This weekend I’ll be in New Orleans as a guest panelist during the American Marketing Association’s annual convention. New Orleans is one of two cities where Americans act squirrely the instant they exit the airplane. The other is Las Vegas.
Each year in Las Vegas millions of people race out of McCarran Airport in a full-speed sprint to commit a sin, be it cardinal or venial. Since 38 million visit each year, feel free to guesstimate how many head home with rain clouds in their conscience.
The Big Easy is different. Rather than gamblers New Orleans hosts drinkers, and Bourbon Street after sundown is America’s mecca for boozers on holiday. It takes little effort or energy to join in. Take a stroll, pick a pub, and have a couple hand grenades. Then take a seat. Quickly. Get a comfortable one; you’ll be there for hours.
I’ve spoken a lot of places and social distractions are always a speaker’s enemy but this weekend I’m lucky to be on a panel of four that meets in early afternoon. I am one of two businessmen. The other two are academicians, which is a long word for college professors. I love this stuff and look forward to it immensely.
Our topic is officially called, “Current Trends Affecting the Sales Force and Its Ability to Create Customer Value in the Down Economy.” I think a college person thought that up because no salesperson can remember a title that long.
Talking about specific, well-defined topics like this is fun because they make me think. I am a voracious reader and relentlessly study and analyze trends. I also pay very close attention to market and behavioral change. I’ve got a good track record teaching change dynamics and relentlessly incorporate updates into my work. The professor who invited me seem to think I’ll be a good guest, which ratchets up the pressure to do well.
The financial squeeze the economy has felt for the last couple years has changed behaviors across both sides of the desk, the buyer’s side and the seller’s. Because of this (I’m happy to point out), the first good thing that’s come from the recession is the weeding out of amateurs.
When professionals compete the game is fair, and pro selling is one of the fairest of all professions because great salespeople will outperform good ones who will outsell mediocre ones who will beat bumblers who will take turns pummeling each other. This relationship between talent and reward is the profession’s backbone; it is why pro selling is such a spectacularly unbiased way to earn a fair and righteous living.
Buyers are under relentless pressure these days to make smart decisions while working under a microscope that expects politically astute results. One big screw-up and his or her head may be the next on the block. Cheap price, which used to be a safe and easy out, no longer is because buying cheap is dangerous due to a higher associated risk of failure.
Current market conditions demand a smart spending balance. Since people must maximize value for money, the pendulum is swinging back toward value-justified solutions and shared-risk relationships. It helps, of course, when a sales force knows how to sell value well.
From the selling perspective, the slide into the tight economy presents three big problems. The first two are easy: competition is stiff and customers expect more (value) for their money. Smart salespeople know this, act accordingly, and do not whine.
For a succinct description of the third and biggest problem, I turn to that famed cartoon-sketched philosopher Pogo.
“I have seen the enemy,” he said, “and it is us.”
Many companies have gone zealously overboard on expense controls, cutting too much too soon with an underestimating blind eye to how those cuts impact customer interaction and sales force effectiveness. Sales forces have been reduced, relationships squashed, territories expanded, travel expenses slashed or frozen, training eliminated, and quotas raised beyond reach (which flatlines income). Each of these strengthens a self-spun corporate cobweb where even the mightiest fly can become stuck, trapped, and helpless.
Too many sales impediments cause three bad things to happen: customers will notice, competitors will pounce, and good reps–those with options–will leave. In boxing terms, each of those is a knockdown. Three knockdowns in a round stops the fight and a new champion (or supplier) is crowned. Customers are now quite willing to switch vendors, which is very much a double-edged sword when talking about retention and/or new client development.
I apologize for the mixed metaphors but selling value in a tight economy can be quite doable or nearly impossible, depending on the plan of attack. Outsmart the other guy and you will win. Be outsmarted and you will lose.
The game is on, decisions will be made, and what works today need not be “business as usual.” Clever professionals will see smart, creative gambits rewarded. This, of course, is the beauty and fairness of a marvelous profession.