Survival Tactics For Sinking Sales
As anyone in sales knows, there is really nothing worse than a sales slump. You walk into work, pick up the phone, and … wallop! It’s just not happening.
Sales slumps are vicious circles of bad conversations, disappointment, and … well … more bad conversations. But remember — there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
To help you get through this not-so-fun period, check out my tips on how to handle a slump.
Don’t panic – The worst thing to do at this point is freak out, which might turn a sales slump into a self-fulfilling prophesy. Statistically even the best firms and the most talented people have weak or bad quarters. Take a deep breath and don’t let it get to you.
Know where you are – Knowing where you are is the first step in creating unstoppable momentum in your business. You have to know where you are in order to get where you want to go. The most successful business owners are all over their numbers. They can tell you how much profit they made last week. They can tell you how that compares to their projections and forecasts. They know the latest profit margins of all their products. They can tell you which product sales are slumping, and the best of them can even tell you exactly why! These men and women know their numbers inside out. Do you?
Daily Sales Reports – do them! A way of pushing your most important sales key performance indicators (KPI’s), in an understandable way, at every manager, team member and stakeholder in your business. It becomes addictive to try and achieve a target and this is tremendously motivational. In this way the daily sales report, can directly influence the way that people feel about their jobs. It can absolutely changes sales performance and culture for the better.
Goals – make them bite sized: By starting with bite sized goals, our view of how much progress we’ve made shifts dramatically. The only way to get any sort of result is to take action towards a goal. By taking action by achieving a bite sized goal every single day you create momentum. As momentum increases, the results taken from your action will become much more substantial, and eventually you’ll be at a point where you actually can’t stop because you’ve reached the point of no return.
Intensity—when you purposely direct your intensity to things that matter and give unimportant things a wide berth, your momentum grows. Intensity and passions are two of the hallmarks of maintaining momentum in business. If you pursue your goals with great intensity, you become unstoppable.
Questions are what good salespeople use – Sales success usually begins with the ability to ask good questions and then listen — really listen — to the answers. Some salespeople fail to ask the right questions. Others ask the right questions but don’t listen properly to the answers. Questions give salespeople control and credibility. They help the prospect uncover or reveal their real objections without any pressure from the salesperson. Questions also shift the focus from the salesperson to the prospect, where it belongs.
Spend at least 85% of your time selling or marketing your business. Nothing happens in business until someone buys something – and the reason they buy is marketing. The sooner you start thinking of yourself as a marketer of what you do – and not a doer of what you do – the sooner your profits will soar. That thinking has to manifest itself in how you think, feel and act – but when it does your sales will sky rocket.
Take massive action. Yes, taking action can lead to failure, rejection or making mistakes. There is always a risk for that. But if you do nothing then you are pretty much guaranteed that nothing will change or improve. Put simply, the difference between super successful high income businesses and ordinary low income businesses is implementation. If the effort is focused properly and channelled onto the right things then it can transform any business in a remarkably short space of time.
Finally – Get A Coach. Have someone you respect, attend your sales meetings, listen to your phone calls and evaluate your presentations. This could be a manager, a colleague, a friend or a hired gun. Whoever you choose, ask them to be honest with you, and when they are, do something with the advice they give you.