Five rules for selling in a down market:
> Booking an order isnt everything. Now the pressure is on to prospect for the right kinds of business.
> Sell solutions that offer a financial payback in 12 months or less. Customers wont wait two or three years anymore to see a return on their IT investments.
> Get your salespeople focused on finding the customers “pain points.” This may mean following the customers employees around for a week or two to unearth hidden areas of waste and inefficiency.
> Once youve identified the pain points and found the root cause, make sure you sell the solution to a decision maker who is clued in to the dollar value of the problem.
> Yesterdays also-ran is todays winner. Previously unfashionable services like asset management, for example, could sell briskly in a bad economy. Likewise, mundane services like desktop outsourcing are more appealing these days than high-end strategy consulting.