5 Keys To "Sell The Hell" Out Of This Recession

It’s time to manage your efforts, revisit what you know works, learn new skills, and start moving forward with a fresh attitude.  If you follow the concepts outlined below, you will move forward faster than the next guy, and you will be on the fast track to outselling the competition.

Some aspects of this article are really focused on business to business sales, but the underlying principles still ring true for business to consumer or in other words, business with individuals.  I will use the customer generically to mean client, customer or patient depending on your particular business.

Key #1 - BE THE MOST YOU CAN BE – Personal Development
You can create for yourself a winning attitude.  You choose your attitude,  so choose a positive one today.  Get in touch with what motivates you and get in touch with it often.  Stay motivated.

Seek and embrace energy.  People buy from energetic people.  And get help (not from a therapist, although who knows?) from your “support team.”

Stop talking to friends and family who bring you down, you can catch up with them when you are bullet-proof.  Make friends with more positive, motivated and energetic people.

Key #2 - KNOW THE SHIFTING GOAL POSTS – Your Market and Numbers
You need to be an expert in your market sector.  People like to deal with experts, and you will need the knowledge to dynamically alter your sales pitch and responses to “recession objections”.

Your conversion rates will also change during these times.  Do you know your “conversion rates” of how much marketing or how many people do you need to meet in order to make a new sale.  Know your numbers now and follow them as they change in order to keep your activity levels in line with the amount of business you need.

And understand your profitability and appetite for deal-making in order to create competitive offers and win more business.

Key #3 - HELP THEM & THEY’LL HELP YOU - Customers
Sales and business come from relationships.  Build and maintain a stronger relationship with your existing customers so that they feel inclined to help you, too.  Understand the nature of your customers’ business or interests and in particular their issues and hurdles, see things from their point of view to better find solutions for them that result in business for you.

Develop ideas with your customers for them to develop more business of their own, particularly if this raises the need for your product or service.

Provide the best “customer service” you can and now improve it even further.  Knock their socks off with your attention to them and their needs.  Don’t cut corners with your service because of the economy, stand out from the crowd and be the one that they will ALWAYS come back to or refer on.

Key #4 - OFFER A BETTER MOUSETRAP – Your Product Offering
Re-think how you present pricing, how you bundle products and services and think of ways to reduce the pain of purchase.

Discounting is one way, but a good alternative is to reduce the size or quantity of your product or service in order to charge less.  This reduces the pain of purchase and makes it easy for your customers to come back for more, or the rest of your product, later.

Consider markets and customer profiles close to but outside your current target.  What adjustments would you have to make to your offering to suit this new segment? 

And cross-sell other products or services that you offer to your existing customers.

Key #5 - WORK SMARTER AND HARDER – Skills and Tasks
Yes, during a downturn, you will have to work harder to make the same money, but add “smarter” with these reminders and ideas:

•    Referrals and introductions.  Having developed a great relationship and trust with your customers it is most appropriate to leverage this, and remember they would love you to succeed, so ask for referrals and introductions.

•    Value selling.  Find and sell the value that your product or service brings to your customer and their business, don’t dazzle them with features that are of no interest.  If you do, they will either not see the reason to buy or get the impression your product is over-priced as it offers too much they cannot use.

•    Be flexible, observe the game and react to changing situations.  This is where your Mastermind group or support team can help to offer outsider perspectives.

•    Skill development.  Take every opportunity to learn more sales and marketing skills whenever you can, but then put them in to action.

•    Be magnanimous.  Always be on the lookout for how you can assist people around you, you never know when they will return the favor.  If you help them in their business endeavors, they may help you in your sales endeavors.

•    Strong and directed marketing campaigns, and whatever proves possible here, then add your own personal marketing.  Become an expert and the go-to person in your segment.

•    Team-selling for those working with colleagues and employees.  Develop the broadest possible approach to your customer through team selling, finding an internal champion and developing multiple points of contact.  The broader your approach the more chance that your message is understood and accepted.

At the end of the day, if you have a product that has value, it will sell, but it will always take energy and commitment to find the buyers.  Good luck and let's reverse this so called downturn together.