A lot of salespeople tell me that customers are cutting back or putting off decisions. Such news is causing some salespeople to start acting like their customers — where they too are developing a “bear-like” mind-set by going into hibernation or waiting it out until the economy starts turning around.

Whoa, now is not a good time to follow your customer’s lead. If they choose to be complacent, that’s their choice. Don’t let it be yours!

Z Corporation, a global leader in the 3-D printing industry, recently enlisted Performance Based Results to re-energize their sales team methodologies to combat the current global economic downturn. We initiated a series of highly charged sessions entitled, Selling-in-a-Tough-Economy which focused on effective questioning techniques to help maintain Z Corp’s competitive edge. Poor questioning methods used by Z Corp in the past were compared to our new and more effective questioning techniques that needed to be implemented immediately. Z Corp representatives made a point that our ability to customize our methodologies to their specific industry challenges was the key to the sessions’ success.