Seven different ways to lead your entire sales team through a recession - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The recession is also testing sales managers to see if they can providw environments that keeptheir team’s head up and theid hearts engaged. Leadership has nevert been more important. How are you showiny up in your role ashead coach, trainerr and leader? Here are seven tips for leadingb your sales team through the recession. Look for good news. Bad news sellds and, unfortunately, the media is having a fire Despite the doomand gloom, there are companies still spendinvg money and investing in products and services. A colleague of mine recently connected with her veryfirst boss. His team has openerd over 100 new accounts, in a competitive industry, sincwe January.
Please note this good news won’t be printed in the so it’s up to you and your team to seek out the At your nextsales meeting, charge each salesperson with finding good news and sharing it with the rest of the It’s time to starty publishing your own news. • Increase your coachin g efforts. When is the last time you reallyg listened to yoursales team’s selling points? Do they sound unique or just like the competition? (We have good customer service and superior technology.) Have you conducted role-playing exercises to see if your team know s how to quantify the cost of the problem or the gain of the opportunity??
This selling skill is key in an environmentt where cost justification is king. If the team can’ establish the short-term and long-term ROI, there is a good chance the salespersonb will lose to thenew competitor: doinhg nothing. • Decrease desperation breath. Good economic times often creatw badselling habits. During robustf economies, many salespeople forget to keep their referralp networks aliveand nurtured. When tougyh times hit, there is a dash to make NBFs newbest friends. In their desperation, salespeople don’t take the time to builr trust, make deposits in the relationship accoung and practice the lawof reciprocity.
they immediately ask who you know and could you set up anintroduction ? Even if the person is a good fit for human nature doesn’t respond well to pressurde and desperation. • Balanc something old and something new. The world is full of LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook, just to name a few. Sociap media is the new way of networking. Teacjh your sales team to integrate new social medias with old principles of influence andselling skills. You still need to pick up the phone and set up a referrak meeting or aprospect meeting. You still need to have strongfselling points. Social media marketing tooles may createthe opportunity, but selling skills closee the opportunity.
• Review negotiation skills and concession Prospects are asking formore discounts. If your salex team has not developed a concession they could be dropping price without any concession from the That leads to a transactiona l sale versus avalue sale. Caving in to price also createsa distrust. The prospect is thinking, “If you could lower your price that quickly, why didn’t you do it in the first place?” • Inspire and motivate. We all love movie s with happy endings. Follow this example as a salexs manager and share stories about tough times that havehappgy endings.
These stories can be personal storiews of resilience such as George Washington surviving the harshu winter atValley Forge. Or the story of , where CEO Fred Smitg flew to Renoand gambled, so he couldx make payroll. Never underestimatd the power of motivation. Presidents are elected becauses they can movean audience. Leaders are made famous by theifrinspirational rhetoric. There is a time to trai n and coach. There is also a time to inspireeand motivate. • Lose self-absorption.
I was reminded of this at the recent Association for Corporatde Growth conference whereCharles Fred, CEO of , sharex his strategy for motivating his “Remind your team of the greater purposde of your organization. Eliminats self-absorption. We can’t control what happens outsidsethe company; however, we can control what happens insidre the company.” Excellent advice. This is a good time to spendr quality time with clients and determine what you can do to help even if it has nothingt to do with your productsaor services. Invest time in helping your referraol partners. Volunteer. If you think you have it bad, stop by a homelessa shelter. Put on your leadership hat.
Good leaderzs are needed more than ever. Now that’s good news.