January 7th 2009
Whats with all this “Selling in a Down Economy” stuff?
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Whats with this “Selling in a Down Economy” stuff? Consider this my 2009 rant. I am getting really tired of my inbox and RSS feeds being filled with undifferentiated sales stuff using phrases like:
- Increase margins and profits with…
- Selling in a down economy
- When the going gets tough….
- Sales secrets for challenging times…
- When your sales manager just does not understand …
At this rate I will wear out my Delete key.
Who writes this stuff? (It must be salesmen) Why would I even open up the message – when it looks like everyone else? If everyone else is saying this, why does that make it a good idea for you to? How does selling like everyone else show that you are different ?
To be effective in any market you need to be seen as different (Differentiation people!), regardless of the economy. The whole premise of being precise is to match your message more exactly than your competition to the target audience. Different people need and read different “precise” messages.
Think about it. you know in your heart that you want to be talked to about things you are interested in, by people who quickly show they will not waste your time. That will not happen if they look and sound like everyone else. And that’s 30.
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Category: Sales, Sales Effectiveness
4 Responses to: “Whats with all this “Selling in a Down Economy” stuff?”
While I agree some are going overboard with the “down economy” message, it is something that is a top concern for many selling professionals.
I take questions on one of my blogs, many are worried about slow growth in their economy.
Yes, differentiation is necessary, and so is connecting with the conversation clients have in their mind. Of course, not everyone is suffering … so balance is key.
Sincerely,
Justin
I agree Justin, respond to what people are saying, but add those few words that signify that you are different. Duct Tape Marketing continues to do well in this regard. Jill Konrath does not appear to.
This time around I would agree that everyone in the training / speaking space ( me included ) is blogging, podcasting or running programs on the topic.
After the dot-com crash I was doing seminars on the topic and had very little competition. When I did the first blog post on it in July 2008 there wasn’t much out there; fast forward to today and the somewhat generic topic is everywhere. I think the web has caused “thought leaders” to spend a lot of time reading each others mail so to speak. Finding or keeping the topic original for very long is hard.
With that said, the proof is in the web traffic. My most popular blog entries visited via Google are on “Selling in Turbulent Economic Times,” and I have had seminar bookings for 2009 from as far away as Chile on the topic. I’d rather speak about “Closing Bigger Deals,” or “Living our Values and Life Path,” but people want to hear about how to make it through this trough.
I wonder what the next “Me too” topic will be?
Exactly Shane- the others would not be using the keyword if it was not getting traction. And things will be worse for quite some time we predict for those companies who are in poor financial shape, or overly leveraged and not exactly precise with their sales and marketing.