PR
The first step is the most important. And that is to increase the skills of your sales staff right now. They need to know how to quickly determine the needs of your customers, work out the buying triggers, and close sales efficiently and decisively.
You will lose sales if you wait till the start of the upturn to upskill your sales staff. Generally speaking, the company that is best prepared at the end of a recession snatches more business.
Which leads me to the second step: Have an effective product ladder in place. That means having a range of upsells your sales team can use to generate more revenue per customer.
Have you ever walked into a fast food restaurant intent on just having a burger, and found yourself happily buying an entire meal? That’s the power of an effective upsell. If minimum wage staff can do it, your highly trained sales people certainly can.
Finally, the third step is: Know who you need to hire next and how you will train them. A lot of businesses have been putting off expenditure “just in case”, rather than because they have been desperate to keep hold of the cash.
So as soon as there is a perception the recession is ending, these businesses will spend their money. If that means a massive increase in business for you, it makes sense to be prepared now for a possible recruitment drive.
Prepare job specs and recruitment plans now. It would also be sensible to evaluate training providers and have training plans ready to roll.
The end of the recession is on its way. And The Mdina Partnership would be delighted to help you snatch business away from your competition.
Please contact us to discuss your sales and management training development needs.
See our 2010 Maltese conference video
