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These questions are from a webinar we recently held on Selling in Turbulent Times. For the entire presention, click here.

Do you recommend processes to disqualify some prospects and thus focus on other, high-probability prospects?

Yes, this is the way forward—with one provision:  that the re-qualifying process be done at a much deeper level than it has traditionally been done.  As a salesperson, you need to understand not only how the recession/downturn has changed your clients’ strategy and focus, but also how it relates to your firm’s value proposition.  Too often salespeople make the mistake of qualifying out an opportunity without undertaking the rigor of looking under the surface.  For example, qualifying out an opportunity simply because the client says “We have no budget” is superficial.  I recommend you investigate and probe further.

In today’s climate many companies opt to widen the net and go after any business at all.  But the most successful companies go back to basics and focus on high-probability prospects—those prospects for which they know they can add value without increasing their own costs.

Which piece of the model needs more attention and why?

Everything else flows from the first element:  Reassess and Re-qualify (R&R) is the gate or filter for everything else. After you reassess and re-qualify an opportunity, you qualify it in or out.  If for some reason you qualify it out, then there is no point in applying the other strategies.  The re-qualifying process must be done at a much deeper level than it has traditionally been done.  Why?  Because the client strategy/focus has changed in the recession/slowdown and salespeople may not know how the change impacts them or how it surfaces opportunities not previously considered.

I have a prospect who has endorsed my approach and product.  When she took the approach to her manager (power sponsor and budget holder), he said their company didn’t have sufficient budget to undertake it, due to the economic climate—before I’d had a chance to do a business-value justification.  I know the prospect company’s problem is significant, and that it’s now likely to adopt a half-baked in-house solution to the problem.  Can you recommend an approach to take to re-opening the opportunity and engaging with the power sponsor?

I would focus initially on two areas of the model we shared with you:  Expand Relationships and Address Customer Risks.  It seems that you have undertaken the Reassess and Re-qualify process and determined there is a need—but the solution the prospect company is looking at is not yours!  I would suggest you get a handle on the company’s buying process, identify all its hidden buyers (in the webinar we spoke about hidden buyers and influencers like HR, Legal, Marketing, IT, and Finance), and zero in on drawing out individual risks from each one.  Probe the consequences and potential risks to the business of a “half-baked solution.”  Zero in on the two fears of leaders today:  “sinking the boat” and “missing the boat.”

I would also suggest that you ask your client’s permission to speak to the sponsor in order to help with the business-value justification.

Will cost be the key differentiator in these trying times, or will value prop still swing deals?

Generally buyers are more sensitized to costs, but I would always encourage you to review and revisit your value proposition to the customer.  Cost is only one component of the value proposition.  Look at clients on a case-by-case basis.  Our research showed that there are “widespread variations in how individual companies respond to a recession.”  Don’t get caught in the trap of making the incorrect assumption that it is all about costs.

We are in the field of tourism.  This recession is hitting us badly:  Consumers are not spending as much as they used to; they are travelling less.  And there is no indication when the situation will improve.  We have reduced our selling prices, but that has not improved our numbers.  Your view on this, please?

The webinar research focused primarily on B2B selling situations.  If your are working in this environment, then the research would say that you need to look at client situations on a case-by-case basis.  The research showed some huge variations in industry sector:  Companies were undertaking quite different responses to the recession.  I would be careful about putting all customers in the same bucket.  If you are in a B2C selling situation, put particular emphasis on the Reassess and Re-qualify, Address Consumers’ Risk, and Maintain an Optimistic Outlook elements of our model.

Corporate and travel business partners want to enter into long-term low-pricing contracts that a hotel at risk of consolidation is avoiding.  Kindly advise.

I would suggest that you invest time in the Reassess and Re-qualify part of our model, really understanding how the business strategy of your corporate and travel business partners has changed because of the recession.  I would encourage you to look under the surface to draw out the risks that your business partners are facing.  Remember the two fears of leaders today:  “sinking the boat” and “missing the boat.”  I would be probing both but focusing particularly on the latter.  Once you probe, you may gain some insight that identifies something different you can offer.  Then you are in a better, more informed position to respond.  Think about the Hyundai example Karen provided:  There is a company truly tapping into the fears of its customers and coming up with a new alternative.  The same applies to you, but, until you shine a laser-beam focus on your customers’ fears, you are unlikely to come up with a viable solution.

What if customers are looking for a cheap rate instead of value-add?

Look under the surface.  If the only card you have to play is rate, you are in a weak position.  Until you can identify the value elements of what you bring and put them on the table in a compelling way, you will find it difficult to cut profitable deals.

If customers are only looking for a cheap rate (a rate below your margin,) even after you have identified the value elements, then walk away.

About assessments:  Longstanding customers’ business is getting less viable.  How would one deal with this in the current climate?

If the customer’s business is getting less viable, you need to make some hard decisions about whether you will continue to invest in it.  The Reassess and Re-qualify strategy comes into play here:  Look under the surface to see how the customer company’s strategy may be changing.

At Forum we encourage our clients to use a qualifying tool that asks three fundamental questions:  1) Is it real?  2) Can we win?  3) Is it worth it?  You may need to consider this last question in more depth.  Also consider the short-term value of winning, the long-term value of winning, whether an acceptable amount of time and effort will be required to win, and the profitability of the deal.

In these difficult economic times what are the three key things salespeople need to be aware of, if they are to outperform their opposition?

1) Focus on the client (like you never have done before, by going under the surface to understand how the recession has changed conditions for his or her company), 2) Earn the right to advance (by addressing all of the risks of the visible and hidden buyers along the way), and 3) Persuade through involvement (across your relationships in the account, your marketplace network, and your references).

Which one of these five strategies would you single out as the most important?

They are all important and quite interrelated, so it is hard to single any one out.  All I would say is that there is a starting point:  Reassess and Re-qualify.

All questions answered by André Alphonso, Managing Director of Forum India & Karen Blal, Managing Director of Forum Singapore. For the entire presention, click here.