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Sell your way out of recession
By Mike
Published: October 22, 2008, 23:56
It does seem that "the sky is falling", as "Chicken Licken" famously said, and the clock is definitely ticking.
I was moderator at a Financial Times CEO conference sponsored by IBM last week, and no less an authority than Professor Saul Estrin of the London School of Economics declared that that it would be no more than 18 months before all of us felt the effects of the current financial turmoil.
I am sure many people are thinking about extracting all the cash they have from the bank, putting it under the bed and hiding under a duvet until it is all over. Obsessive entrepreneurs like myself, are instead doing what comes naturally; we are starting new businesses.
Counter-intuitively, a recession is an excellent time to start a business. Those of us that have been around the block a few times started businesses in the last two recessions of 1984 and 1991. In hard times, people, raw materials and office space are cheaper; suppliers turn up on time and offer much more reasonable terms. Even builders and plumbers return your phone calls.
Cash is king, and those that wisely accumulated wealth through the boom times will soon consider that the market has bottomed out and start buying up properties and other long-term assets. So in the next few months we can expect a "dead cat bounce", a small but short-term partial recovery.
The longer-term prospects for established businesses are much more uncertain, especially those that provide products and services that might be classed as a discretionary spend.
There is only one way to beat a recession, and that is to sell your way out of it. If you could work out how to double your sales overnight, then the recession would be something that only affects your less nimble competitors.
Sales is far too important to be left to just the sales force, so now is the time to get everyone in your company galvanised into action. This is important for outwardly undifferentiated service suppliers such as PR, marketing and branding, and especially the more traditional professions like the law.
All their websites show fascinating people with top-quality skills and experience. What is required is for them to get them out there, talking to customers.
First casualty
The solution is some simple confidence-building training, which explains to them that some people are not best suited to go "hunting" for new business, they are better suited to go "farming", finding opportunities in their existing client base.
Sadly, training is often the first casualty as belts are tightened. This is of course a false economy; the most important assets for any business are your employees, the only people who will be able to get you out of a recession.
Increasing the training budget in lean times sends out a powerful message to your best people that "we are all in this together" and the safest place for them is where they are now, not rushing off and starting new and perhaps competitive businesses.
The final step is to encourage everyone to be pro-active. Most people have no problem cross-selling existing services, but to be entrepreneurial in a large organisation you need to talk to existing, satisfied customers, and ask what new products or services you might provide.
The writer is a best-selling author, keynote speaker and entrepreneur mentor, co-founder of Beermat.biz, an online resource for entrepreneurs.
Sell your way out of recession
By Mike
Published: October 22, 2008, 23:56
It does seem that "the sky is falling", as "Chicken Licken" famously said, and the clock is definitely ticking.
I was moderator at a Financial Times CEO conference sponsored by IBM last week, and no less an authority than Professor Saul Estrin of the London School of Economics declared that that it would be no more than 18 months before all of us felt the effects of the current financial turmoil.
I am sure many people are thinking about extracting all the cash they have from the bank, putting it under the bed and hiding under a duvet until it is all over. Obsessive entrepreneurs like myself, are instead doing what comes naturally; we are starting new businesses.
Counter-intuitively, a recession is an excellent time to start a business. Those of us that have been around the block a few times started businesses in the last two recessions of 1984 and 1991. In hard times, people, raw materials and office space are cheaper; suppliers turn up on time and offer much more reasonable terms. Even builders and plumbers return your phone calls.
Cash is king, and those that wisely accumulated wealth through the boom times will soon consider that the market has bottomed out and start buying up properties and other long-term assets. So in the next few months we can expect a "dead cat bounce", a small but short-term partial recovery.
The longer-term prospects for established businesses are much more uncertain, especially those that provide products and services that might be classed as a discretionary spend.
There is only one way to beat a recession, and that is to sell your way out of it. If you could work out how to double your sales overnight, then the recession would be something that only affects your less nimble competitors.
Sales is far too important to be left to just the sales force, so now is the time to get everyone in your company galvanised into action. This is important for outwardly undifferentiated service suppliers such as PR, marketing and branding, and especially the more traditional professions like the law.
All their websites show fascinating people with top-quality skills and experience. What is required is for them to get them out there, talking to customers.
First casualty
The solution is some simple confidence-building training, which explains to them that some people are not best suited to go "hunting" for new business, they are better suited to go "farming", finding opportunities in their existing client base.
Sadly, training is often the first casualty as belts are tightened. This is of course a false economy; the most important assets for any business are your employees, the only people who will be able to get you out of a recession.
Increasing the training budget in lean times sends out a powerful message to your best people that "we are all in this together" and the safest place for them is where they are now, not rushing off and starting new and perhaps competitive businesses.
The final step is to encourage everyone to be pro-active. Most people have no problem cross-selling existing services, but to be entrepreneurial in a large organisation you need to talk to existing, satisfied customers, and ask what new products or services you might provide.
The writer is a best-selling author, keynote speaker and entrepreneur mentor, co-founder of Beermat.biz, an online resource for entrepreneurs.
