Sales Slump & Sales Effectiveness - What to do

In every sales career and every business there is the occasional slump. It might be temporary or more permanent (take carburetor sales, probably in a permanent slump). The question is what to do when you are in one. At the company level, most companies react by cutting costs, especially travel and expense budgets. Whereas common sense may indicate that sales budgets should be increased, most companies act in the interest of fairness (an issued covered separately here) and cut costs across the board.

So how does this play out in the real world? In my experience, when cost cutting is applied bluntly, it results in a de-motivated sales force, one that rightly sees the policy as stupid and unfair. Sales, and the resulting income, will fall because your sales people are making less calls and being less effective.

It doesn't have to be that way however. There are always enormous inefficiencies and wasted efforts in any sales force or company for that matter. When times are exceedingly good these are even worse. If you have any experience in corporate life you know what I am talking about, $400 bottles of wine with dinner and expensive, unnecessary entertainment expenses. Every company I have seen looks askance at the practice during the good times. It is these expenses
that are wasteful and that can be cut with no real impact on sales.

Another benefit is that tough times and pinched expenses are a great opportunity to weed out ineffective sales people and eliminate inefficient practices. We all hate to let people go and often let them hang on long after they have lost their effectiveness. During bad times it is harder to hide non-performance. Along with the cost cutting a thorough review of policies and practices can actually increase sales without raising costs.

For what you can do as an individual come back tomorrow.