Sales Training Blog

We have nothing to fear but fear of the recession itself

Scared clients don’t buy. As salespeople in a recession we need to fight the fear. Economic fear is a group thing. When the stock market tumbles, as everyone watches, panic and fear spread. Now that signs of economic recovery are in the air, our job is to see that a new message spreads.

New York Times has provided us with a FREE 25 page study we can use to help us convince clients not to be scared. The study is actually about President Obama’s performance ratings, but will ignore the politics and focus on the results of just three questions that tell our story:

First, while the recession fearing mob may be paralyzed, that same mob TODAY believes it is better off economically than their parents were in their day. Recession and all, 33% of Americans say they are much better, and 25% say somewhat better off than than their parents were at their age. Put in this perspective, maybe things are not that bad after all.
Second, people are actually much more worried about their jobs than the economy. While there are gloomy economic stories in the media, they are not what is driving the fear. If you want to know about fear, think about the job market and ignore the headlines. Currently, 44% of of Americans are "Very" concerned about job loss.   
Finally, the American people are far more confident that things are on the right track, and by a huge margin. In January 2009 only 15% of Americans thought the country was on the right track, 79% wrong track. As of April; 38% right track, 53% wrong track. Still not great numbers but a huge increase in just a few months.    

Show your client the data. Do not get into the politics. Sharing these numbers is about showing that confidence is being restored. If you get into issues of gloating Democrats or defensive Republicans the point will be missed.  

After you share the numbers, then ask a simple question, "Could the mob fear of the recession be fading?"

Download the whole study for free:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/nytint/docs/new-york-times-cbs-news-poll-on-the-approval-ratings-of-president-barack-obama/original.pdf

Change recession tactics; become an agent of optimism

 It's time to start talking about recession end game strategies for your clients. Now that there are encouraging economic signs, your job is to share documentation of them, share optimism, and then ask the killer question, "What will your company be like when the recession is over?

Here is something to share: 

 Last weeks often contrarian Economist made a cautiously optimistic case that the US Economy is improving. The article ticked through housing, economic data, and stocks to find positive signs in each. I recommend printing out and sharing this article with all your clients. There has been plenty of bad economic news, as sales professionals our mission must be to bring forward the positive. 

Here are highlights from those three areas: 

The housing bubble:

 "The current recession has broken many of the rules of business cycles, but not this one: when something gets cheap enough, buyers emerge.

America’s housing bubble seems mostly deflated. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index, house prices through January were down 29% from their all-time peak. Relative to incomes, houses are now 10% undervalued, and relative to rents they are fairly valued, thinks Paul Dales of Capital Economics, a consultancy... "

A variety of financial statistics: 

"In March factory purchasing managers were their least gloomy about new orders since last August. Vehicle sales rose 8% in March from February. New claims for unemployment insurance have stopped rising. Gross domestic product, which shrank at a 6.3% annual rate in the fourth quarter, probably shrank at a similar rate in the first, but the composition of the drop was more encouraging; it was driven not by the collapse in consumer spending, but by sinking output as businesses sought to bring inventories into line with lower sales. Second-quarter growth “has a good chance of being positive”, according to Ian Morris and Ryan Wang, economists at HSBC, though “the risks…are still huge.”

The stock market:

"As investors have shifted their economic outlook from catastrophic to merely grim, the stock market has shot higher, by 19% on April 1st from its 12-year low on March 9th. Like houses, stocks look cheap."

Read the entire article, "A faint sound of applause,"from last week's Economist.