Are you fit enough to survive?

If your company has been producing average performance in the last couple of years, it will struggle now.

Any sportsperson will tell you what happens when they try to compete more seriously without the preparation, training and fitness required.

Those businesses that have just about got away with adequate systems, OK processes and reasonably productive people will have serious issues in the face of fiercer competition and fewer customers. In the last recession, those who came out well took the opportunity to create a better, more productive and profitable business.

Organisations must drive both efficiency (costs down) and effectiveness (productivity up), if they are to survive.

Sales functions also need to recognize that the game has changed. It has moved very clearly from a growth strategy (get more business because it is out there), to a market share strategy (we will only maintain revenues at the expense of our competition).

Once we recognize this, we also must then recognize that this means a change to both sales strategy and sales tactics.

Strategy change involves a closer look at who you are trying to do business with (it will not be the same companies, or the same number of companies as before). Tactical change means giving the sales people the tools to really compete with the competition and win the lion’s share of the business they go after.

Here are some of the changes made by high performing companies that gained strength from previous downturns:

Sales supervisors are the key to success - We have played a part in the reorganization and performance improvement of over 100 large sales forces. It’s our experience that whether change succeeds - and whether results significantly improve - depends much more on sales supervisors than on salespeople. When we are working to improve the performance of a sales force, we give most attention to building competent sales supervision.

Fewer accounts means more sales – Salespeople love to have lots of opportunities. A salesperson who has ten customers to chase feels much safer than if they had only five. As a result, many salespeople are half chasing twice as many opportunities. They don’t sell deeply enough, they don’t plan adequately and they lose business to competitors who put more resources into the best opportunities. We often find that we can get a dramatic improvement in results by taking away 20 - 30% of a salesperson’s prospects. Salespeople hate this and they argue against it - but it works.

Salespeople must become value creators - Too many salespeople are “talking brochures”, trying to show customers how their products or services are better than competitors. This is traditional value communication selling and it no longer works on its own. Salespeople today must move from value communication to value creation. The salesperson must add as much value as the product. This calls for creativity and problem solving. Selling is no longer about persuasion.

Coaching brings results - Every world-class sales force we have worked with puts great emphasis on coaching. They don’t just give lip service to coaching; they create systems and processes to make coaching happen. Yet few sales managers understand important coachingconcepts, such as how skills coaching is different from strategy coaching. The best way to improve sales results is to make effective coaching happen.

You cannot hope to use yesterday’s tools, or run at yesterday’s level of effectiveness and be in business tomorrow. Some businesses will come out of the current recession stronger because they will have become more productive and competitive. Some will not survive.

This is our third recession in our 24 years of trading and it is the worst one. We know we can align your business and its sales operation to come out of the current times ahead of the pack, not in the pack or behind it. We also believe we are able to access government funding to help support these changes.