Is the economy teaching you anything? Is it having a positive or negative effect on your sales motivation?
Here is what the economy is teaching me:
1. Customers are still buying. They just need more reasons to buy.
There is still business out there and customers are still spending money. Not surprisingly, though, they are being more cautious and deliberate in their spending.
They want to be super confident that what they’re about to spend money on is truly going to deliver.
2. It’s taking more sales calls to close the average sale.
With people being more cautious in their spending, it is generally taking more interaction with the customer to close the sale. This does mean the length of time it can take to close a sale can be longer, so you have to take this into consideration when developing the sales plan.
3. Price is important, but it’s still not the only thing.
Salespeople love to talk about how they’re being hit with more pressure than ever to cut prices, but at the same time, no matter how cheap something is, if it’s not what the customer is looking for, they still won’t buy it.
4. It’s what I want to make of it.
I talk with salespeople and customers everyday and it’s amazing the comments I hear. Some talk about how good business is while others in the same industry or even the same company talk about how bad things are.
It just proves there is a lot of truth in the old saying, “Is the glass half-empty or is it half-full?” How we see things is all up to our own interpretation.
5. Thinking long-term is more important than ever.
If we get caught up in the here and now too much, we’ll find ourselves becoming discouraged. Economies go through phases and for all the difficulties we’re dealing with today, there are better times coming.
Most of us have never experienced this type of an economy before, so our thinking is jaded. Take a step back and realize the booming 1950s came on the heels of a busted economy that preceded it.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
