Maria has held a departmental staff meeting and told her team that she is conscious that Christine (her assistant) is overworked and under pressure and is therefore removing some of her responsibilities. The result is that Christine will undertake fewer new staff interviews and more research. Maria will delegate staff interviews amongst the other team members as people are available. Christine sees this as a removal of a key part of her job and the scope of her work has been reduced.

This afternoon Maria has a meeting with the Sales Director and Project Manager to look at restructuring the remaining areas of the sales force. The meeting will identify those posts and branches in the north of England that The Sales Director wants to merge and reduce the headcount by three managers and five sales administration staff. Maria is being consulted to advise on retaining the people that the Sales Manager wants to retain whilst “letting go” those he sees as being less capable.

Maria, together with the Sales Director, has visited the sales team in Exeter to close the local office. The rationale is that the office is not profitable and this is true and from a strategic point of view a good strategy for the company.

She did spend some time with each member of the team in Exeter to explain their options and to offer outsourcing advice. She also provided a list of vacant positions in the company but as these were all based in Manchester (the other side of the country) it was not viewed as being entirely helpful, which in fairness was not entirely her fault!

It has been noticed by other people within the company that she is intent on pleasing the new Sales Director at the expense of other alliances such as the CEO and COO. Indeed the Sales Director is adept at playing office politics and is understood to see himself as having far more “business ability” than his other executive Directors. He has actually been heard to say that it is only a matter of time before the CEO will “have to go!”.

I wonder if Maria is pinning her colours to the Sales Director’s mast too early?

If the press is to be believed this next year is likely to be one where credit is difficult to find, the house market will stagnate, food and oil costs will rise sharply as will demands for pay increases and an increase in industrial conflict. The result will be a fall in sales. Coupled with this will be further business costs attached to increases in employee rights.

There are many strategies to cope with such pressures and save money. One that tends to be an early adoption is to reduce the staff team and/or delay the replacement of staff that leave. Sometimes this is just reducing the fat that was built up in better times but too drastic a policy can lead to an extended recovery process.

There are certain tactics that can be planned that can increase the chances of a fast recovery. These include:

1. During a downturn sales become even more vital. Identify salespeople from outside your business that would be an asset to maintaining or increasing sales and identify their current and future availability. Make your telephone number available to them in the event they need a job

2. Identify new technology that will reduce administration time or costs, review it (vigorously) and install whilst there is the budget available.

3. Review work processes (to reduce bottlenecks) and systems that reduce customer contact time (particularly for the sales team).

4. Review targets and sales expectations and design tactics to cope with a downturn.
   

A strategy for survival through a time of pressure is a poor one unless it looks at a fast recovery.

Some interesting statistics emerged from the conference hosted by SumTotal Systems at BAFTA in London on 3rd October 2007. Among these were that research shows that there is a world demand for salespeople. The demand is also spread over all areas of business. The research confirms BRC’s findings that salespeople are amongst the most sought after employees and the ones, if successful, that tend to survive longest in a financial downturn.

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In our research?into why sales executives/ salespeople fail we have identified the top ten sales questions that a client asks himself / herself?when being offered a product or service.

The questions?are often not voiced to the salesperson. However unless answered the sale rarely is completed.

The hidden?questions are?are:

1. Can you deliver what I want? (not necessarily what you?say I want)
2. When can the product or service be delivered?
3. What does the end result look like and does it compliment what I expect it will deliver?
4. How will this increase efficiency / productivity?
5. Can I live without it?
6. Will the product / service easily fit into my current business? (culture, processes, people)
7. Do I trust what I’m being told? (do I like the salesperson)
8. Will the product / service generate more income than expenditure?
9. How much will it cost in terms of time, trouble and change? (Cost is the area that is asked)
10. Will dealing with the supplier be easy, convenient?