How to Manage Sales Teams During a Recession

Managing Sales Teams During a Recession

Are you a sales manager struggling to keep your team motivated and selling in a recession? It’s not an easy task managing sales in a recession, but it’s one that you have to take on if you want your team to succeed. Remember, this is where companies grow their market share while others fold up the tent and give up. Coach Nate here to give you some advice on how to manage sales teams during a recession.

2 Challenges You’ll Encounter While Managing Sales Teams During a Recession

There are two major sales management challenges that stand out during tough economic times.

1. How to maintain the overall morale and motivation of the sales team.
2. How to fine-tune the team for optimum performance, which may involve laying people off. It’s tough, but necessary.

Motivate Your Team to Grind

I am living this as we speak. Managing a sales team during a recession is hard! It’s easy to make excuses and just give up.  I’ve built a great sales team that really cares about one another and the company.  At every sales meeting we focus on the positive.  We certainly look at the negative but we try to focus on how we can take advantage of that negative rather than using it as an excuse.  Other companies are using those negatives as an excuse.  We are taking advantage of this and landing their clients.  I’ve had to go back to the basics.  Praise the little things and show your team how they are leading them to their sales targets and beyond.

3 quick examples of little things to praise:

1. Making your daily calls quota
2. Following up each call with a summary email of next steps
3. Booking your daily meetings quota

During the easy times, these little details can be forgotten.  We all know it’s these little details that lead to the eventual sale. The great news is that they are very easy and also easy to highlight and praise. 

Fine-tuning Your Sales Team’s Skills

This is the time to sharpen your team’s skills.  During easier times, you may be turning away business.  During tougher times, every qualified lead is that much more important now.  It’s time to do what you do best.  Train your team to hone their skills. 

This is what we have focused on and are actively training to stay ahead of the game:

1. Improving our Closing Ratio by
   • Setting better expectations
   • Qualifying better
   • Maximizing the client experience
   • Shortening our sales cycle
   • Controlling the sale
   • Closing when it’s time to close
2. Selling our Value
   • Helping cost conscious clients to see that they don’t have to buy more, they can buy less but with our quality, service and warranty. Remember, this is about what is in it for the buyer. Sell the benefits they will get!
3. Hunting for Referral Clients
   • Staying in contact with past clients to generate additional leads.
4. Staying engaged with clients more
   • We are building better relationships to retain our clients
5. Practicing our Sales Pitches and Scripts
   • We are making sure we aren’t wasting an opportunity
6. Ensuring that all leads get great service whether they are qualified or not
   • They may not be able to buy from us but they will refer us to their friends and family that can.

If nothing is working and the business needs to cut staff then at least you know you did everything in your power to keep the team together.

Review and Retrench

When economic times are tough, it’s time to review and retrench, not necessarily cut and slash. Companies that only focus on cutting expenses often have a short-sighted view of things. Cutting advertising, training, or staff can be detrimental to the company’s revenue, leading to a downward spiral.

Sharpen the Arrows

As a sales manager, you need to keep the tip of the arrow as sharp as possible. The company’s salespeople are the tip of the arrow, and it’s essential to invest in their training and motivation. Even in tough times, outside sales training and motivational meetings can make a difference.

Laying off Staff

One of the toughest decisions you’ll have to make as a sales manager is parting ways with people you know and like. When reducing the number of people on your team, keep the performers and those who have the potential to develop into performers.

When you fall onto desperate economic times, putting people on the street is one of the things you have to consider. But knowing which people to keep and then supporting them with all you’ve got is crucial.

As a sales manager, you often walk the thin line between upper management and your sales team. It’s equally important for you to represent the needs of your team to upper management as it is to carry upper management’s message down to the team. As the team’s champion, you need to be prepared for cuts that will cripple your team’s ability to operate effectively.

Plan now!

If you see tough times ahead, plan now, and be prepared to make those tough decisions that will be needed if you expect to come out the other side. Stay ahead of the curve, even though the curve is heading down, and you’ll be in a better position to take advantage of the situation when the sales curve is on an upward trend once again.

Summing How to Manage Sales Teams During a Recession

Remember, tough economic times are an opportunity to sharpen your sales arrow and fine-tune your team. Focus on the positives. Take advantage of the negatives. Motivate your team. With the right mindset and preparation, you, your team and your company can come out stronger on the other side.

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