I think we can agree that the economy is still unstable. While some firms are flourishing, others are suffering. Likewise some professionals are exceeding their goals and others, I would say about 75%, are crying about their poor results and blaming the economy.
I see it every day, with professionals not achieving their goals asking for advice on how to make rain in a slow market. The first comment I make to all of them is this:
If your market has slowed and you have slowed with it, you will soon be out of business. So tell me, what have you done to ramp up activity this year?
Usually that question is met with silence and then another complaint about how no one is buying. "No one?"
Of course some people are buying, someone always is. So my question to you is this:
If your market has slowed to a crawl, or maybe only half of your market's buyers are buying, what are you doing to ramp up your activity - working both smarter and harder - to capture a greater share of sales in your slowed market?
Sadly, it's been my experience that most people give up when their markets slow down. They resign themselves to the fact that it's going to be a bad year and they don't even try to hit their targets.
A very few refuse to wave the white flag. These top performers attack their markets with vigour. They approach more prospects with new and increased business development activities. These are the few people who, even in a bad market, are doing more.
So, before you complain about the economy hurting your revenues I need to ask: Are you taking any of the following actions?
- Reach out to your current client database at least once per month with a value-based, content-rich newsletter.
- Attend at least 1 networking event per week.
- Ask for referrals at least once per day.
- Follow up on your leads at least 7 times by email and 7 times by phone before you give up.
- Prospect every day to keep your funnel full. A full funnel is one full of opportunities totaling 300% of your goal.
- Identify new target markets to sell to.
- Attend trade shows regularly and follow up with the leads within 24 hours.
- Make more prospecting calls every day.
- Implement a reactivation campaign to win back lost clients.
- Revise your goals for the month, quarter and year.
- Change your presentation to place the customer's values first and your corporate marketing messages last. Remember clients only care about what's important to them.
- Talk to your five best customers. Ask them to evaluate your situation and make suggestions for new markets/clients.
- Get a coach or a mentor. Invest in a training program and network with other professionals for a new perspective.
- Get to work an hour before everyone else. Put in more productive time.
- Stay away from the complainers. Don't make your situation worse by hanging around the life suckers and underachievers.
- Re-evaluate your pitch presentations. Review them with a superior, a colleague or your coach. Take notes. Implement new ideas immediately.
- Do an accompaniment with the best business development person you know and watch how they communicate with clients. Implement what they do into your approach.
- Take your boss with you on calls for a week. Or ask them to listen in on your phone calls. You'll get more feedback than you can handle, but it will help.
- Record your appointment making calls and listen to them. Would you agree to a meeting with you?
- Tweet, blog or update your LinkedIn/social media status with a value message or inspirational message daily.
You can change your results in any economy.
Once you accept the fact that you can change your results, you can begin to recover one step at a time. Don't try all 20 ideas at once. Simply pick one or two new ideas per week. Implement them every day. Master them. Own them. Continue to use them as you pick two or three more the next week. Soon you will own your market. Believe in yourself!
