10:56 am November 6, 2009, by Joy Johnston
By Laura Raines, for the AJC
With small but distinct signs of life in the economy, companies are plotting their recovery strategies for 2010.
“Recovery will not be restoration of the pre-recession market. Trying to get back to where we were will be like chasing a red herring,” said Jean Martin, executive director of the Corporate Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board, a global business research network.
It’s a whole new ballgame.
Read the rest here and see 6 things to look for in your company.
After reading, come back here and think about these questions:
- How are you and your team addressing changing customer needs over the past year? What is the plan to do this leading into 2010 and beyond? Do you have a process to do this? What is the accountability plan?
- I interviewed a Sales VP from a Fortune 500 company about what sales managers need to be doing now. I thought her answer was brilliant. She said to “re-recruit your stars”. She recognized that top performers were making less and maybe feeling restless. She also knows that as companies rebuild, they will be seeking stars to recruit. So, questions to think about: What are you doing to keep your stars happy? Do you have stars at risk? Why are they at risk? How do you treat top recruits? How can you treat your stars like top recruits? Have you envisioned the perfect post-recession sales team? Who is on it? Who is not? What are the steps to build that team? What other questions should you be asking yourself?
- Tough times reveal people’s character, fortunately and … unfortunately. How are sales managers making sure customers’ needs are still the priority even when salespeople need sales? Who are the good examples on your team? How do you celebrate customer-focused decisions? Does the sales/keep your job pressure cause salespeople to do what’s best for their sales numbers over what’s best for your customers? How can this impact trust in your company? Tough questions! What other questions should you be asking yourself?
- Where does your account and customer information exist? Are you using your CRM to it’s fullest potential? If you lost a sales rep tomorrow, how much information about their customer activity would be available to you and the new account representative? Are your reps using social media to communicate to and with customers? Are you aware of all the tools they use? How would a customer be impacted if you lost account information with a sales rep? How can you improve the information about account activity in your CRM for the customer’s benefit? What other questions should you be asking yourself?
Sales teams that face reality with a proactive success plan are much more likely to have the competitive edge. Get started at the very first signs of recovery. 2010 could be a record year.
Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win. Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas for sales managers. Subscribe for a new agenda every week or visit our M2W Store and pick a sales team meeting agenda 4-pack to suit your needs.
