A good friend and mentor of mine in the rep business used to say to me, “It’s not one thing, it’s a thousand things!”
It becomes quite easy and maybe even fashionable to blame the economy for our woes, yet even in the worst of times there are companies, businesses and people who continue to excel and outperform all others. You have to ask why when many can tend to get mired in self pity and blame everyone and everything — it might be time for a look in the mirror.
One element that is apparent is that the role of the sales rep (independent or not) has changed dramatically. Many of us can recall the day when our entire success was based on how many calls we could make in a week and it worked; however, today it is not about how many calls you make, it is about how much value you add when you do make the call. Now let’s not confuse making fewer sales calls with not working hard, but how and where you spend your time is completely different. You spend time preparing for the call, knowing more details about your client and their needs, helping them find solutions to their problems and then building business (and reputation!) based on this.
Of course, we still have principals that measure activity (quantity) instead of result (quality) and feel we have to be contacting “X” number of clients per week. To appease this group, consider the use of technology and tools that are available to you and spend your time on this rather than driving down the road just for the sake of doing it — besides, a lot more decisions are being made without the face-to-face today, so save that for the really big things and use technology to deal with the rest. It is something you should be doing anyway, so consider things like automated reminders and follow-ups, automated newsletters, LinkedIn updates, blogs, webinars, etc. These are new ways to communicate and generate leads with customers.
The successful companies and people have figured this out. They realize that the market is shifting (or has shifted) and they have adapted. This will allow them to be exceptional no matter what the economic condition.
It is all not without a plan though. Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) has a new book out entitled Great by Choice, and in it he profiles companies that have shown continued growth and prosperity even in terrible markets, horrible economies and devastating environments (think Southwest Airlines and the airline industry over the last 20 years). It is worth a read and consideration as you go through it on what your company plan is and how you can adapt and plan for the next poor economy. By the way, there is another recession coming, and while we don’t know when or how hard it will hit, we do know that recessions tend to change how companies and people do things. Getting ready now by looking at your business (and yourself!), preparing for that day and knowing what you will do when it hits can put you on the right side of the ledger. There are simple things you can do now — just making more sales calls is likely not the answer anymore.
