Book Summary Preview : How To Sell And Manage In Tough Times and Tough Markets

The Big Idea
This book offers practical tips and advice on how salespeople and managers can effectively steer their way through times.

Tough Times
Tough times happen when you have an extended period of declining economic activity. In business terms, tough times happen when supply is greater than demand, creating the proverbial buyer’s market. It’s a different kind of tough times when demand is greater than supply. It then becomes a “seller’s market.” Though sounding great, it brings with it another set of problems for sales people. It’s tough times when you must work harder, finding it difficult to get ahead. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a full-blown recession: if your company can’t ship products for whatever reason, the times may be rough.

Tough Markets
If you’re a salesperson and you have strong competitors who sell quality products, at competitive prices, with good service, you’re in a tough market. Viewed in this way and put bluntly: all markets are tough. There are rolling recessions: tough times that roll from one industry to the next, or from one geographic area to another. The domino effect of one company catching cold and passing it on to another is widely recognized in business. The bottom line is: tough times and tough markets exist, and it’s never fair. Accept it, find ways to deal with it and move on.

Tough times signals
There are a number of things that signal tough times on the horizon. Being aware of these and remaining vigilant will help you deal with tough times successfully.

1. Internal signals
Your company has installed a hiring moratorium, they have frozen wages and they are encouraging employees to take early retirements. Your company has slashed advertising money, travel expenses and trade show budgets. You see a consolidation of departments. Your suppliers and potential suppliers call on your company more frequently.

2. External signals
If you encounter more price resistance than you normally experience, it’s a signal that things are tightening in your market. Buyers try to negotiate lower prices with a kind of price-sensitivity born out of the need to survive in tough times. Customers change their ordering patterns. Your phones ring less as customers place fewer orders. Price objections go beyond normal level.

Three biggest mistakes salespeople make in tough times
1. They reduce face-to-face calling by 38%
According to a purchasing management study, during tough times, salespeople call on customers at 62% the rate they call on customers during good economic times. Clients can easily sense this and so the best remedy is to increase your calling by 25%. If you call on customers at a rate of 125% of the rate you normally call, and your competition calls at a rate of 62% of the rate they normally call, you have effectively doubled your coverage. . . . . . . . .

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