Sales Tips for a Downturn | BTalk Australia

(14min 40) Sales coach David Penglase says economic hard-times will showcase great sales people and expose the ordinary. On today’s BTalk Australia he gives Phil Dobbie five points to consider when selling in an economic downturn. And being the salesman he is there’s a couple of bonus tips for good measure!

For more advice from David see “7 Excuses Salespeople Make For Not Achieving Targets“.

Got any further sales tips? Add your comments in the Talkback section at the end of this post.

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• Today’s Transcript

Phil Dobbie: Hello, this is Phil Dobbie and welcome to BTalk Australia. Today do you need to change your selling style to cope with the economic downturn?

So, all we’re hearing about is economic downturn, deep recession will make us lose our jobs, our house, our mind, our libido. Where’s it all going to end? If things are that bad now, are we really going to sell anything at all this year? And do we need to change our selling style if we’re going to be successful? Well, David Penglase from SalesCoachCentral.com is on the line to talk about that very subject. Now David I guess when times are good, it’s a lot easier to sell, isn’t really? But you know you just become an order taker. Very different story this year.

David Penglase: Yeah absolutely. And I think that’s one of the key things that I’ve learned over the years, and I often have these arguments, sometimes I fight the discussion with sales managers that when times are good, they don’t know whether they’ve got a good sales person or not. Because what they actually could have is just what I call good buyers. The people are coming to them and buying the products and services. Of course, it’s a booming economy.

Dobbie: Yeah.

Penglase: But hidden underneath all that is you know when sales people go on holidays and it’s a classic example of it when sales people go on holidays, the sales still come in. So now we’ve got this economic downturn and I think there’s a real danger that some people try and downplay it by saying just stay positive and life will be good. But there’s got to be more to it for sales people. We do have to be very careful that we don’t adopt a dig in and blame mentality. That we adopt a step up and claim mentality.

Dobbie: So how do you sort out the wheat from the chaff? Or is it just going to become obvious who are the good sales people because they’re going to be the people that continue to bring in the sales I guess.

Penglase: The simple answer is you’re right. It sorts itself out. In tough times you find out who your best sales people are. Because they have already established with their existing client base a process that is value-centric. In other words, they’re doing the things like continually building report, continually asking all the right kinds of questions. They don’t just sell to their client, they know their client.

Dobbie: So this idea of a value-centric approach, that’s really finding out what the customer wants and what the customer values and providing that solution for them.

Penglase: It’s probably going even a step further than that. Most sales people know that what we’ve got to do is find out what they’re wants and needs are and their problems and life’s good. But the really successful sales people are the ones that have gone beyond just the immediate needs and wants. So they have been constantly asking questions beyond just their products and services. They’re learning more about their client’s businesses, their situations. Which may have nothing to do with their products and services, but the conversations that they can have build deeper levels of trust. The conversations they have build opportunities for connections where it may not be this particular sales person’s product or service that’s required, but this is where great networking starts to happen. I know somebody that might be able to help you with that. And so all of the sudden, the sales person isn’t just seen as somebody who’s a provider of products and services to this client. They actually are seen as a partner. Now that won’t work in every situation, but they’re the ones that in my experience, are seen as a resource not just a provider or a supplier.

Dobbie: That sounds great. It also sounds a bit long term doesn’t it? Whereas a lot of companies are going to be saying now look you know our sales are really down. What are we going to do to try and boost our sales or at least try and keep them from dropping too far?

Penglase: There’s probably five things that I would be suggesting for every sales organisation, which is really any organisation that’s out there going to make a profit and even the charities are in this situation as well. The first one is don’t just dig in and be doing what we’ve always been doing. I think we need to increase the amount of networking that we’re doing. And I don’t mean social networking. I mean really strategically thinking about who are the influences of the decision makers? Who are the decision makers? And what’s my plan of getting out there and talking to them? One of the things that I believe and certainly this is getting back from my break over the festive season. But one of the things that I’ve got planned out and that I’d recommend that everyone’s got planned out is that you can talk to people about the situation (the economic situation) and find out how they’re doing. So there’s a reason to actually contact people and beyond just your services and products. So, number one networking. You know get in contact with decision makers, get in contact with the potential referral bases, really network, build your network.

Dobbie: Right. So what’s number two?

Penglase: Number two is to do great work. I know this sounds like a really simple statement, but it’s developing this extra mile fall off, continually trying to do more than what our existing clients expect. And that really stands to value over everything. The third one is kind of linked to that, but it’s to continually ask what else? Now the what else question happens when you ask it of yourself in your own business. What else could I be doing? And this is why we’re having these conversations. But more importantly, what else could I possibly be doing for my clients? What additional value can I create? So not just doing good work, but then thinking beyond that and saying what else could I provide, what other information, what other product, what other service. And there’s a whole range of things around that.

Dobbie: So exceeding expectations really.

Penglase: Yeah, but the danger is Phil that sometimes people try and jump to exceeding expectations and they haven’t done a good enough job on just meeting the expectations first of all.

Dobbie: That’s very true. Often people who say that think yeah you haven’t kept me happy, you are far from exceeding expectations.

Penglase: Well that’s right and there have certain industries. For example, the pharmaceutical sales industry, they’re a classic of this. They have to give away so much stuff just to get to see doctors. You know little gadgets and you know little marketing things and it’s almost like we’ve created or they’ve created this expectation of additional service, but have they met what was required in the first place? So what I’m talking about you know asking what else, do a great job first. Meet the expectation and then start to say now what else could I do that will impress this client that they didn’t expect and potentially not even have to pay for?

Dobbie: Now is your memory better than mine? Are we up to point number four now or point number five?

Penglase: We are, you’re doing well, Phil. The fourth one is a simple one. But it’s I believe the toughest one. That is keep positive.

Dobbie: Yeah.

Penglase: Now, I’m not, you know a motivational guru. But there’s a lot of people that will impact on the overriding attitude of sales people. You know, I try to keep things pretty simple in life and my understanding about what causes success is that what we say to ourselves, that inner voice inside our head, what we say to ourselves effects how we feel emotionally and physically. And how we feel emotionally and physically effects our actions, what we actually do. The actions that are repeated over a continuous time form our habits and this is where the highly successful sales people have locked in habits of marketing and sales success. They just are doing the stuff on automatic pilot. That leads to long-term success. So if we’ve got people in our minds telling us you know it’s all bad news, it’s this, it’s this, it’s this, then I’m not saying ignore it. You’ve got to accept that things might be tougher, but don’t dig in and just expect it to be bad because you’ll create that reality. So keep positive.

Dobbie: So yes, but sales folk are sensitive folk aren’t they? So should you shield them from some of that talk which is almost certainly going around the business? I mean should you just say hey, look, this is the truth, just don’t tell the sales guys?

Penglase: No, I reckon you tell them. And they know it anyway. It’s kind of like when you know, some sales manager seem to forget the fact that when they go and have a conversation with a sales person to tell the sales person you know what, you’re not meeting budget. The sales person is saying well you’re not telling me anything I don’t know. That’s how I measure my success. But here’s the point. You flip it around. And if our sales team are worried, then there’s a big chance that the other sales teams in our competitors are worried as well. What we’ve got to be is more proactive, more active with our clients than ever before. And if we keep doing that, then the chances are we’ll be one step ahead even if it’s only a slight step ahead of any competitor who really is not just buying into recession problem, economic downturn, whatever it is, that we’re at least going to keep pushing in and getting the stuff done.

Dobbie: Right. But how do you change behaviours to make this happen? Is it a case of, for example, incentivising sales staff by saying hey look, times aren’t great, but there’s bigger cash bonuses? Do you need to look at physical or material ways of trying to engender them to change their behaviour? Or is it back to where we started that only the good are going to survive anyway?

Penglase: No, no I think it’s, there’s two things Phil. Actually with a client today who’s just introduced an incentive scheme that is based on new client acquisition. So they’ve got a really strong business and most of their business is coming from obviously their existing client. Well, all of their business is coming from their existing clients, but their focus has been do more with our existing clients because that’s easier business. This is a great opportunity to start searching for new clients and to incentivate the sales people to actually do that. There’s a number of ways to do that. And what this client told me is that which was really clever because some of their competitors are really struggling, the competitors are almost at the point where they’re not able to provide the level of service that they have in the past. So now’s a great time for this particular company. They’re going in and seeing clients of this other company. So it’s a potentially great time to go and poach. Just make sure that you’re doing a great job and you know your clients can’t be poached. So close the back door. So there’s that side of it. The other part of it I believe that managers, there’s a real danger and it just doesn’t make sense to me. That in times like this, to stop your potential to earn income or to raise revenue by not incentivating your sales people, by not encouraging them, by not motivating them, by not providing them with the learning materials that they need and the picks and the tools and all that kind of stuff, this is a great opportunity to keep the learning and the development for your sales people up to the best it can be.

Dobbie: Right, OK. So now more than ever. So I think we’re up to point five.

Penglase: Well and that was covering point five.

Dobbie: Alright.

Penglase: That’s the learning and the development, keep incentivating your sales people. It’s kind of like if I’ve got to do the same kind of sales or even more than I did last year, but the expense budget’s being cut, so therefore I got to do more with less, there’s a danger that if we don’t stick with the pointy end of the business, that is the sales people, the customer service people, if we’re not looking after them, it’s going to just go backwards. And that just doesn’t make sense to me to reverse, kind of like reverse psychology. There’s just a couple of other things around I think that the ask what else, Phil, that’d I like to just touch on. But one is for sales people to contact the inner part of this networking, but contact their dormant account, contact the accounts that they’ve lost, contact you know referrals that they haven’t been able to follow up. You know just contact as many people as you possibly can. The other thing in this time and certainly this is something that I come across all the time, not just in a downturn economic environment, you know most businesses when you go to them and even if you’ve been referred, they’ll say to you, you know we don’t really have the budget for this. Or we haven’t allocated the budget for this. That’s a reality in any business.

Dobbie: Yes.

Penglase: Sales people need to think really strategically about comparative budget. So if we can identify for the client that this is something they would really like, but they don’t have the budget for it, my question would be let’s talk about your budget. What are some of the things you’re spending money on right now that in reality if you weigh this up against that, this is a much better decision? So you’re not going to change your budget, you’re just going to move the funds.

Dobbie: So opportunity cost is what you’re talking about.

Penglase: Exactly, exactly. But I’m not sure sometimes sales people think strategically like that enough. The other way to be able to do business and this is not about dropping your price, is to be able to look for ways to make things more affordable. Now this won’t be for everybody, but certainly in service and in some products where you can package things up in a different way that, so long as it’s of value to the client, can make things more affordable to the client. And there’s always you know changing of terms and conditions and all those kind of things as well. But it’s just thinking strategically. But they’d be my major tips Phil.

Dobbie: Yeah, and all that sounds good. Hey listen David, I had a whole lot of questions here to ask you, but I’m just going to throw them away because I can just phone you up and start recording and you just keep talking. It’s a marvellous thing.

Penglase: As long as you’re getting some value Phil and for the listeners as well.

Dobbie: Absolutely. You know wise words as always. Pleasure to talk to you again. Thanks very much for your time David.

Penglase: My pleasure.