Selling Strong in a Weak Economy
If you have managed to maintain your sales volume and customer base during the past 14 months, I say well done! If business has been down or you feel like you have taken a beating during a weak economy, make sure you have not weakened your approach to opportunities.
Here are a few reminders to keep you selling from a strength position.
Remember Who You Are - You are not your sales. You are the person who helps customers make quality decisions and push through their uncertainty to act. You can be confident in that fact day in and day out.
Qualify Strong - Don't let yourself fall into the trap of "trying" to win every opportunity that crosses your path. You might need to say "no" to more opportunities today to allow you time to find the customers who prefer to buy from companies like yours. This will also allow you to have more time to do a better job at selling than your competition.
Add and Re-sell Your Value - Add unexpected value to your current customers and make sure they understand that it is why they choose to do business with you. Also, ask them why they continue to do business with you and your company. This will help both you and your customer recommit to what is important to them.
It can be very easy to fall back to order taking and slave selling (doing whatever they ask, good or bad), in hopes of winning a deal. Don't do it. Challenge poor buying practices. Remember, you want to practice consultative selling. Be the consultant your customers rely on.