Surviving Economic Headwinds

Many businesses have started to see an economic stall due to significant world events over the last year and a half. Political unrest, coupled with a global pandemic has contributed to many of these economic headwinds. As a result, there is a lot of uncertainty in the business world about economic growth.

You may wonder if your teams can weather the storm of these economic challenges. There are steps your sales team can take this year to help achieve success. Success is not defined in the same way for every team or organization, but we will discuss steps your team can take to achieve success based on how you defined it for your organization.

Manage Risks & Use The Right Tools

Sales strategies are constantly changing and evolving over time to adjust to the state of the economy and the rise of competition. In the economic climate we are experiencing, it may seem like taking a risk is unwise. In some cases, however, taking risks may be the best option for your sales team. You just want to be sure you are taking smart risks. 

You have to assess the industry you are in and look at the high performers. What are they doing to cause a rift? Are there specific strategies and processes contributing to high performance? Also, don’t be afraid of failure. Learning from your mistakes will help you grow.

There’s an abundance of tools available to use in sales, and all of the tools available help sales reps with different aspects of their role. There are tools available for demos, prospecting, sending proposals and contracts via eSignature software like PandaDoc, lead management, email writing assistance, and there are many more. 

When on the hunt for a tool that you need, there are a few questions that you want to answer. Answers to these questions will help bring in tools that set your sales reps up for success:

• Does the tool solve a problem or need your team has?
• Does the tool fit in with your workflow?
• How long will it take to implement the tool?
• Are there supporting resources available for the team?

Use Automation & Prioritize Long-Term Relationships

Teach your sales reps how to use automation for administrative tasks. For example, they continuously update deal records and scorecards when they could use that time for conversations with prospects. Save time and speed up the sales process with automation. Switching between different tools and tasks can cause mental fatigue, and automation will help your sales reps avoid task switching and stay motivated to sell. PandaDoc has automations available with many popular CRM tools and within the editor itself that will help your sales reps save time and speed up the sales process.

Encourage your sales reps to focus on prioritizing long-term relationships over short-term wins. This aligns with what I mentioned above about avoiding risks. Focusing on the revenue you can count on the most is essential when dealing with economic uncertainty. How does your team do this? By building strong and healthy relationships with customers and nurturing loyalty that will translate into upsells and renewals. 

Recap & What’s Next

It is possible for your team to maximize efficiency and productivity amid economic headwinds. Use the methods discussed today to position your sales team in such a way that your sales reps can adjust to any situation and still meet sales goals. 

Here’s my challenge to you – set aside one hour next week to think about what you read today and even dive into the other articles highlighted in this post. You might find that your sales reps are overwhelmed by the number of tools they use, or they are burned out from task switching when they could be using automation, and you can take steps to make changes that have a high impact on your sales team. 

Next week, we will talk about Target Account Selling, and why this is important for your sales team amid the current economic climate. Target Account Selling will help your sales reps focus on leads with the highest revenue potential.