In tough economic times, growing your sales is definitely a tall order. Unfortunately, over the last year, many startups and growing businesses have found this out the hard way.

The topic was discussed in early February at an excellent Sales Leadership Peer to Peer session at Communitech in Waterloo, ON. Here are three of the top recommendations that came out of the Peer to Peer on how to sell in a recession:

Monetize Your Solution

Understand how much your solution helps your target organization. There are three typical levers- expense reduction, improvements in productivity, or increases in revenue. Create a business case for your customers that can be used to justifying keeping you as an incumbent supplier or bringing you on as a new provider.

Understand the Decision Making Process

Realize that with an existing client these could have changed over the last few months. Who are all the decision makers for the solution? What budget pays for the solution? Are there return on investment targets or other internal hurdle rates that need to be present before any new solution will be looked at?

Get Wider and Deeper Into Accounts

Make contact with a wide number of roles within the organization. This means moving higher in the organization and getting to new areas like finance. When times are tough companies typically increase the number of people that need to be involved with signing off on new suppliers or solutions. With current accounts this is especially important. Your competitors may be calling higher or with leaders in finance. What happens if your champion leaves the company?

What are your thoughts? Were you able to grow your business during a recession? I’d love to hear about your experiences.

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