Dave Kahle
www.davekahle.com |
I had just finished sharing some of my
perceptions about the state of the economy and the challenges facing most
salespeople in one of my recent seminars. One of the attendees sitting in
the front row anticipated the next portion of the seminar when he said,
"Dave, what's the good news? Where is the silver lining?"
Great question. So many of us have been concentrating on the clouds
recently, that we haven't noticed the silver lining around the clouds.
Certainly the economy is limping along in many industries that had been
accustomed to regular growth. And the challenges of the Information Age can
seem overwhelming at the moment. However, at the same time, there are unique
and powerful opportunities for those salespeople who choose to pursue them.
It really is the difficult times that distinguish the true professional from
those who are merely in the right place at the right time. One of the
characteristics that contribute to success in difficult times is the ability
to see the opportunities in almost any situation. That ability is
particularly valuable today.
As examples of how negative situations always contain the seeds of positive
opportunities, here are three issues that you may confront as a result of
the slow economy, but which really provide you unique opportunities. Here
are three clouds with silver linings.
1. You customers may be reducing staff.
We've have all seen this. What looks like a negative, however, holds the
potential for a great opportunity. Fewer staff generally means that some
people are doing jobs that they have never done before and that fewer people
are doing more jobs. These are both opportunities for the creative
salesperson.
If someone is newly responsible for some category of product you sell, you
have a great opportunity to educate that person on your product, on the
reasons why the company has chosen to work with you in the past, and on the
benefits that you have brought to this company. Do this, and it will
position you as a valuable resource to that customer. Capture that
opportunity by leveraging your position into opportunities to present more
of what you sell.
If some of your key contacts are now responsible for doing jobs that they
have not done before, they can use help. It may be that by expanding the
services or products that you sell to them, you can simplify their jobs and
reduce some of the stress on them. For example, a purchasing agent may
suddenly become responsible for buying two or three new categories of
product that were previously someone else's responsibility. Now is the time
to make a presentation of why that account should buy more from you. Stress
that doing so, will reduce the number of salespeople that purchasing agent
needs to deal with and will reduce the number of purchase orders, invoices,
and all the ensuing time-consuming details. That's a powerful attraction in
these circumstances.
One of the most potent opportunities for a salesperson is the customer who
becomes overwhelmed with the details and complexity of his/her job. If you
can help simplify your customer's job, if you can take over some of what
that customer formerly did themselves, then you'll have a powerful
opportunity to establish a growing importance in that account.
Be particularly sensitive, over the near future, to the fact that your
customers may have more to do. Open up conversations about how you can make
a positive impact on their time and stress levels by reducing the number of
vendors they deal with. Find creative ways your company can do things for
the customer that the customer was previously doing for themselves.
If you can more closely ingrain your company with your customer in these
difficult times, you'll become more important to that customer, and you'll
enjoy a growing portion of their business when the economy turns around. It
is a rare opportunity.
2. Your competitors may be cutting back.
A lot of companies are reducing their staff right now. They do so to reduce
their costs so that they can survive in a difficult economy. That can open
up an incredible opportunity for you to prosper in the long run. For
example, if your competitors are cutting back on the number of sales people
they employ, then relationships with their customers will suffer, and that
is an opportunity for you. Your competitors' customers won't see the
competitive salespeople as often, or maybe not at all. That lack of
attention is an open door for you. As you call on your customers over the
next few months, pay particular attention to anything you can learn about
possible competitor's cut backs. Try to ascertain which of your customers or
prospects may be impacted by that. Give those people special attention.
If you can make an inroad into an account that was formerly committed to a
competitor, that relationship that you establish will work well for you even
after the market turns around.
It may be, however, that your competitor has not reduced the number of
salespeople, but has cut back on service or production. If that's the case,
then it is possible that some of your competitor's accounts are having
trouble with delivery, service, quality, etc. Now is the time to get into
those accounts and sniff around to find problems they may be experiencing.
Any such problem is an opportunity for you.
3. Your customers close down, or move their facility to Mexico or China.
This one is a real challenge. What possible good can come of a customer
going out of business in your territory? If you do your job well and are
blessed with a little bit of luck, this could turn into two or three good
customers down the road.
If you have done your job well over the past few years, you will have
created positive relationships with several key people. You know them
personally as well as professionally. You may have met their spouses or
children. You've gained their respect and trust. Many of them are not going
to move to Mexico, China, or anywhere else. They are going to stay right
where they are. Which means that they will be looking for a job similar to
what they are doing now.
Get their home addresses and phone numbers and copies of their resumes. When
you hear of a position opening up somewhere, let them know about it. Try to
help them find jobs in your area. Whether or not they find employment
because of you, they will recognize that you tried to help. Keep in contact
with them. It is possible that they will surface in a position of
responsibility for some other company in your area of responsibility. What a
great opportunity to leverage your relationship into a new account, by
calling on that individual.
With some luck, a couple of these displaced key contacts can open doors for
you with their new employers. One of the beautiful aspects of these three
clouds with their silver linings is that it is unlikely that your
competitors are even thinking this way. They are too busy feeling sorry for
themselves and bemoaning the change from the way things used to be. Use
these clouds as opportunities to expand the business or to find one or two
more accounts, and you'll be the envy of all the nay sayers around you. More
importantly, take on the attitude of looking for the silver lining among the
clouds in every difficult situation. It's the mark of a truly successful
professional.
Please visit
www.davekahle.com for more articles
by Dade Kahle.
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Guest
Spot
August
2003
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