You can no longer afford the “business as usual” attitude as this is not busness as usual and extreme times require extreme actions! The current economic condition is a serious ‘game changer’ and this article is designed to show you how to take advantage of the changed game. I am going to show you one simple thing in this article that will immediately result in increased business.
Your business is different today and different times require different actions, different attitudes and a different set of approaches. This is not business as usual and as popular as it is to say, “just get back to basics”, this naïve thinking will prove deathly. You have banks backing up on loan amounts, customers more resistant to make decisions, no-cost – easy credit has disappeared, unemployment numbers hitting levels never seen before, and bad news combined with a lack of consumer confidence flooding the minds of everyone. The fact is that most of your people have never sold in this type of environment! These market conditions require you and your people to think and act well beyond the norm. The game has changed and you now must change the game you play in order to advance your position. Do not look for ‘best practices’ at this time, look for ‘game changing’ practices that will separate you from the competition.
If you do what you did last year or anything even remotely similar you will find yourselves going backwards and may even cease to exist. In addition to thinking about what you can do to get a deal closed, determine what your competitors will not do and do that!
Determine what your best competitor is unwilling to do and do it and you will not only survive but you will seize market share. We are now talking about going way beyond basics and instilling new actions for sales and management. Again this is not business as usual but business unusual. Sit down with your management and pick any action that can create results, for example ‘follow-up’. Determine what your best competition will not do regarding follow-up. Let’s say the answers are, 1) will not call immediately, they wait a day, 2) will not make personal visits, 3) management/exec’s do not make calls. These answers show you the actions that you want to take right now. You have now discovered three game changing actions that will make THE difference. A little tip here; “the more unacceptable the answers the more successful the results will be”.
Quit looking for just ‘best practices’ start searching for ‘Game Changing Practices’ that will separate you completely from others. Don’t think with what ‘others are doing’ or what you ‘should do’, or even ‘how to compete’. I want you thinking with ‘what they won’t do’ so you don’t compete with them you conquer them! Those that don’t take this simple advice will not be in the market next year to complain. The survivors and winners will be those that have the best attitudes, the best approaches, that take the most action and are willing to go where your competitors won’t go.
