How to thrive in tough times
Often I find various small-business people doing both well and badly in the same location in the same industry. Faced with the same market conditions, why would one business be thriving and one be struggling?
Why some small businesses thrive in tough times while others do not survive
Throughout my travels I speak with many small-business operators and salespeople in various locations and different industries. So often I find people both doing well and doing badly in the same location, same industry. Faced with the same market conditions, why would one business be thriving and one be struggling?
In one word…
Skills
Steve Walton, a graduate of our Top Gun sales-mentoring program, said something to me last week which I thought was so profound that I thought back to the last big recession. Steve said that during tough times:
‘Good salespeople will become great salespeople, while the ‘order takers’ will be in big trouble!’
So true, Steve, and we are training salespeople now who are indeed becoming great salespeople and highly sought after right now. So what are these sales professionals doing?
Here’s Ian’s story
Right from the beginning, Ian made a decision to get serious about sales. He committed to himself and invested in himself and started doing two hours of sales training each week. He decided to develop the skills he needed to achieve his goal.
Ian’s BMW
One of Ian’s goals was to own a new BMW. In less than 12 weeks Ian became his company’s #1 salesperson nationally, selling big contracts to paint commercial buildings. First he became successful in Melbourne, and then he went and sold in Sydney too.
Ian developed a relationship with his prospects by gaining their trust and by understanding their needs.
Ian decided to go for big orders, despite the shrinking number of companies prepared to spend big dollars. He invested several thousand dollars in himself to develop the skills he needed to do one thing:
Beat the competition
Instead of cutting his prices, Ian developed a relationship with his prospects by gaining their trust, achieving high levels of credibility, and by understanding their needs. Then Ian sold on value for money. It was a winning formula for success. Ian has now taken delivery of his first new BMW and he’s smiling from ear to ear.
This winning formula is working for other sales professionals who understand that for sales to get better, they must get better.
Good salespeople will become great salespeople, because they’ll develop better skills to beat the competition and take away their competitor’s market share. They will invest in books, audio programs, sales workshops and online sales-coaching programs to become the very best they can be. And their investment will pay off, big time. The average salespeople and companies will do the opposite. They will cut back on spending and sales will go down.
It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Ian believed business would be good for him and it was. Ian became a generation 4 sales professional, and then a generation 5 sales professional. His prospects and clients saw him as their ‘friend in the business’.
Wayne Berry, CEO TOP GUN Business Academy International
