Business in a Recession

Despite the pressures and gloom that come with an economic downturn, recessions also present unique opportunities to the growth-minded manager. One area that short-sighted managers find easy to cut is employee training, especially sales training. However, cutting sales-effectiveness training is exactly the wrong thing to do for business-to-business organizations. To cut sales training is to cut the connection between the company and the customer, just when that connection is most vulnerable.

During the 2001 recession, a Fortune magazine essay stated,

[One fundamental]... that must be non-negotiableis to focus on the quality of your people. We hope it's no longer necessary to argue that this is increasingly your company's only source of competitive advantage. Yet when times get tough, many companies ease up on recruiting, figuring a slow economy will drive more applicants their way, and they spend less on training as a way to raise profits quickly without doing immediate damage to the business.

That's just dumb.

People do become obsolete; they also grow. To put it in old-economy terms, can you imagine postponing maintenance on an aircraft for six months? You wouldn't consider it, yet you may be tempted to do something even worse. Successful companies avoid this mistake. The most valuable airline in the world, Southwest, is one of America's most desirable employers and in 1999 received 170,000 applications for just 6,000 positions. Yet the company recruits vigorously and never lets up, nor does it get stingy on training. The story is similar at General Electric and McKinsey -- getting the best people and making them better is in the DNA of the most successful companies.

Business-to-business marketers should cut trade-show spending, unless they are introducing a new product or customers are able to purchase products at the show (customers are probably cutting back on attendance anyway). Many, if not most, marketers can cut advertising, because their messages are rarely well-tested and the ad creative is often off-strategy. But business-to-business companies cannot cut the training of their front-line troops, the sales force.

Cutting selling skills training is akin to baseball or football teams cutting spring training or daily practice. Cutting sales-force training is no different than cutting surgeons’ training, entertainers’ rehearsals, or airplane pilot simulations. Does anyone think Bruce Springsteen winged his fantastic 12-minute Super Bowl performance? Is not everyone connected to US Airways flight 1549 grateful that Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger had been through thousands of training hours as a glider pilot and commercial jet pilot?

Who would we rather have standing on the wall: soldiers superbly trained on their sophisticated weaponry, or guys whose commander saved money by cutting weapons training?

Arm your sales force. Invest in your rainmakers and up-and-coming rainmakers. Find and shape new rainmakers. In the book The Secrets of Great Rainmakers, there is a chapter titled "Rainmakers Love Recessions.*" Give your rainmakers the means to flourish in this tough marketplace. Give your rainmakers the best tools. Train them to dollarize the values of your products and services, to sell money not features, especially when your customers are behaving more frugally than ever. Teach them to pre-call plan, to do in-depth needs analysis, and to ask customers for commitments that lead to orders. Every share point your salesperson gains today will help your company survive. Every share point your sales force gains today will be worth much more when markets rebound.

Unless all your products and services enjoy 100% market share, there is business to get. If last year your sales force had two days of training, this year give them four or six days. Rainmakers will bring business! Good, proven value-selling sales training, combined with involvement from top management and true pay-for performance rings the cash register even in tough times.

To para-quote Fortune magazine, "To cut sales training is just dumb ... and the great companies never do it."

Negotiating Skills.

If the financial pundits are right about the upcoming recession, the year ahead will be a challenging one for corporations. Customers are going to be more challenging negotiators, and you're going to watch every penny you spend. As Garth Brooks sings, "This old highway's getting longer and the competition's getting younger." It's time to expose your people to some training in negotiating skills.

Make no mistake about it, the business climate in the US is seriously troubled. A nationwide chain of auto stores had me spend two days with their buyers, teaching them how to Power Negotiate. They told me, Take the free test that can determine if you will be a success...or a failure. "We've been working at this company for 30 years, and we've never seen anything like this. We're used to suppliers trying to pass on 10 percent price increases, even 20 percent. But now our suppliers are talking about passing on 50 percent increases." I call this business climate the "perfect storm." We have a dollar that has seen some improvement recently but is still weak. We see increased demand and pricing for raw materials because of the astounding growth of the middle class in India and China, and increased cost of labor in Asia, causing the price of imported goods to soar.

In this challenging business environment nothing affects the bottom line of your company more than the ability of your people to negotiate well. Both on the buying side and the selling side of your business. Remember that a negotiated dollar is a bottomline profit dollar! You will never make money faster than you will when you're negotiating. Here are some tips that you should share with your sales force and purchasing people:

Never Say Yes to Their First Offer. When your salespeople are negotiating and say "Yes" to the first offer, they automatically trigger two reactions in the buyer's mind: Reaction One: We could have done better: If they are eager to accept our first proposal, we could have gotten more. Reaction Two: Something must be wrong. If they are saying "Yes" to a proposal that we didn't think they would, there must be something going on that we don't understand.

Ask for More Than You Expect to Get. Henry Kissinger called this the key to success at the bargaining table. It's deceptively simple, but there are many profound reasons for doing it:

You might just get what you're asking for, and the only way you can find out is to ask. It creates some negotiating room. This makes it easier to get what you really want.

When you're selling, it raises the perceived value of your product or service.

It creates a climate where the other person can have a win with you. This is the key reason for negotiators.

It prevents deadlocks when dealing with an egotistical negotiator who is determined to have a win with you.

Options Give You Power. This principle underlies all power in a negotiation. The side that has the most options has the most power. Work to let your suppliers know that you have options. And when you're selling your product or service to new customers, limit their perception of options by positioning yourself as different from competing companies. Convincing the other side that you have options is the source of your power in a negotiation. Always work to develop options before you go into the negotiation.

Flinch at the Other Side's Proposal. This is the number one mistake that poor negotiators make. They don't Flinch at the other side's proposal. Always react with shock and surprise that they would have the nerve to ask you for a concession. The other side often makes a proposal to you that they really don't expect you to agree to. When you don't Flinch, they start believing that they could get it from you. It makes them tougher negotiators. Practice your Flinches before you go into a negotiation, because a concession often follows a Flinch.

Play Reluctant Buyer. When you are negotiating with a supplier, you can squeeze the seller's negotiating range with this three-stage tactic. Stage One: Listen very carefully to their proposal and ask all the questions you can think of. Stage Two: Tell them that you appreciate all the time that they have taken with you, but tell them it's not exactly what you're looking for. Stage Three: At the last moment, call them back and say, "Just to be fair to you, what is the very lowest price you would take?"

Use the Vise Technique. Listen carefully to the supplier's proposal and then say, "I'm sorry; you'll have to do better than that." Then be quiet! The next person to talk loses. The next person to open his or her mouth will make a concession. If the supplier uses this tactic on you, reply with the counter-tactic "Exactly how much better than that do I have to do?" Pin them down to a specific.

Retain Your Resort to Higher Authority. Don't let the other side know that you can make a decision in the negotiation. Tell them that your buying committee or board of directors has to approve the final deal. You can put a lot of pressure on the other side without creating confrontation by blaming your Higher Authority. "I can never sell this to my board at this price. You'll have to give me a better price." Don't make your Higher Authority an individual (such as a vice president or sales manager), because they will want to go around you to deal directly with the decision maker. Make your Higher Authority a vague entity such as a committee or board of directors. That makes them appear unapproachable.

Never Offer to Split the Difference. Instead, try to get the other side to offer to split the difference. You say to a customer: "How far apart on this are we? We're not that far apart. There must be some middle ground on which we can both agree." When they offer to split the difference, you can reluctantly agree to their proposal, which services their perception that they won. Get the other side to offer to split the difference. You may be able to get them to split the difference again. Even if you don't, you still make them feel that they won.

When You're Asked for a Small Concession, Ask for Something in Return. Whenever you are asked for a small concession in the negotiation, ask for something in return. A customer might say to you, "Can you deliver at 7.30 a.m. this Monday?" Reply with, "If we can do that for you, what can you do for us?" Often they will make a concession to you, and you will be pleasantly surprised at the size of the concession. More importantly, it stops them from constantly grinding to get more from you.

Put these negotiating tips to work for you and the troubled waters ahead will seem a lot smoother.

We all want to make it in life, but have we ask ourselves what are the thing we need to put in place? What are the things we need to know? The kind of lifestyle we are living to day? The kind of people we associate with? They all play a vital roll in our life.

For us to attain our goal there are something we most put in place. In this article I have noted some point which are as follow

DISCIPLINE:

Discipline is the ability to set goals, manage one's time, measure results, and maintain overall balance in life. While hard work is certainly instrumental in attaining success, it is useless without discipline.

PASSION:

It’s more than just hard work, it's holding on to the dream
though life comes at you hard sometimes, every person must have an
instinct to press on and dream big. Regardless of what you do, it is
only success when you have done your best

RISK:

Risk is not always a matter of rolling the dice, and in this case
our goal is to measure one's willingness to step out of the
"comfort zone' Success often requires change, and the road is often
paved with new challenges that defy complacency.
Regardless of the reason, you're not likely to make changes in your life. And while familiar surroundings can be comfortable, they can often
lead to stagnation. Consider what you’re like to change and just take a leap of faith.

OPTIMISM:

"You are what you think about your self" So the saying
goes, and it is no surprise that happy people are, well, just happier. This category of optimism includes both internal and external sources of positive affirmation (i.e. Self-esteem, confidence, self-image, and spiritual acuity.

You've got a pretty good attitude about life, and while others view you as positive and approachable, you require time away from people. You prefer to surround yourself with quality rather than quantity.

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS:
Relationships are pivotal to overall success, and that not only includes personal relationships, but also the ability to deal with people.

Negotiating Selling, Public speaking. Regardless of your trade, these factors are all necessary for ultimate success.

Like a Swiss army knife, you have the ability to function in just about any situation. You've mastered the art of relationship building and have learned how to use it to your advantage. You're charismatic, and nobody can deny that you know how to work a crowd.