How Is Your Company Staying Afloat?

During this time of economic doom and gloom aka The Recession, companies must continue to sell their products and services. This is imperative if they are to stay afloat and weather this crisis and come out of it a stronger and more importantly a solvent company. The big question on everyone’s lips is “how do we do that?”

This I believe is where real leaders and people with vision come to the fore. These are the people who will see opportunities and start to take  risks because they firmly believe that their approach is going to work. They think outside of the box and start to put methods into place that before might have been laughed at. They need to galvanise the troops and start to instil a belief that they can get through this. By the troops I mean the sales team because the company will rise or fall on their performances. I believe that when companies struggle they do so at times because the leadership is all wrong. The people driving the team is wrong and the motivation is left wanting. Sales people need to be constantly encouraged and motivated enough to get the job done.

I watched Bill Flynn, Chairman of Mutual of America, being interviewed last week. Here was a man with clear vision and he took a good company and made it a great company. He had a very interesting take on how to pay sales people. None of his team get commission for their sales. He believed this only encourages them to sell stuff for the sake of it and this he called “fraud”. He does however pay a very healthy salary and gives bonuses throughout the year. I am not sure if I subscribe 100% to that because my belief is that sales people are driven by the commission but I am open to learning new ways especially from a man like Bill Flynn.

So what are we doing to stay afloat? Are we using new methods like Twitter, Facebook? Are we using more and more on-line methods like email marketing? Are we listening to the experts who have been there?

My own take is that we should do whatever it takes to survive, stay extremely positive, ask for assistance and more importantly demonstrate a confidence and belief to your team that we can and will get through this.

SELL-SELL-SELL!

Ciao,

T.