Get Your “A Game” Back…

Hi, it’s Rob here with another Bold Call Guys post…

The global economy has seen almost two decades of solid growth, with a few minor setbacks on the way.  Many people who are in sales now have never seen a recession up close and personal.  They only know the good times, and their sales habits and philosophy were formed during the boom.  Now that the world has changed, they are unsure how to adapt.  We are in the trenches, and we would like to share our thoughts and Action strategies…

THE SKY IS FALLING?

There are many industries that are severely affected by the present economy, and many salespeople and business owners are seeing tough times in their markets.  Doom and gloom is the mood of the moment in the news media and the frenzy is also being stoked by the 24/7 news cycle on TV and the Internet. 

We are regularly hearing comparisons to “The Great Depression” and fifty-year lows in various statistics.  The average consumer is scared, somewhat angry and they are considering lifestyle cutbacks.  At the same time, the government is making unprecedented intrusions into the banking system and other parts of the free-enterprise markets, with unknown results. 

We should not bury our head in the sand, but we should put this in some perspective before we jump totally onto the Chicken Little bandwagon.  Business is normally cyclical, and we are overdue for a slowdown by most past measures.  We had somewhat of a perfect storm of events with the bursting of the real estate bubble, the insolvency of many banks due to ridiculous lending practices, and the incredible spike in oil prices which acted like a huge tax on the entire economy.  These events are now unwinding and causing pain, but there is a limit to the amount of damage that they can still cause.

For the millions of people whose livelihood depends on selling goods and services to pay the bills, there is no choice but to get up in the morning, put on the work attire, and get out there and sell.

 During boom times, when things are easy, we often stop working as hard and we stop doing all the many things that improve our sales success.   But business is still good, and the orders are coming in, so the bad habits and inefficiencies are masked.  We end up with our “B Gane”.

In tough times, we must have our “A Game” to prosper…

How Can You Get Your A Game Back?

There is no magic pill, but there are magic habits… Here are a few things to look at carefully…

 1)     You need to work full days, and full weeks without cutting corners…

2)     You need to stay in close touch with your best customers and resist the urge to cut back…

3)     You cannot let any projects “slip through the cracks”…if it is real, stay on top of it…

4)     You need to market more aggressively for new leads and new business…

5)     Your presentation materials and personal grooming need to be top-notch…

6)     You need to make every sales call count… pre-call planning and sales strategies are a must…

7)     You need to stretch you expense dollars and not waste money on things without a return…

8)     You need to invest in your personal development with cds and video training…

9)     You need to remain positive and upbeat and someone your clients want to interact with.

Your customers want to work with dedicated, optimistic sales professional and you need to do everything you can to meet this ideal.

We’ll talk more about this on a few days, but for today just pick one or two above and concentrate on them completely.  Write down how you are going to apply them to your situation and take an action today…

Happy hunting,

Rob