How’s Business?

Craig Munns - Sales Innovation

How are things going for your business? We hear a lot about how many businesses are hurting at the moment. Does that sound like your business? If so, what can you do about it?

A tight market is a great catalyst to think of new ways to do business in smarter ways. Your competitors are invariably looking to ‘batten down the hatches’ and ‘ride out the storm’ (apologies for all the sailing idioms). You can take advantage of this situation by looking at ways to capture new business, which can often be easier in this situation, as many businesses are just looking to keep what they have, and are not aggressively pursuing new business.

Looking for new business from a sales perspective is not going to cost you anything (or much more than you already spend). Your ‘hit rate’ may be lower, but at least you’ll be active, spreading the word about your business, getting some business, and preparing the market for the inevitable improvement, where you’ll be in a better position than your competitors.

The important thing is to be more active in this market (not less), and to keep track of what your prospects and clients are doing, so that even if they are not buying from you now, you will be a prime position to take their orders when things get better.

So see a tight market as an opportunity to gain more business, by looking positively at the market and the fact that many of your competitors will not be as active.