How to Alter Your Sales Strategies in a Downturn

By Heather Baldwin

Every business hits sales downturns from time to time. The question for sales leaders is, what can you do about it?

In these cases, it can be helpful to look at what your peers are doing. How have other sales managers adapted to the new selling environment? What strategies are working best?

We presented those questions to Tiffanie Lyon, sales expert and professional speaker at the Lyon Sales Institute and author of “Sales” Is NOT a Dirty Word!: THE Inspirational Guide for Non-Traditional Salespeople. Here are her stories from three sales managers who altered their sales strategies and turned their downturns into opportunities.

1) Expand your relationships. When several key accounts failed to renew their contracts or slowed down their purchasing, one sales manager dug a little deeper and discovered a mass exodus of champions. In other words, from customer to customer, his sales reps’ primary contacts had either been let go due to staffing reductions or had been given new responsibilities in the company. That’s when the manager mandated that all reps reach up, down, and sideways on the decision-making ladder and forge relationships with key players at every level. “Dig deep within the organizations of your customers,” says Lyon.

If you’ve got a great relationship with one key person but don’t really know anyone else at the organization, fix it now. Ask your contact to arrange a meeting with other key players. Offer a mini training session, a product demonstration, a briefing on new industry research, or something else the contact considers worthwhile so there’s added value to the meeting. And once you’ve met other key players, work on building deep relationships with them so that when staffing cutbacks hit one or two of them, you’ve still got other solid connections to fall back on.

2) Create urgency. When her sales cycle started getting longer and longer, one sales manager decided to create some urgency. She required all her reps to make an appointment with the client who was the most profitable and had the most potential for growth. During that meeting, reps were charged with uncovering needs and creating a customized package with incentives to address those needs.

Go beyond standard discounts and get creative, urges Lyon. Offer bonus programs for long-term customers and bundle products and services together to add value and gain a bigger revenue share. Create urgency by demonstrating the consequences of not acting now – what’s the cost of the status quo? Set up “mastermind sessions” with your best clients to get their input on what you can do to better serve them, and then act quickly on those recommendations. “Getting creative and flexible, while serving the best interests of your customers, can give you the long-term advantage,” says Lyon.

3) Build referral sources. Referral sources have always been a great way to build business, but they become almost a necessity in a recession. Recognizing this, one sales manager with whom Lyon worked has made networking with targeted referral sources a must for his sales team. He provided training on how to build and sustain referral sources. And he now requires reps to document on their weekly sales-call reports any viable referral source appointment. These referral sources include other sales reps or professionals who provide complementary products/services and have a similar customer base. “The referral sources are now treated as valid sales calls, as long as reps continue to nurture them correctly,” says Lyon.

On a final note, Lyon urges sales leaders to remind their teams that the recession is temporary and the economy will pick up again. In the meantime, it is essential to stay positive and to view these conditions as an opportunity to find new, more creative ways of doing things.

Need more ideas? Visit www.lyonsalesinstitute.com.