Revenue Journal®

A depression is one of the worst things that can happen to the economy - it affects just about everyone, in every industry, in every country. Recessions, on the other hand, tend to hit a particular group of industries the hardest, with lesser "ripple effects" on others.

What's happening now, as everyone knows, is that lending institutions have stopped lending with wild abandon. The first people to be effected by this are those in the real estate business - real estate agents, lawyers, title companies, and all the others who gain income from real estate activity. Their income - and their spending - decreases. Many decide to leave the business. There is a personnel shift from the real estate industry to other industries, where the money is still flowing. Until they are securely ensconced in their new positions, and have recovered financially, they are still cautious about their spending.

Recessions affect other industries, too, because of the recessionary drumbeat. The news media is always prowling around looking for the latest disaster. As you know, right now they're writing stories about the "subprime lending crisis," profiling people who have been affected. This steady diet of bad economic news affects everyone. Anyone who views their house as their main economic security will be more cautious about their spending. They will take longer to make decisions. They will want more information before making a commitment. They will more carefully compare one option against another, and will be more likely to postpone major spending decisions.

Consumer spending will slow, and so will business-to-business spending. People who run businesses are consumers themselves, and they follow economic news closely. They become more cautious about their spending, too. Their employees see the boss pulling back, and they tell their families, "Things are getting tight at work. Better wait on buying that new car."

This classic, recessionary mass psychology will affect your own outlook, the outlook of your employees, and your revenue stream.

So why am I saying that recessions can be good for you? Because they provide a unique opportunity for improvement.

When business is booming, it's all we can do to get the essential work done every day. As business owners, we work from dusk to the wee hours, then crash, exhausted, into bed...only to rise the next day and do it all over again. We make time for family and our close friends, but otherwise we are working, flat-out, just to keep up. When the tempo slows, and it takes longer for your buyers to make a decision, you are being given a gift. This is your big chance to examine your revenue-producing processes and systems, and improve them.

Before we talk about what you can do to improve your revenue-generation methods during a recessionary period, I do need to inject a warning about things you will want to avoid. When things get slow, there's a tendency to start cleaning your office, or, in larger companies, to spend an unusual amount of time discussing "strategy." In other words, you engage in some housecleaning and navel-gazing. Nothing wrong with that, in moderation, but doing too much of it is really just a form of reality avoidance, a mental hunkering-down, merely waiting for things to get better - rather than preparing yourself for when they do get better. And, rest assured, things will improve - especially if you use this opportunity to prepare yourself. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Even better, when recessions hit and the media is full of the bad news, your competition is hunkering down, too. They won't be as aggressive. This is a perfect time for you to make gains on them.

Now let's look at how you can turn a recession into one of the best things that ever happened to you.

1) It's time to decide if you really want to be in this business. Don't spend a lot of time on it, just ask yourself the question. When things get tough, it's always a good question to ask.

a. If the answer is, "I love what I do, even now," good. Now you can be more committed than ever to being successful at what you do. It's important to routinely re-commit to the things we're doing. You don't want to get to the end of your career and regret that you didn't pursue your real dream.

b. If the answer is, "I'm really not enjoying this anymore - my heart's not in it," then it's time to make some big changes. (If you want a roadmap, Rivers of Revenue can help.)

c. If the answer is, "I still love what I do - but I need to make more money," keep reading. That's what this article is about.

2) It's time to gain a deeper understand of the concerns your customers have when they are making the buying decision. When people are less free with their spending, the concerns they have during the buying process loom even larger in their minds. These "barriers to the sale" can more easily stop a sale.

The good news is, buyers who are in hesitation mode are more open to describing their concerns to you, if you ask them the right way. Not to continue pushing my book, but it was written for this situation (which is why the subtitle is "What to do when the money stops flowing"). The Appendix in Rivers of Revenue goes into great detail about how to interview potential customers and current customers. It shows you how to find the right people to interview, which questions will give you the best response, how to conduct the interviews, and what to do with the information once you've gathered it. You can use these calls to understand what their concerns are, what else they've done to solve their problem, what they want from someone like you, and what they would consider a fair price for your type of service.

During the call, you must resist the temptation to sell to them - even if they invite you to. Save that for another call. This call should be strictly an interview call, where they talk and you just listen. You only say enough to get them to talk.

3) It's time to look at the processes you are using to find new business, complete each sale, and all of the "paperwork" associated with each sale. When times are good, a little inefficiency here and there doesn't hurt you much. But when things are slow, you must increase your selling efficiency. Because selling is usually run by sales types, the process of selling is usually shortchanged. Sales types hate thinking about processes; they find analysis is boring. They'd rather sit through a Wagnerian opera than dissect and improve the processes associated with selling.

What you need to do is thoroughly examine the typical sale, from start to finish. Where do the leads come from? What happens to them when they come in? How are they given to the salespeople? How quickly do the salespeople follow up? (Note: If you're not responding to a prospect's email within a half hour, you've already lost the sale to a faster-moving competitor.) How do they follow up? What happens then? What questions are asked by the customer during the sales process? Who's involved at the customer end? What clinches the sale? What happens afterwards? Is the customer thanked for his/her business? Is the customer asked for a testimonial? Do you make it easy for the customer to refer others?

No matter what the economy is doing, knowing the answers to these questions - and making the changes needed to get things working more smoothly - will result in higher revenue.

4) It's time to look at what your competitors are doing and implement some of their better ideas. We can all learn from our competition. If you routinely visit competitive websites, you will find things that make it easier for the customer to understand what is being sold and easier for the customer to buy. If they are doing something better than you are in these areas, improve what you are doing. This will help you now, when times are slow, and even more, when business picks up again.

Whatever you do, don't slow down with the rest of the economy. It's such a temptation to become a victim when the press is screaming "RECESSION" wherever you turn. But, this is not the time to take a snooze, just because you assume everyone else is asleep.

This is the time to tiptoe out of the Recession Zone and start focusing on making it easier for your customers to buy. This is the time to re-commit to your life's work, to learn everything you can. This is the time to give your revenue machine an overhaul. You'll sell more - now, during the slow time, and later, when people start spending more freely again.