These are very difficult times for businesses. We have accepted the fact that the Vietnamese economy has serious internal problems. We are gradually accepting a new reality – the global economic crisis has begun to directly impact Vietnam. Both of these realities do not last for just a few months or a few quarters; we are talking about a few years or even more.
The economic targets for 2009 will be very difficult to achieve. Everyone is trying to cut costs and increase profits to overcome the crisis. Competition is much fiercer. Almost all business transactions focus on price, price and price.
In today’s environment, the pressure to sell is so great that it can easily lead to us losing focus on profitable customers and market trends. We are no longer clearly differentiated in the eyes of our customers. Commitments to customers are also more likely to be broken.
Our sales teams have been working harder, but the results have not been as expected. We wonder why the sales strategies that used to bring success are no longer effective. It is certainly not that the sales strategies or methods are wrong. It is just that the environment around us has changed too much and too quickly. We have never been integrated into the global economy as deeply as we are now. The characteristics of the current global economic crisis can be called unprecedented.
Businesses that are structured around sales and boldly adopt new strategies and new ways to cope with the recession will not only survive the crisis, but also have a chance to prosper. Here are some recommended strategies that will help us sell successfully based on two main principles – maintaining and developing customer relationships.
Keep customers
In all times, especially in tough times, do everything you can to keep your customers. It costs 6 times more to find a new customer than to keep an old one. The obvious choice! Listen to your customers, understand them and give them useful advice. Help them survive and they will help you survive.
Become a true consultant to your customers
It is a mistake to think that the more people we reach, the more we sell. We will quickly become overwhelmed. The rate of errors will increase proportionally. Take the time to understand the customer's strategy. What are their challenges? Where do they come from? How do they impact the customer?
Don’t fall in love blindly with the features and advantages of your product or service. We will easily lose our direction and see the problem from our subjective perspective, not from the customer’s perspective. Customers only care about one thing: what we can do to help them solve their problem.
Invest to retain customers
Provide more added value to customers. In difficult times, when money is scarce, added value will have the opportunity to maximize its value. But to have real added value, we must invest (time, effort, money) to equip ourselves with new knowledge, new ways of doing things and especially new perceptions.
Find new customers
Finding new customers is the key to growth. But if done without thinking, the process of finding new customers becomes a burden, gradually draining all our resources.
Don't rely too much on marketing or advertising.
Relying on marketing to acquire new customers seems risky, inflexible, and passive. Customers are in pain. Fear is more or less present in their minds. They don’t need a 30-second flashy commercial or a series of articles in the newspaper showing the benefits of our product or service. They want to hear and see for themselves what we can do to solve their problems. Advertising and marketing do not represent the brand. It is the individual who interacts with customers who truly represents the image of their business.
Leverage existing relationships with existing customers
Why spend so much resources looking for new customers, when if you have a good relationship with your current customers, they will be willing to refer new customers to you. Ask your customers for help.
We cannot expect different results if we continue to do things the same way. Invest in your sales team to learn how to maintain and grow customer relationships. The risk of being passive and inactive is much greater than the risk of changing and adapting. In the short term, companies that are willing to change and boldly adopt new strategies will have a better chance of surviving the crisis. In the long term, customers will reward them with loyalty and valuable transactions.
Saga
