The Front Foot

By Rachel Poon

Client Services

 

Recent news headlines have been full of woe in regards to unemployment, recessionary fears and basic global financial doom. This has meant most senior management focus has been on cost cutting rather than investment in future business. This is especially so for companies with long sales’ cycles, new business is starting to be seen as a cost that a company can no longer bear as freely. This attitude is reactionary, tactical and may not be beneficial in the long term.

 

Many say now is the time you should be selling to your existing customers and not new prospects – as it is easier, quicker and more productive than new business acquisition.

 

However, now is also the perfect time to build relationships with new prospects. At a time where everyone is reducing costs, if you are speaking to them, you will stand out in the crowd. As your competitors fall away, you are able to pick up where they left off.

 

In this climate, the ability to be seen swimming when everyone around merely treading water, provides prospects with a sense of confidence and stability. And when the doom is over, you will be the one on the front foot while your competitors are scrambling to get their teams back together and back in working shape.

 

Understanding that costs are still an issue, mass marketing is not the solution. Instead, personalised, localised and strategic targeting of key prospects and verticals is the way. Who do you want to be working with, and how do you want to be positioned post-recession are just some of the questions to think about.

 

Remember, the recession will end. Business will pick up.

Engineering Sales Effectiveness

By Darren Cox

Sales Manager

 

The Sales Guy (Three years ago):

 

Targets hit (just!); Head held high; claimed back the “business lunch” at  the Park Hyatt (Woo Hoo!); Sitting behind the desk; feet up; breathe a sigh of relief; wait for the phone to ring.

 

The Sales Guy (Now):

 

Target’s missed (by a mile); lost three clients to competitors who dropped their pants for the business; sitting behind the desk – at home; Seek and MyCareer open on laptop; breathe a sigh of hope; wait for the phone to ring.

 

* * *

 

It’s remarkable to note that in Australia, many companies, before the economic crisis, rested on their laurels; the sales people sat in their leather chairs, tilted back, feet on their desks, awaiting the phone to ring,

 

And ring it did! Existing customers called to request a paid upgrade, a newer version, an alternative product, a professional service or two, and sales guys didn’t feel they needed to prospect for new business. Life was easy!

 

And then, BAM! The Credit Crunch. And, over the weeks and months we have witnessed mass job cuts, in order that businesses can reduce costs.

 

And who is cut? The sales people waiting for the phone to ring!

 

Now, times have changed. We’re in a different world – A world where businesses, to remain competitive, have to be on the lookout for new business – proactively. They have to create an effective sales strategy dedicated to new business generation and telephone prospecting.

 

Unfortunately, business owners, being less inclined to make cold calls, are equally less inclined to force their sales people to do the same thing. Furthermore, they look among their sales team, finding the familiar faces of veteran sales guys – the ones who made the cut – who outright refuse to get on the phone to generate new opportunities, or have no idea how to do it!

 

And so, their competitive edge becomes blunt, and the sharpened saw snaps.

 

So, what is the solution to the economic woes we now face? How can business owners and sales people overcome their blunted sales strategy and replace it with a new enthusiasm and purpose?

 

First and foremost, your sales people must be targeted not only on business retained – existing business – but new business generation.

 

Existing business should not be your only protection from keeping your business out of the red. Organisations must be looking at finding new opportunities, and forging new relationships.

 

Please don’t misunderstand, existing business is an important part of your sales pipeline and continued growth, but please consider, your existing business is your competitor’s new business and when the going gets tough the tough get going.

 

Your competitors are hungry. And so must you be.

 

Is it your intention to just make it through this crisis; to keep your head above water as you frantically swim to the edge?

 

Or is your strategy to grow and continue to expand?

 

Now is the best time to refine, or redefine, your sales strategy, to be proactive in your approach to new business generation, to get tough, but also disciplined in your approach to making outbound cold calls.

 

Our Joint MD, Ciaran McGuigan, drives a car with a number plate highlighting one of his own key strategies – 10B410. That’s ten outbound new business calls every days before 10am.

 

This methodology, though sounding simplistic, could be the difference between growth and stagnation.

 

So be tough. And get going!

St Patrick was in Sales

By Ciaran Mcguigan

Joint Managing Director

 

March 17 is Saint Patrick’s Day. The traditional patron saint of Ireland’s day is usually celebrated around the world with green beer, fried food and bad Irish accents. I thought this year as we are in the season we could all benefit from a little more background on why he was so successful when so many had failed before hand.

 

Before St Patrick went to Ireland there had been many unsuccessful missions [read sales trips] attempting to bring Christianity to pagan Ireland. Ireland, like many other parts of pagan Europe, consistently resisted attempts to convert the population. Now back then as a missionary if you were unsuccessful it generally meant that you were dead; so we can assume that every missionary prepared thoroughly and was personally committed to the outcome. So what did Patrick do which was different?

 

There are three lessons for us all.

 

Lesson One: He spoke their language

 

All previous missionaries arrived speaking classical Latin which naturally no one in Ireland understood. Because of Patrick’s years in slavery he could speak in the local tongue and he understood local customs and behaviour. At a fundamental level he could engage with his prospect base. Ask yourself how many of your sales team can speak CEO or Marketing, Finance or Distribution. Learn how to speak your customer’s language and you will write more business.

 

Lesson Two: He worked for the long term solution

 

Patrick was after long-term fundamental change – he wanted to convert core beliefs and systems which had been established for millennium. He knew that simply to arrive, build a church and start converting would not work over the long term. His predecessors had arrived with this strategy and had approached local chiefs and tribal elders with the goal that if they converted the chief then everyone in the tribe would follow. That’s fine – the only problem is if the chief then changes his mind – so does everyone else. No one was ever really converted. Rather than follow this, Patrick looked for the people who looked after the future of the village or tribe; the children. Patrick specifically targeted and spoke to the women in each community knowing that if he can influence them then they in turn will bring up their children, male and female, with their beliefs; beliefs which will stand the test of time.

 

Lesson Three: He leveraged existing symbols

 

In Ireland, as in many parts of the ancient world, the Sun was worshipped as the main diet. It made sense, after all the sun brought life everyday. It was one of the few constants in a dangerous world. Patrick knew that he could not replace the sun symbol which was worshiped and symbolised in art, jewellery and custom. He had one symbol; the crucifix and what he did next was one of the smartest marketing strategies I have ever come across. He combined them. What we now know as a ‘Celtic’ cross is in fact the pagan symbol for the sun in combination with a cross. Here is our lesson; We should all ask ourselves – How does our product or service compliment our competitors. If we can change our pitch from either / or, to ALSO then we can win more business and grow accounts.

The Marketplace: Our View

By Chris Moriarty

Joint Managing Director

 

Certainly these are interesting times. No doubt the first quarter of 2009 has felt like a down quarter. But it has not necessarily been one.

 

Strike Force Sales itself is up just over 20% on last year. The issue for our sales team has been that interest and enquiries have more than doubled, so there is a huge pipeline of interest.

 

I spoke to a colleague, a partner specialising in liquidations at one of the big accounting firms. He has experienced something similar. Lots of companies are talking about entering administration, but few companies are actually doing it.

 

Accounting firms are instead busy restructuring businesses to shield stakeholders from any future issues – there is a strong sense of future potential risk, but little immediate crisis.

 

I spoke with a senior executive at one of our big global clients and he noted an interesting trend… just about all of the job losses being announced in Australia appear well planned. People are being retrenched on the back of carefully thought out and well-executed planning, not on the back of emergency situations.

 

The point here is that if companies were in genuine trouble, they would lay off staff in a more haphazard fashion. What is really happening is businesses are using the downturn as an opportunity to re-size – actions are deliberate and planned.

 

So let’s thread all this together.

 

There is a strong sense that the future is uncertain and risks loom.

 

There is no real sense of panic.

 

Businesses of all sizes have used the first quarter of this year to sit down and carefully take stock of the current situation while putting in place plans to survive any sudden downturn.

 

Lots of businesses are re-sizing not because of immediate critical need, but rather because it seems prudent to do so.

 

A return to business fundamentals is taking place.

 

The most basic business fundamental is that all power comes from the barrel of revenue. So, while businesses are focussed now on their re-sizing programs, ultimately that can’t survive at all if they don’t keep on winning new business.

 

This means that over the next few months the whole economy is going to see a surge in sales activity. It will not necessarily result in a surge in buying activity – so we will see a hyper-competitive environment emerge, with fierce hand-to-hand combat being fought over every dollar.

 

Nothing is going to matter more than winning ‘that’ sale.

 

This is probably going to become the defining feature of the new economy that will emerge off the back of this global crisis. We will see a new hyper-competitive global economy against a background where risk is properly considered meaning heightened demand (and inherent competitive advantage) for accountability and transparency (the natural enemies of uncertainty).

 

It will be very exciting – in fact, it already is.

 

 

Ground Zero: Leveraging the GFC for Advantage

By Daiju

Operations Manager

 

 

As Operations Manager for Strike Force Sales I have the opportunity to not only make calls on each and every campaign we run but I also see the spread of data we receive from our many campaigns. One thing my operators and I are consistently hearing from all sectors of the economy is uncertainty, and uncertainty equals risk in business.

 

Risk can be dealt with in various ways depending on the business model and the management style of a company. Currently most Decision Makers are responding with a single-minded focus on “cutting costs” to protect the bottom line. However, paring back a business can also mean surrendering market share, it might mean your business falls father than your competitors. Thus, the second concern I hear expressed is “How do we take advantage of the current economic climate?”

 

These two concerns appear polar opposites, but they need not be. Cutting staff can lead to lower total ouput, but not if balanced with increased technology and/or training. Cutting costs while focussing on the future can lead to a leaner more productive and competitive machine which will be more able to capitalise on the inability of competitors to stay afloat in a hostile environment. Decision Makers know that this negative market will end in the not-too-distant future and the more savvy DMs are already preparing to be leading the forward as the conditions begin to change.

 

When I talk with my operators the first thing we do is examine the negative aspects of your product or service based on the bearish economy. Then we look at the way that our prospects can gain from the products offered by our clients in terms of future positioning. This is a process that continues all the way through each our campaigns so that common objections can be overcome.

 

We often point out to prospects that we understand their Pain in terms of the need to cut costs (be that staff, general expenditure or capital investment) while also reminding them that this is the perfect time to Gain from the relatively greater fall of competitors. We then insist this is in fact the reason why we have taken the time to contact them. Never directly pushing a product onto a wary market we instead aim to remind them of the fundamentals of business; adapt to and take advantage of the current economic climate.