100 Selling in a Receding Economy

In today’s competitive market there seem to be more suppliers and less customers than ever before. World costs are rising dramatically and here in South Africa we have additional challenges of an inconsistent electricity supply, impending political change, rising fuel costs and a sharp decline in the growth of the economy. The ecomomists will tell you that we are not actually in a recession, but it sure does feel like it. So how come some businesses excel? Why are there are more millionaires created in a declining market than in a growing one?

What makes the winners so successful?

How do we become wealthy in a receding economy?

Attitude is important here. The people who thrive in a receding economy are those people who see themselves as successful despite all the evidence to the contrary, see a positive future where others are battening down the hatches or worse still, leaving the country.

Even if you do decide to go, where do you go to? This is a world recession; America’s housing market is struggling as is that of the UK and Japan. The American dollar is in decline which may sound like good news for tourists but with a weakened economy the USA will be purchasing less and this has a considerable effect on the exports from countries like China, Canada, Mexico and even South Africa, who exported over US$7,5 billion worth of merchandise to the USA last year.

Very few countries are immune so the only real answer is to make this country work. But how?

Attitude is important but it is not the only thing that matters.

We all know people who are positive at every opportunity, but fail to get the desired results. This sort of idiocy will not work. Positive thinking has to be converted to positive action if we are really going to make this work. “Action is the mother of opportunity”. We will explore this principle later in this series but it is clear that sitting quietly in a darkened room being positive is not going to generate the required results.

So what action do we need to take?

Interestingly any action is better than no action at all, but what action to take? Too often we fall back on lots of ¨M.O.T.S¨

M.O.T.S.?... More Of The Same.....

This will just not work. Oh sure, when things are going well M.O.T.S. works. When the economy is growing you can continue to do what you did last year and get good results. When the economy is receding however, this approach is doomed to failure.

Many businesses are now doing business as normal and wondering why their results are declining. To these businesses I say “Watch Out!” These businesses will be the first to go to the wall.

Over the next few months we will be exploring what you can do in a receeding economy to grow your business but for now I would like you to consider how flexibility can help.

When the economy is receeding there will be many industries that decline, but some will flourish. The housing market typically will be in decline, but people have got to live somewhere, so the rental market is increasing.

In my own market as a conference speaker, conferences are in decline. Many companies are reconsidering their budget for the year and cutting back on what they consider to be non-essential expenditure. Interestingly there has been a dramatic increase in the requests for focused sales training. This is a good thing of course. Businesses are struggling so it is a good time to get the sales team to improve their performance and deliver better results.

Consider your own market and work out what areas will be in decline and what will grow. Then be flexible to focus on the areas of growth.

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph