There is no shortage of depressants during recession times (and CNBC does not help either!)
How are companies growing inspite of recession? How are they selling?
1. Relationships: Perhaps the most important during recession. They help in two ways:
- Right relationships tell you where the spend is, irrespective of economic scenario
- Your existing relationships are best bets to growth during tough times. ( I know of companies who have not added clients for one year but have shown tremendous revenue growth, by sheer account mining)
2. Relevance: Is your offering ( not product) relevent in the current scenario? When businesses take a 'Keeping Lights ON' approach to all spends, does your offering have relevance to this approach?
Can you modify/package your offering to keep it relevent in the 'Keeping Lights ON' scenario?
( e.g. Instead of selling servers ( capital budget), offer them on usage basis ( revenue budget)
3.Review: What inefficiencies in your current sales & marketing processes can you take out? ( you lived with them during boom times, because you could.)
This could mean process changes,training,resource optimisation...
4.Rally : More than ever, these are times when the entire organisation needs to sell ( and not just S&M folks!).
How can other functions help in revenue generation?
