Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Is Good Enough Really Sufficient in Today's Economic Times?

By Mercer Erickson

The economy is having considerable changes to the overall landscape of American businesses. We are witnessing a significant drop in the stock market, endured corporate scandal thanks to entities such as Worldcom, Enron and Arthur Andersen. Business and personal bankruptcies are at an all-time high, banks are closing their doors and home foreclosures across American are breaking records. We are scratching our heads and asking what is happening to our economy.

If employees aren't getting laidoff, corporations are instituting hiring and spending freezes. The continued terrorist attacks and attempts has left an uneasiness in America. As business owners, employees and our customers are molding into a changed mindset. Our behavior is more conservative no matter what the geographic area or industry we are in. The American public are not making hasty decisions and are more conscience when it come time to make a financial decision whether small or large. As I converse with people every day, I continue to hear complaints but everyone seems to think doing nothing is "good enough" for the time being. Everyone is waiting for everything to "fix" itself.

Yes, we are pretty much powerless to change the situations, however we are in definite control of how we respond and react to the dilimeas. As business sales professionals, we have some hurdles that we need to overcome and rethink some of our skills to continue to rise to the top. Our knowledge and experience is priceless and we need to use these skills to our advantage.

Remember, success always awaits us. We need to trust and believe in ourselves and our surroundings and we will prosper. Yes, there will be struggles and challenges but with the right mindset we can overcome them. Customers are changing their beliefs and priorities but we can mold ourselves and be flexible with their wants and needs. We can control the way we do business. Below are a few examples of how we can grasp success for the long term:

We have to possibly work harder than we have in the past. Our goal is to keep that pipleline as full as possible through increased and consistent prospecting. This will keep our income stream steady and protected. With the new "do not call" rules, we just have to be more creative about how we go about cold-calling. Especially in sales, setting appointments is crucial. It might require making many more calls than we did in the past to maintain the same return on investment.

There are many avenues to prospecting, such as postcards or an email campaign. What worked for us in the past probably won't be sufficient now. Evaluating the process might require increasing We already know that the postcard prospecting system can be productive. We may need to improve our rate of recurrence and the amount. Email prospecting is becoming more and more popular with today's technology. Be considerate of others, maintain your professional image in your emails and be sure you have a "strong" subject line. Our objective is to receive as few "unsubscribes" as possible. Grabbing the customers attention so they will read your email is as important. Our goal is to "get the order" or "get the appointment". In the past using one resource to do our business might not be enough today. Use all the tools and resources you possibly can.

Creating value in the customer's mind is one of our primary responsibilities. What customers were willing to find acceptable in the past may not measure up to their current standard. This is the principle that U.S. automakers were slow to embrace and lost market share as a result. Let's learn from their experience.

The business world is concerned with economic challenges and constantly changing rules. There is only one question we need to ask ourselves in reference to our roles: Is "good enough" really good enough? - 30462

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