Choose Your R-Word

Today's buzzword is the R-Word, or recession. I constantly hear marginal salespeople using this as an excuse. It will be a self fulfilling prophecy if you are already using it as a reason to not get out there and “sell something”.

It is your choice to make your "R" word Recession or Resiliency.

This is a time to get busy— not make excuses. You cannot afford to lose an existing customer and you cannot afford to be complacent. This is a time to become aggressive and diligently make your sales and follow up calls.

A recent article about the recession from Ben Stein really helps put things in the right perspective. To see it in entirety, Google it, or email me for the link.

Per Ben’s article “There have been 10 recessions in the last 63 years. The average length of these downturns has been about 10 months. The average decline in economic activity from peak to trough was about 2.5 percent. No decline has been worse than about 3.7 percent.

“In the past 25 years, there have only been 2 recessions, which is an extremely good record. The two recessions -- in the early 1990s and the 2000-2001 correction -- have been extremely brief. The really severe recessions of the postwar era have been engineered by the Fed to fight inflation -- in the early 1970s and early '80s.”

We must also remember (again quoting the article) “Even in a recession, more than 90 percent of workers who want to work will be employed. Even in a recession, most businesses will make a profit. Even in a recession in this era, more than 10 million men and women will need cars and trucks. Many millions will need new homes. Tens of millions will need retirement investment products and life insurance. In the United States, even in a recession, there are plenty of people with money to spend.”

This is something to remember before we start making excuses.

I lived through a similar experience when selling in Pittsburgh for a major manufacturer of office furniture when the steel industry left that city. There was gas rationing. Imagine being an over the road sales rep and only being able to buy fuel every other day. Which was not necessarily the days you needed it to sell and make a commission.

Pittsburgh was the 3rd largest corporate headquarter city in the US. When steel left, so did a lot of those corporate headquarters. As a sales rep, it was a great client base to sell to. Then they were gone. Those that remained were laying off staff and had a surplus of office furniture selling on the used market. They weren't buying new. It was and remains a life changing event for me.

I remember going to a local chamber networking event. As the crowd thinned, I was talking to a group of my competitors. One in particular was loudly saying he’s going to continue doing what he’s done all his life. Steel and all those corporate headquarters ‘would be back’. He’s still waiting.

I left that function determined not to be like that man. On my drive home, my thoughts were “somebody’s buying here—who?” I made a mental list of who would benefit from such a mess. The next day I started calling on a new group of prospects. I did not have a drop in my income.

Be resilient and creative. You can't be the person your boss sees as dispensable. Avoid the whiners and doomsayers. You are here to do a job, so do it. Keep that on the top of your mind. You need to make it happen. You need to prospect. You must follow up religiously.

Be committed to doing more than survive-- you will thrive. Pay attention to the details and stay in a selling frame of mind. You will come through these uncertain times and leave the gloomy sales results for your competitors.

More than half of 2008 is over. Are you on track? Will you regard this as times of woe or an opportunity to learn and grow? Because that is exactly what is in front of you. I came through worse and am better for it. So will you.


Choose Your R-Word - To learn more about this author, visit Carol Blaha's Website.

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