"Most of the
important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have
kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." -- Dale Carnegie
Almost all business
problems are sales problems. Jim used to run a transport business, with
three big trucks that he had imported from America. For a while, the
business was doing well, enabling Jim to
pay back the loan he had
borrowed to start the business. In fact, he managed to buy himself two
more small trucks and a stand in the northern suburbs where he is
building a big house for his family.
Unfortunately,
Jim's long-term business plans were halted late last year. Overwhelmed
by huge salaries and rental arrears, Jim had to sell the two trucks that
were still in running condition. He used the proceeds to pay off some
of his debts, but not all of them and he is still having sleepless
nights over how he will get out of debt.
This is not an
isolated story. There are thousands of business owners who are facing
the same scenario as Jim, as we see businesses go under daily in the
tough economic environment we are living in.
As Jim analysed his
situation, he explained to me that his business had thrived for years
from regular contracts he got to deliver grain and other commodities for
a large agro-industry company listed on the stock exchange. However,
the company decided to cut costs and moved the transport function
in-house. When this happened, Jim started looking for transportation
orders from different organisations. He got a few jobs but they were not
as frequent or as big as the ones from his previous client. Costs
continued to spiral while revenues went downhill. Jim had no choice but
to close shop.
Jim said he learned
many lessons from this experience -- the most important being that a
business cannot survive without growing sales and revenues above
expenses.
As a business
leader, you and everyone in your business must focus on acquiring
customers and selling more. How can you achieve that?
Believe you can sell more
One of the problems
with all of this talk about recession is that once people believe there
is going to be a recession, they start to feel negative about their
business prospects and only tend to see what they believe rather than
believing what they see.
Once you believe
that there is going to be a recession, you tend to only notice articles,
comments and statistics that support your beliefs. What's more, your
negative beliefs quickly affect your outlook and the way you feel about
your business prospects.
Having a positive
and supportive belief structure is essential if you want to succeed in
any market, but it is vitally essential if you want to keep on selling
in a tough one.
Having a winning
belief system does not mean that you need to be deluded however! In the
middle of the darkest recession, you don't want to have your eyes shut.
But you have to understand that in a downturn, clients want to partner
with the best companies. Suppliers that can be relied on. Suppliers that
support them. Suppliers who are going to be around tomorrow. And if
your competitors struggle, that means more sales and more business for
you.
Get proactive
You need to be more
proactive. Much more proactive. You need to do more marketing and more
selling. You need to attend more events and do more networking. You need
to do more promotion and more canvassing. You need to increase your
sales activities, maybe dramatically. In a recession many companies cut
their sales activities. They figure, "If we're not going to sell
anything, what's the point?"
Cut your activity,
cut your sales. You are a living, breathing, self-fulfilling prophecy!
You believe there is not much business out there, so you feel negative.
That in turn affects your activity and your activity destroys your sales
results.
For example, there
are more than 20 ways to sell a product. Most companies limit themselves
to just one or two instead of continually exploring alternatives.
If you see less business then you need to do more sales and marketing, not less. That is common sense.
"Do not find customers for your products, find products for your customers". -- Seth Godin.
The most successful
business owners know their customers very well and not only understand
their needs and their problems, but they also anticipate their future
needs and make plans to satisfy them in the future. If you spend time
talking to your best customers, you close the door for your competitors.
For example, someone in Jim's situation could have known about the
client's concern over costs and offered them a viable solution before
they booted him out.
So do not just sit
there and moan, do something, get out there on the ground, find out what
your competitors are doing better than you are and offer more value and
better solutions to your customers.
Until next time, keep on accelerating your growth.
Source: ALLAFRICA
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