Generating Sales Leads in a Down Market

Here are 5 examples of how to leverage slow times for new business development:

1. Realign Your Sales Message: The bottom line for most decision makers is that they still have lofty goals to reach despite having lost many key people. Their internal systems and processes are thus in a state of turmoil.  In this context you need to reassess your lead generation pitch or messaging. If it costs a company $5,000 to make a widget they have to find a way to now make that widget for $4,000. You should be re-engineering your message so that your solution can help your prospect achieve this via saving money or dramatic process improvements. Often these selling points are sitting in the middle or back end of your sales pitch and moving these key selling points to your opening will provide key “showcasing”.    

2. Look For Obvious Moves & Changes: Recently we developed a sales lead at a company that most sales people would elect to initially stay away from. The company was breathing its last breath but suddenly was acquired by a larger regional firm because of failing operations due to the soft construction and housing market. The news of this deal was all over the media so it wasn’t hard to find. Once the deal was inked the company had a new name and thus this “change” created a sales lead. The opportunity was comprised of: 200 sets of business cards, Letterhead, Envelopes, Mailing Labels, 5,000 each of 36 Different Color Sell Sheets, 20,000 presentation folders, 20,000 Direct Mailers and the list goes on and on. The total value of this sales lead totaled $59,000.

3. Look For Companies Who Are Downsizing: Staff reductions may mean a greater reliance on outsourcing services. Typically companies try to spread their workload across their remaining staff and often this just doesn’t work. Serve up your services as a solution to getting the work done on a project basis. Sell strong on the benefits of outsourcing. You have a way for your potential clients to get basic workload done for much less than hiring a full time employee. You can also relieve the pressure on their small and over worked existing team. 

4. Grow Revenues Via Cross Sell & Upsell: Pitching cost reduction is only half the story in a down market. It’s easy to forget that prospects of B2B companies are also struggling to increase revenues. Re-engineer your messaging to determine how your prospects can sell more of their products and services. For example, if you are a website designer this may be a good time to team up with a search engine optimization company and serve up this new service to all of your existing clients. More hits to a website means more sales leads. Look at logical cross sell and up sell opportunities that require little or no investment on your part. This fresh pitch gets you in front of your new and existing clients and that means you are building new pipeline and creating sales opportunities. 

5. Adjust Your Target Market: Not all markets are sensitive to the economy in the same way. The housing market, for example, experiences the economic cycle sooner than other markets (and the raw materials that make houses experience the economic cycle even sooner than that!). Economists call these “leading indicators” because they are an economic cycle ahead of the average. There are lagging industries as well. The point is, not everyone is experiencing the same economy you are. Determine who is doing well and match your product or service to their needs. The goal is to micro-target vertical markets that are weathering the economic slow down better than others.

Over the past 50 years, the average recession has lasted 11 months. This is shorter than most people realize and if you keep this in mind it makes the storm easier to weather. Certainly there are economic realities to face, but smart prospectors will adjust their strategies and keep their sales pipelines healthy.