- March 26, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This is a post on which you must comment after reading it – really.
As the daily stories of economic woes continue to be featured in the headlines, most companies have their own version of the current economy and its affect on them. From the perspective of the sales force, we help overhear your salespeople returning from calls with objections like:
- there’s a spending freeze
- it’s no longer a priority
- they’re going out of business
- they’re laying people off
- they’re postponing the initiative
- they’re only going to do half of what we spoke about
- they’re too busy putting out fires
There are more but I don’t need to list them here.
Chronic mediocrity, excuse making, under achievement, complacency and a selling skill set adequate only for better times are colliding head-on with a recession and possible depression. What could be worse? Lots could be worse. That’s the reality but there are many things you can do about it.
- This is the best time to evaluate and identify the real issues
- This is the best time to train
- The strong sales force in a weak economy is the killer sales force in a strong economy
- This is the best time to coach
- This is the best time for incentive programs
- This is the best time for motivational programs
- This is the perfect time for new accountability initiatives
- This is the perfect time to install CRM
There are so many more things you can be doing. Here is the part where you get to comment. What are you doing in your company to motivate your salespeople and make them more effective when it’s most important for them to be more effective? And if you’re not doing anything special right now, why not?