunger Games “run for the best customer” scenario when the gates open.

And if your company has clients who are ready and willing to buy something – there’s going to be raiding parties waiting to jump on them.

And it wont just be about simply selling on price – that’ll just be a race to the bottom for companies who didn’t quite go under earlier.

In a couple of months’ time, I reckon we might all be falling into one of three groups.

• There will be people with the ability to hunt down brand-new business and convert prospects into paying customers
• There will be a couple of customer service order takers who got lucky – and – unfortunately,
• There will be a third group who are looking for a new job.

And, trust me, the board of directors won’t have time to care about all the hard sales work that took place when life was simple, in those glorious pre-lockdown days.

It will be old news that the sales team grew and maintained the old crop of wonderful customers – because some of them will have gone under during the bad times – and the ones that are left will be looking for ways of staying ahead of their competition too.

‘Cos the management team will be all too aware, that – if we don’t start supplying some new opportunities and grow our account base right now – there won’t be a company left to employ a sales team anyway.

Over the last 30 years, I’ve watched as close friends of mine – even though every one of them had built strong relationships with their client base, and possessed all the skills they needed to look after accounts in a truly competitive market place – lose their footing when times changed and they were asked to become a hunter (as well as farm their current opportunities).

So, my advice right now would be to sharpen and polish all the weapons you’ve got – that’s just what people do before the town clock hits high noon – because you want to make sure that everything is as sharp as it can be and nothing jams when you need it.

And there are plenty of free resources, books, podcasts, and vids out there for you to use and get some ideas from.

Please go and take advantage of them now – because I genuinely believe you should go and get ready before the games really begin.

I’d also recommend that your team come and join me at one of my 2 Day Busimess Development Masterclasses – where we’ll;

• Focus on some real-world advice on how to find some new business right now

• Work through ways that will effectively build your sales pipeline 

• Share strategies designed to engage decision makers in markets with long sales cycles
• Work through battle proven templates that will take you step by step to booking appointments with the prospects you need to be speaking with as soon as you possibly can
• Tips on how to engage with prospects at just the right time

I look forward to catching up with you on the day

All the best