Q1 2009 / Sales Strategies for “The New Economy”

As the economy slows we all find ourselves in the same boat, trying to increase business with less wind filling our sails. Perhaps it is time to become more creative with our own markets and separate ourselves from our competition. The alternative is to just keep bailing out our boats relying on hope to just stay afloat.

Perhaps it’s time to improvise a better boat – improve our business attitudes and processes and adapt to a “New Economy”. I think we can try to build a better vessel to bring our goods to market. Here are a few thoughts on that subject.

Setting the mainsail
Sales managers have often been viewed as the “brow beating” part of a company that always demands more – more sales volumes, higher margins, more cold calls, in fact more of everything. Perhaps it has been the same situation since someone sold the first flint tool. But what does this department actually do to encourage the increases it demands? Does it provide the tools sales reps need to get that job done? You can’t continue to indefinitely expect more, more, more without providing your people with additional ammunition to get the job done. 

Thankfully, my own management team does recognize the need to enable its sales force to make business decisions on the fly. They empowered us to think, improvise, and adapt to situations as they arise out in the field. Our sales force has the full support of upper management, operations, and distribution in making the difficult decisions required on the spot to bring new business in the door and maintain current customers. Beyond that they constantly provide more sales tools to do that job. 

Here’s some food for thought: When your firm’s management people travel to seminars and industry events, are they simply attending a social event, or are they acquiring tools and information useful to the sales team who must fight the battles in the trenches each and every day?

Our management remains sales focused and continually brings back goods and ideas to make us a stronger, more streamlined sales force. With all of these changes we are of course held accountable for our own implementation of the new tools. We have the freedom to make the hard decisions on the spot and have access to ever improving sales tools that give us an edge over the competition.

Plugging the leaks
Safety is one segment of the market that always deserves special attention. Gases are a dangerous commodity to bring to market and the inherent hazards of handling, using, and storing this product are always present. Safety issues cannot be ignored by those in sales or by end users. I have had tremendous success in developing a pro-active safety program for my own customer base. It consists of a multi-layered proposal that always leads to additional sales and new opportunities. If you do not have a safety presentation to introduce to your customers I would submit that your boat is leaking potential sales. Try these leak stoppers:

• Develop a standardized Safety/Purity Audit that can be conducted at a customer’s site. (It will open doors that you didn’t know even existed.)
• Promote the new safety service to your customers at every opportunity.
• Charge for that service. If anything brings value to a customer, it is worth something in cash.
• Couple your Safety/Purity Audit with an on-site Cylinder Gas Handling Safety Program.

The Safety Program I’ve outlined is not a 20-minute presentation where an audience watches a video about gases and goes back to work with a certificate of completion. It is a comprehensive program where the attendees are encouraged to fully participate. Props should be displayed and real disasters discussed in detail. The presentation needs to bring the customer good information while remaining interesting to those that attend.

Recently, I was invited to visit a military defense contractor in the greater Boston area to address a liquid nitrogen safety application. The plant manager, safety director, and end users were present. It was soon revealed that one customer’s application practices were inadequate for a safe working environment. We made a number of recommendations aimed at bringing that customer into immediate compliance. The recommendations were applied and the area is now safe.

That could have been the end of the story. However, I used the opportunity to promote our on-site Safety/Purity Audit and Cylinder Gas Handling Safety Presentation to the safety director. My invitation for this service was quickly accepted and the time was scheduled on the spot.

Knowing that this customer had three other local sites where we had no contracts I suggested that a safety director from those sites be present at the training sessions since the information might be of interest to them as well. I was assured someone would attend.

A few days later I spent 6 hours conducting a Safety/Purity Audit of the customer’s facility. I visited areas where we found three other gas supplier’s products on-site. We observed a considerable number of areas where substantial safety as well as purity issues needed attention. Later in the afternoon I conducted a safety program on-site for a dozen key players in the company, inclusive of the safety directors from the other sites.

At the end of the training session I was approached by the off-site safety directors. They wanted my program and presentation duplicated at three additional sites and wanted us to provide pricing on specific gases for those sites. We gained a potential opportunity in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in new business. This is the value of asking questions. If you don’t ask the question, the answer is always NO.

Smooth sailing
Is your personal service to your customer base up to snuff? Does your level of service ring true throughout your business, or are there pockets within your company that can elevate their service to your customers? Inside sales, truck drivers, customer service, and billing department people all come into contact with customers at one time or another. Being sure your own level of service to the customer is reflected by those within your company will go a long way to making sure your customer remains your customer.

There is no greater value to a customer than the service they receive from their vendor. That service secures the vendor’s place in their work world. It reaches well beyond pricing and daily chores until it becomes a total relationship. We are all working within a life-long process of self assessment and learning and sometimes we need to take that step back, breathe deep, and take a hard look at how we conduct ourselves. With the challenges we face in this new economy there is no better time than the present for this exercise.

Here’s just one great example. I once visited a longtime customer who was visited by a competitor that offered him an extremely low price for the product I provided. The salesman was aggressive and persistent. He was convinced that his lower price would gain the sale. My customer assured him that while his pricing was attractive, he would need a bulldozer to pull him away from the level of service he had experienced from me over the years. That salesman was dismissed. He did not understand that the most valuable item to the customer was not the physical product, it was the service that accompanied the product.

Numbers define the sales profession
Sales is a great profession offering tremendous opportunities including freedom and a sense of achievement. Those of us who will survive this new economy are the ones who will dig in and excel in these hard times. Those who will do whatever it takes to get the work done. Those who will put in whatever hours are necessary to succeed. We are our own bosses in sales. We run our own sales territories like a separate business unit of our company. If you want to survive and even grow your business use the best tool you have, numbers. It is the bottom line of a company when challenging times arise. Like all companies, our management is interested in the numbers. If you are bringing in good profitable dollars on a regular basis you will be an asset to your company and that is something that can not be ignored.

A working plan keeps the sails full
I overheard a conversation recently while attending a networking meeting that stunned me. I heard a competitor tell a colleague that he was frustrated that his sales manager was pressing him for more sales. The salesman said, “I don’t think there is enough business in the area to grow my sales.”

That floored me. If there wasn’t that much business in the area then why are there eight gas suppliers in business locally? Are you networking to unveil new opportunities? Are you working the internet properly to find new business? Is your sales manager giving you the proper tools to get the job done?

Keep your sail full of new prospects and it will keep your boat moving forward. Channel your energy on viable prospects that have a real promise of business in the future. Develop a target list in categories of A, B, and C in levels of importance and viability. Develop a working plan that helps you plan your work. Plan it out so it does not become overwhelming and desperate. Do you know on Monday what you will do every day this week? If not, you have no plan and chaos or desperation will take over. That is a sure indication of a leaking boat. So plug that leak and develop a working plan today.

Finally, task yourself to deliver a pound of service with every cubic foot of gas and your customers will continue to remain your customers. Selling the service will keep your boat afloat even on the roughest of seas! SGR

Mike Lee
Specialty Gas Manager for Middlesex Gases & Technologies, Everett, Massachusetts, USA.He can be reached at: Tel: +1 617-733-5946 or email: Mlee@middlesexgases.com