Sales Blog with Sales Tips

Clyde Gentry is not in sales, yet he taught me something over lunch recently that I will never forget. The applicability to sales is enormous. The usefulness of his wisdom applies to selling in a down economy.

First, Some Background
Some of you may have heard of Clyde. He has written several books, the most famous being No Holds Barred: Ultimate Fighting and the Martial Arts Revolution which can be ordered on Amazon.com. This book is considered the standard on MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). MMA is a sport where all fighting styles are simultaneously allowed: boxing, karate, judo, etc. Besides writing books about MMA, he has also competed in MMA. He knows his stuff.

Clyde’s Fight Story
During lunch, Clyde told me the story of his first “MMA” fight. I put “MMA” in quotes because it wasn’t supposed to be an MMA fight. He was competing in a karate tournament when he suddenly realized that a judo move would take down his opponent in a nanosecond. Clyde, who is never afraid to try something new, put a judo move on his opponent and wham, the fight was over. Clyde won…but not officially.

Clyde Forgot The Rules
The referee came running over and said, “What are you doing?” Clyde replied, “Fighting and winning!” The referee let Clyde know that he was only allowed to use karate. In other words, the objective is to beat your opponent with karate, but you must leave all of your other tools in the toolkit. It was exactly at that point when Clyde realized that MMA might have something to offer him. He was right. In MMA you are allowed to use all of your fighting tools. You are not restricted.

What I Learned
I love that story because it teaches us something extremely important about sales. Do we have access to a large sales toolkit that we’re not using? Are we unconsciously handicapping ourselves by not using all of our corporate and personal resources? Is there a set of “rules” that makes no sense and is keeping us from sales victory?

Right now the innovative and resourceful sales professionals are going to prevail. The status quo won’t get you to your sales budget this year. Know that your competitors are digging deep into their box of tools. You need to also.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Let’s eavesdrop on two different sales managers as they address their sales force at two different companies and in two different economic climates. In your opinion, which sales manager has the right perspective?

Sales Manager No. 1, Selling Environment No. 1
“We’re in a recession. We have to focus on getting as much revenue out of our existing customers as possible. I don’t want anyone spending time on business development right now. Besides, once you finally turn a prospect into a customer their first orders are small. When the economy improves we’ll get back to the task of new business development.”

Sales Manager No. 2, Selling Environment No. 2
“The economy is strong and there is a lot of customer activity. We have to capitalize on the moment and make sure we get all the business we can out of our existing customers. Don’t spend time prospecting right now. When the economy slows down we’ll get back to prospecting.”

Which Sales Manager Is Right?
Short answer – neither. Based on what the two sales managers were saying, there is never a good time to prospect – good economy or recession. Since most businesses lose about 25% of their customer base each year through attrition, not prospecting is never a good business strategy.

When Do We Prospect?
I’ll answer the question of when we should prospect by asking you to answer five questions.

1. Are we prospecting for today or tomorrow?
2. True/False. Yesterday’s prospecting affects us today.
3. When do we have the most available time to prospect? When sales are up, or when they are down?
4. Why is prospecting like a physical fitness program?
5. Can we expect to keep all of our best customers forever?  Even in a robust economy?

Whether we love prospecting (does anyone?) or hate it, business development is the life-blood of any business. Never stop prospecting.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Value added selling is critical in normal selling environments. Ordinarily the added value we promote results in long term ROI (Return On Investment) for our customers. That’s a good thing.

The Current Reality
However, right now, we’re selling in a recession and our prospects and customers are looking for an immediate return on their dollars (i.e., net cost savings). Am I saying we should throw out value added selling and just start discounting? No. I am saying, however, that the added value we bring to our customers needs to be primarily focused on a here-and-now return on their costs.

An Analogy
It’s analogous to a drowning man. Imagine telling him that swimming lessons would help him become a more efficient swimmer. His primary concern, at the moment, is drowning. He’s not too worried about entering the Olympics.

Most companies have done such a good job of training their sales professionals about selling value instead of price that their sales force can’t turn down the volume a little on selling long-term benefits. We have to remember that the majority of our customers are living in the economic moment.

Rx
Now is not the time for complicated, detailed and abstract presentations showing our customers how a certain added value will save them money over the next ten years. We have to demonstrate to our customers what our company can do for them in the short-term. I’m not saying we need to discount; we need to show how our products and services will result in an immediate return on their investment.

Should we completely stop selling long-term value? Of course not. There are companies that have the financial ability to take a futuristic view of current investments. Additionally, there are selling situations that call for us to not only sell short-term value but also long-term value as part of the package.

We have to consciously acknowledge, at least for now, that most of our customers have shifted their view from long-term investment to short-term return. We must adjust our selling approach accordingly.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer