Sales Training: An Independent Perspective. Dave Stein's Blog.

We are presently in a recession* in the U.S.  Here are some positive actions that our clients are taking:

• Reducing their SG&A (Sales, General and Administrative income statement expense item) buy cutting the bottom 10 to 20% of their sales team.  It’s very unlikely that sales people who aren’t productive in a good economy will be productive during a recession.  Sales leaders know who those people are and they also know that if they keep those people aboard, especially now, the drag they put on the organization will be multiplied.
   
• Providing their sales people with just-in-time training and coaching so they are comfortable and credible discussing the current economic situation and are well-versed in how their products and services can contribute to their customers’ bottom lines.  New approaches for getting access to even busier executives is mandatory as well.
   
• Focusing on their target (and existing) customers’ specific recession-related challenges, not their own.  That requires an in-depth understanding of the customer’s business and specific value propositions that will first compel the customer to listen and then, once the assertions are proven, to buy.  This is nothing new regarding what companies should be doing all the time.  This opportunity here is that many companies don’t. 

* Two additional opinions on the recession are here and here.

Filed under: Economy