Selling in Tough Times – 5 Tools Sales Managers Can Use to Keep Their Team Moving

Selling in Tough Times - 5 Tools Sales Managers Can Use to Keep Their Team Moving

Your sales team is the vitality of your business. Without the money and profits it generates, whatever else your company does is of importance. In this regard, I’d like to share with you some tips to guide your sales team through the changes and economic uncertainty that’s affecting the world currently. These strategies aren’t likely to ease the burden. However, each can help shift the attention away from the current issues and put it back where it belongs to the customer. That’s essential for opening accounts, no matter what’s displayed on the front of the section for business.

1. Have Your Salespeople Put on Their Customer’s Shoes:

Since the economy has slowed, Many of our manufacturers have put aside thinking about the customers and businesses they sell and have begun thinking about their own issues instead.

The customers they serve are facing difficult circumstances, to trying to offer them the exact solutions and products using the same methods as in the past isn’t likely to take us far. Make sure that the salespeople who work on your sales team begin thinking about what their most valuable customers require right now, not the things they’d prefer to be selling, and then have them tailor their approach based on the knowledge gained from this. You’ll be amazed by the vast difference it could bring about.

2. Think Solutions, Not Products:

The same is true for you to be aware that not all of your clients are searching for new equipment, better insurance plans, or other typical “products.” In the current market, they do not need anything else. However, what they’re seeking is a method to reduce their prices, sell more of their products and remain competitive even in the face of severe cost pressures.

The best time to the return on investment of selling. On the one hand, it allows your salespeople to talk to their customers and prospects in their own languages. However, more importantly, is that it makes them think about the things that really matter to the person having to sign the invoice or order slip and how they can better communicate those benefits during the right moment.

3. Get Past Prices:

If your salespeople say they believe that pricing is the foremost hurdle to closing new deals is a sure indicator that they’re not able enough in their sales processes. This is because repeatedly in any economic situation, successful salespeople can find ways to market high-quality products without settling for cheap discounts. Whatever the reason that your customers are citing to select your company as a vendor, it’s likely to not start and end with cents and dollars that appear in your bill.

However, less skilled salespeople will often get caught about pricing, either due to a lack of confidence to stick with their convictions or they aren’t able to comprehend the process of selling well enough to continue building value following the first objection. It’s your responsibility as a manager to clarify the situation. Continuously cutting your costs can make sales increase faster; however, it could cause you to go out of business in the process.

4. Think Long Term:

Although the primary purpose of this article is how to keep orders coming in, it does not mean that you must tell your sales personnel to focus on making the largest sale today. Sometimes, the best option is to offer the product in a smaller amount – which is a less costly amount of investment or commitment and may open the way to further business opportunities.

It’s about understanding where your clients are at the moment and the best solutions to best meet their requirements. Don’t let your production team put the emphasis on the month’s commission checks over a relationship with your client that may last for years. Help them craft proposals that do more than just win business but build relationships that will last much better than what’s happening in the present recession.

5. Give Them The Right Tools:

It’s funny how many sales managers do not invest in training technology, training, and other tools to their sales teams right at the moment they need the most. Instead of avoiding the responsibility of the management of your team, stand with your team by making sure they have the right resources available. Although all the strategies I’ve discussed in this article can be helpful, none of them are simple to master or learn and so make sure you invest in the tools you require to send your sales team out to go out and find new businesses.

Sales Management Points:

It’s not an ideal time market for your manager, but as a manager, you have to be an example to your team’s producers. Utilize these five suggestions to let them know that instead of staying hidden away from their surroundings, they should be seen and shut down new accounts.