Preparing for an Economic Downturn: Assess, Modify and Action Your Sales Strategy in 3 Easy Steps
Updated: Nov 10, 2022
Talking about surviving and thriving post recession can be anxiety inducing, but the good news is that you're not alone and there are many things that remain in your control.
Start with an assessment of your current sales plan and strategy. This will help you block out the noise and truly understand what your business and sales program can expect from an economic downturn or recession. From there, prioritize the key actions you can take to ensure the mitigation of negative effects while also positioning the business for a healthy rebound in the future.
Utilizing Forbes’ guide for B2B Sales Leaders on how to prepare for an economic downturn, here’s our 3 easy steps to assess, modify and action your sales plan and strategy:
Step 1: Education and Assessment
If you’re not familiar with how the economy works and basic economic principles, take some time to review the IMF’s Finance & Development: Economics concepts explained guide.
Share this with people in your organization who are involved in business, finance and sales planning
Review your current sales plan and strategy to determine if economic pressure will be positive, negative or neutral for your organization
Step 2: Focus on Buyer Markets and Buyer Responses
Once your assessment is complete, start considering your specific target market to determine if the buyers in that market are particularly vulnerable. Things you will need to consider:
How will buyers in your market respond to shrinking budgets or freezes? Will they delay or minimize spending? Cancel contracts?
Are you buyers needs changing given the current landscape? If so, do you need to modify your products to offer different versions, packages or options? What will those look like?
What will the result of these actions be to your revenue and profits?
Do you need to make changes to the financial or payment terms in your client contracts?
How might you consider changing marketing channels or diverting spending to more targeted marketing campaigns?
Step 3: Take Action
Once you have an overarching assessment of the landscape, a sense of how your buyer market will react or respond to economic changes and a plan for how to modify (if necessary) your product offerings; update your sales plan and strategy and then launch a mini communications plan.
Internal and external communications are both important at this stage. You will want to ensure that your sales force is aware of the changes and that your customer base feels taken care of. The sales force needs to know how changes impact product offerings and what the key messaging and positioning should be for their meetings and discussions with existing customers and prospects. Customers should be a priority during this time. Focus on excellent customer service, active listening and value add to ensure customer loyalty and renewal potential.
Need help creating or reviewing your sales plan and strategy? Get in touch with M2SC today!