sales exchange

New Rules Or Old Fools?

A while back I wrote about a risk we as sales advisors, leaders, or whatever label we choose to wear bear.  In order to stay relevant we must demonstrate that indeed we are leading rather that following or merely jumping on trends.  In that piece I pointed out that since many of us did not warn of the economic downturn to come, we should at least attempt to help our readers ready themselves for the coming upturn in the economy.  This is true whether you think the economic upturn has started; or we have merely bottomed out and are in for flat and stagnating times; or you are one of the optimists that think the boon train is leaving the station, and now is your last chance to grab and hang on to the last car as things pick up steam.

So it was with bemusement that I read a piece this week talking about the “new way to sell”, the fact that the time we are in are so changed from where we were less than 12 months ago, that unless we completely reinvent the way we sell, we are just minute from being an obsolete relic of the past, looking like a sales person from 2005 or 2004. 

Those of us old enough will recognize phrases like “the new economy”, “new way of buying”, and hand in hand wit that is the ever popular “new way to sell”.  Again all these things are presented in light of the dramatic, no even more profound, (and less accurate) “tectonic plates of the economy have shifted forever, shaking unsuspecting sales people in to the abyss of Sales 2.0.” (Hmm, a bit much, ha? but it sounds cool, like a movie trailer for “No Sale” staring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.)

Well if you are old enough to remember Steve McQueen or the movie Earthquake you are also old enough to have lived through the last or last few “Big Ones”, and know that at the core little long term changes happen to sales,  good sales people and the way they continue to be successful, especially when reviewed over time.  Wholesale short term changes maybe a good distraction and little more, and distraction will turn negative when the pendulum reverses and things return to evolving in their normal fashion. 

The big problem with the “new economy thinking”, “things have changed forever” school, is that there is not that much new here.  It is not like the invention of steam and the railroad, the cotton gin, or the seed drill in agriculture.  In fact if you compare it to recessions in the 1990’s, 1980’s and 1970’s the current one has yet to make the grade.  If you measure it by duration, level of decline or retraction in the economy or job losses both in terms of total job loses, percentage of work force laid off, or percentage of unemployed.  Mind you the last measure is very much a lagging indicator, so we have yet to see the full extent.  But the other measures, sorry unless you worked for Merrill Lynch, GM, or Lehman Bros, this has not been that bad.  Just look at how fast Wall Street has shaken off the shock.  So what has changed?

What has changed is that this recession is being played out 24/7 across cable networks, bloggers, Tweeters and You Tube jockeys across the planet who need something to misinform an ever knowledge thirsty public about.  Between Presidential elections, dog selections and dying pop stars, what can be better filler than something they know just as little about?  “Gee, what should I blab about today? The recession, sales, hey I can show case my ignorance of both in one post” The problem is any fool including me, can post what ever nonsense about sales and the new economy, and it becomes part of a larger and larger din that reverberates and builds on itself.  And it is that constant compounding of nothing that has made this recession different, nothing else.  This is why it is important to remember that selling is always evolving, growing and inviting adjustment.  The basics will endure as long as one sticks to the core activities and principles; there is no need to throw everything out hoping that by proclaiming new truths, new beginnings and new rules you will some how be able to better deal with any market.

To close, I don’t mean to understate the impact and pain on those directly affected by the current downturn, but most will rebound or reinvent themselves this time as they did last time and the time before.  But that comeback will not be the result of the “new economy”, “new rule” or any other “new”.  In fact it will be as a result of something as old as the first sale, a focus on the customers’ reality and ones ability to enhance it.  Remember based on the latest reports and all the way back to last year, over 90% of people are still paying their mortgages and living in their homes, over 90% of people eligible and wanting to work still are working.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto