Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Are You Recovery-Ready?

When will this recession be over? I certainly don't know, but the stock markets have been looking up lately. It's always best to be prepared. Sales trainer Tom Reilly has a few points to get you ready to take advantage of the future economic recovery and sell like crazy!

"The indicators I watch all point to our beginning the climb out of the economic trough we have been in," says Reilly. "Will it be a fire-hose thrust as the spigot opens or a long, slow slog? I don't know. But I do know that you must be ready and first in line to drink from that spigot. Are you ready for the recovery?"

Being recovery-ready means three things:

1. Are you lean? Have you shed yourself of the fat you accumulated during our recent expansion? Companies get lean when they re-examine their infrastructure, simplify and sculpt for efficiency and growth. Salespeople get lean when they abandon bad or lazy sales habits.

2. Are you focused? Organizations focus when they direct all of their resources at their core business and shed the excess of success. This includes markets and line extensions that never made sense. Salespeople focus when they concentrate on their high-value target accounts and shed their profit piranhas.

3. Are you prepared mentally?
How is your attitude? How much studying have you done? This slack period has been a gift of time for those who used it to train and increase their knowledge. If you haven't used this time prudently to reinvent yourself to relevance, how will you do this as the spigot opens? You will be too busy scrambling for business. Those who used this time to increase their skills and knowledge will capture most of the value during recovery.

During the last recession, 15% new industry leaders emerged. Do you think they had a plan and made themselves recovery-ready? You know they did.

Tom Reilly, president of Tom Reilly Training, is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers. Learn more at www.TomReillyTraining.com

No comments: