We already discussed some of the factors and warning signs of a downturn and so the next step is to examine the potential impact on your business and, of equal importance, how to maintain the morale of your sales team. Far reaching changes can be very unsettling to sales teams, poor performers regard them as an excuse and others can have their motivation and focus distracted and potentially "drained away".
As sales leader then you have the task to correctly understand and analyse the impact of changes on your team, take decisions on how to respond to them and explain both the rationale and impact of changes to your team members! Phew big job then, oh and keep revenues flowing as well.
It makes sense therefore to have some kind of systematic, or checklist type approach and that is what we will discuss now.
- First your own company may make organizational changes that alter the structure of the company, products and services, headcount and other areas. Discuss with your manager how any of these changes affects your team and when you will need to implement any changes
- Reporting and forecasting will increase as your company"s executives need more current and detailed information about the sales pipeline. Explain to your sales team that this is a reasonable and necessary request in order that the company manages its costs and income more closely
- New overall priorities may mean certain existing activities are delayed or cancelled; companies often focus on their core activities in a downturn. You need to be ready for this which could involve some products being withdrawn from sale or the need for higher margins affecting bids and tenders. Again a key demand on you is to reassure your team by explaining the company strategy
- Expect approvals for budgets and hiring to take a lot longer or even get cancelled, be ready to achieve your objectives with fewer resources which may mean re-organising your own team and the way it deals with customers and / or resellers. Even in such times attention should be given to competitive opportunities as a downturn usually affects everyone. Unify your team in a plan to identify weaker competitors and target winning business from them, this will also provide a pro-active and positive aspect of a downturn
- Headcount changes could mean any of the following: removal of contractors, acceleration of exits for serious non-performers and cancellation of any new hiring. On a positive side if you do have the ability to hire the likelihood is that you can choose from much higher quality people who, under normal market conditions, would not be looking for a new job.
- Cash becomes a very high focus area and you can expect your team –if not already engaged - to play a bigger role in making sure customers pay their invoices on time. On the other side you may find certain suppliers, who are not regarded as essential, do not get paid by your company as quickly as before. If you depend on certain suppliers you will need to make sure your finance department pay their invoices
- Travel costs are likely to be restricted and therefore you should discuss with your team how to use telephone and video conference calls to maintain customer contact to compensate for fewer face to face meetings.
Get a clear understanding yourself, as the sales leader, of these impact areas and then explain to your sales team what is changing and why. You need to maintain their focus on winning business and keep morale high. If there are changes that you disagree with then these must be discussed with your own manager on the basis of "change what you can and accept what you can"t".
For a comprehensive discussion of all these points and 14 other sessions check out the online sales leadership course How to protect your topline in a downturn (buy now at 50% off).
Richard Lowe
www.lets-begin.com
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