As a manager, here are four ways to maintain your competitive edge as the market continues to shift:
- Maximize your lead pipeline. Now’s the time to perform an audit of your sales from the past two years to determine who your top prospects are (e.g., SIC, region, executive title, etc.). Once the audit is complete, front-load your pipeline with the types of leads that give salespeople the best opportunity to succeed.
- Sell value over price. Right now a lot of companies are trying to win buyers back by offering one-time discounts and slashing prices. That’s a short-term strategy that does little to promote customer (or brand) loyalty. Now’s the time to reinforce the long-term benefits of doing business with your company and keep prospects focused on the return, rather than the investment.
- Embrace new marketing channels/modes of communication. Email, social networking, text messaging, BlackBerrys, cell phones … they’ve all changed the way prospects communicate. Some companies use Twitter. Others use Facebook or LinkedIn. Some reps simply ask prospects how they prefer to communicate, so there’s no confusion. The key is to find small, low-cost ways to use technology to maintain constant contact with buyers.
- Differentiate your offer. Develop your own competitive analysis, so you can pinpoint what you offer that competitors – or an incumbent supplier – can’t.
