It’s the responsibility of an effective company to help prospects discover that their current situation is unacceptable, because they lack their product or service, so they’ll buy it. But the biggest obstacles companies face are not necessarily real, but are the self-limiting attitudes and beliefs people have about the world around them.

Amerigon is the company that we can thank for making our car seats warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The car seat heating and cooling system manufacturer took a shocking blow in 2008 when automotive companies slowed and stopped production and bled down inventories of components.

Dan Coker, president and CEO, took the downturn as a challenge to diversify and seek new markets and to penetrate overseas auto manufacturers who have been slower to adopt Amerigon’s comfort systems.

“Our biggest challenge was managing through the economic downturn, and then being prepared for a fast uptick when the economy began to turn around. The downturn brings a continual downward pressure from customers wanting to reduce the costs. The quick upturn creates stresses to your staff, your supply chain and production systems as you gear up to big increases in demand."

"We were successful because we know our business well and were able to focus on it. When the economy collapsed in the third quarter of 2008 our sales fell from a high of $17 million in the first quarter of that year to a low of about $10 million in the first quarter 2009. After hitting bottom in that quarter our sales began to rebound reaching $18 million and $21 million, respectively in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 and $24 million at the end of this year’s first quarter."

“While we are now having some successes in penetrating additional automotive applications such as heated and cooled cup holders and capturing waste heat from a vehicle engine to generate electrical power, as well as non-automotive applications like heated and cooled bedding, most of our incremental gains have come from capturing more business from existing customers,” he said.

It’s an achievement in itself for a company like Amerigon to stay focused on greater success when there is the constant drumbeat of negativity going on around them. People tend to “externalize” their problems, and blame their own inadequacies on things they can’t control, (the economy, the price of gas, auto layoffs) because they won’t allow themselves to face their real problems. Sales meetings become “pity parties” since salespeople use the same excuses to rationalize poor sales performance while longing for the good old days to return and getting little done.

Use finesse to prompt sale
There’s no doubt that Michigan has had more than its share of business woes, and it's true that the state unemployment rate is now nearly 15 percent. (I remember 17 percent back in the 70’s.)

But the U.S. economy, though weakened, is still the biggest economy in world history. While the national unemployment rate is 10.2 percent and increasing, the real gross domestic product (GDP) has continued to rise to more than $14 trillion today.

And while thousands in Michigan are directly affected by the layoffs and plant closings of late, and their pain is real and troubling, many who are not directly affected believe that the situation is dire and all-encompassing. So helping prospects discover that you have solutions to their problems against this backdrop requires finesse to prompt a sale, and finesse requires that the salesperson not buy in to the “doom and gloom” when facing a prospect.

List of excuses goes on
An example of an excuse salespeople may give is: “Prospects need more time to think it over in this business climate where people don’t make decisions quickly." The salesperson won’t believe it could be the result of anything they do or fail to do. It’s rationalized as just “the current culture of our industry.”

Another example of a typical excuse is: “Longer selling cycles are happening because people are being more conservative and cautious in this market.” They’ll defend: “You have to understand” the “people in Michigan aren’t moving as quickly as the rest of the country.” Once again, it’s not the salesperson facing their own issues … it’s the state of affairs here.

And some salespeople will claim: “Poor margins are just a fact in this highly competitive market.” “There are so many competitors who are willing to ‘give it away’ to get the business in Michigan that we have to cut our prices to be competitive.”

The list of excuses goes on, and salespeople tend to attribute their challenges, problems and frustrations to someone else’s (lack of) buying behavior, and not their own inability to adapt their attitude and approach to exploit the current situation. It’s the fault of the prospects they call on, the competitors, or the industry or region, and this mindset is a trap that assures they will not take any steps to improve.

The real reasons
The excuse: “In this climate, people don’t make decisions quickly … they need time to think-it-over” is really a stall. The reason they stall is they aren’t given permission to say “no,” and the salesperson doesn’t take the time to qualify the prospect before presenting their product or service.

And the excuse: “Longer selling cycles are happening because people are being more conservative and cautious in this market” is a rationalization, too. This kind of excuse comes from a salesperson who is continuing to pursue several prospects that are stalled. This kind of stall is given by a prospect that is more comfortable telling the salesperson to call them back next month than to say “no,” even if they have no intention of taking a call then.

Certainly “market forces,” “stiff competition” and a region’s “business culture” can all be factors in marketing products or services, and salespeople probably prefer that their managers continue to believe that these are the biggest, or the only factors. But if salespeople want to perform well, they need to be honest enough with themselves to accept that most of these “reasons” for weak performance are excuses and rationalization.

Stay focused, get systematic
So it’s the priority for a company to help prospects discover that they have compelling reasons to buy from them, and help them believe in the value they will receive, so that they’ll buy it. But the biggest obstacles they face are the attitudes and beliefs everyone carries into a sales call on both sides. The best way for a company to minimize these factors is to go in with confidence, and stay focused on strengths with an expectation that the prospect may or may not be in a position to do business. This attitude makes it easier for them to systematically seek to understand the prospect’s real situation.

The systematic approach should include establishing a genuine candor first, setting some ground rules for the discussion, getting the prospect to share the compelling reasons they may have to do something, the resources they have to do it, and how they’ll make the decision. At this point the salesperson has enough information to know whether to propose a solution, already knowing under what terms the prospect would buy. If they can’t meet the terms, they shouldn’t present.

Not panicking and staying focused and disciplined helped Amerigon come out of the downturn even stronger.

CEO Coker adds: “Our biggest challenge now, in addition to building reliable, efficient and cost-effective products, is to continue to innovate and continue to capture what we see as an ever-expanding demand for our technology and our products. If we do, we don’t foresee any limit to our expansion, even in this market.”

If your sales team adopts an objective attitude and a systematic sales approach, they will stop longing for the good old days to return--because they’ll be making new “good old days”!

©Copyright 2010 Marr Professional Development Corp.

Joe Marr is a public speaker, sales and management consultant and trainer, and runs Sandler Training Ann Arbor at 501 Avis Drive. To reach him call: (734) 821-4830 or visit his website.