Keep Your Sales Team

It’s often standard procedure in tough economic times to cut budgets, trim expenses and reduce staff. We all know this drill. It seems epidemic – the “catch 22” cycle of reactionary strategies, intended to help companies weather the downturn. And then when conditions improve, there’s another reactionary strategy of scrambling to catch up. Cutting salespeople sure seems economically sensible on the surface, but have you ever wondered what these types of behaviors the really cost?

Look at real costs of reduced sales efforts in your organization:
• Lost contact
• Lost margin
• Lost revenue
• Lost opportunities
• Reduced customer service
• Lost goodwill
• Changed customer perceptions, etc.

Many companies are making cuts to their sales force as a means of reducing expenses to survive, under the mistaken belief that increased selling effort is unnecessary when customers are buying less. But how do you truly expect to maintain a strong bottom line with fewer salespeople and less selling activity?

As counterintuitive as it sounds, the real solution to weathering the storm lies not in making cuts, but rather investing in your team. This is a prime time to focus more on training and developing your salespeople’s selling efforts to help them stay ahead of the curve.

Look at other alternatives, such as increasing your organization’s preparedness through better prospecting, positioning, pre-call planning, focused training and clearer accountability. You may also consider temporary salary or commission adjustments with clear definitions, duration and procedures, rather than full-scale layoffs.

Do all you can to keep your strongest salespeople in good times or bad. The cost is simply too high not too!

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