• February 21, 2015
  • Mark LaCour
  • 0

Come learn what a salesperson must do during a business downturn to insure success, even though everybody else is struggling.

 

Hey, folks. Let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.

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All right. Today, we’re going to talk about the top nine things you need to do as a salesperson when your business takes a downturn, so let’s just jump right into it.

Number one. You need to change your playing field. So, in our world right now in the oil and gas, February of 2015, upstream side of the house has taken a hit and a lot of sales organizations are worried about what’s happening with their sales numbers for the rest of the year. What they don’t understand, if they will just change their playing field and go after midstream or downstream, there’s a ton of money to be made out there. So, if you’re a salesperson and there’s a downturn in the economy or your business, look at other places that you can play, don’t stay where you’re comfortable.

Number two. Live and die by your numbers. And this is sales 101, but when things get tight, it’s even more important. How many cold calls are you making a day? How many outreaches are you making a day to existing clients? How many visits are you making? How many meetings are you setting? How many proposals getting out the door? You need a live and die by your numbers when things take a downturn.

Number three. Become an efficiency expert. So, anytime business goes downhill, everybody’s worry about operational efficiency and if your product or service can touch that in some shape or fashion, all of a sudden people need you even though normally they won’t be buying anything.

Next, instead of dropping prices, develop a new business impacting solution. And what do I mean by that? When business takes a hit, everybody wants to drop their prices to try to compete. Don’t do that, you don’t want to be the low price leader even if you win that business, it’s little or no margin. Come out with something new, come out with something that’s a game changer that’s a must have. If you do that, you’re ten legs above your competition who are fighting for pennies where you’re selling million dollar deals.

Number five. Make sure you solve problems that your clients don’t even know they have. So, when business is good, you’re busy just keep it up, right? When business slows down, you need to look at your clientele and figure out problems that they don’t even know they have that you may be able to solve. Reach out to them, engage, and show them how this problem is going to affect their business.

Number six. The next you do is sharpen the saw. Now of course, I stole that from Stephen Covey, but it’s the truth. When things take a downturn, you need to be sharp, you need to be mentally positive, you need to be focused, you need to be at your game day best. And the only way you can do it is take care of you. Make sure you’re eating right, make sure you’re working out, make sure you get plenty of rest. This is not the time to stress and let that deteriorate the way you interact with your clients.

Then, number seven. This is kind of common sense. Protect your existing client base. Usually business takes a downturn, so many sales organizations are worried about where they’re getting new business, but they’re not paying attention to the existing clients and that leaves it wide open for your competitors coming to steal some of that business. So make sure you spend time protecting that client base.

And then, the best defense is a strong offense. While everybody else is huddled and worried about where the money is coming from, go on the offensive, look at your competitors look where they have weak spots and go after those weak spots. Nobody’s expecting this. The best way you can defend your business is go after more business.

And then finally, shut up and sell. I’m tired of whiners the complainers, you know business goes up business goes down, but it’s the strong the people who actually do the work that make it through this sort of stuff. So, if your business has taken a downturn, just shut up and go out there and sell.

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So, folks, I hope this helped. We will see you next time.

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