Selling in a Down Economy

My friend Mike Yarnall, who is now a Certified Whale Hunters Trainer, sent me an article that really resonates with whale hunting these days.  It was published in the Harvard Business Review, March 2009, and you can read a summary version at no charge or you can purchase the article or a subscription to HBR.  It’s called In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers, by Philip Lay, Todd Hewlin, and Geoffrey Moore.

The gist of the article is that in a downturn economy, the best way for you to complete a sale is to confront the prospect with customized, irrefutable evidence of what it will cost if he/she does not take action to alleviate an egregious problem.  You, of course, are framing the issue in general, conducting the research, and customizing your findings to a specific prospect or current customer.

This article is well worth reading and purchasing the full version.  For my friends at Agency Management Roundtable, you’ll find that this is a more highly developed version of the Whale Hunters activity that I presented as The Terror Trap.  More to come on that.

Thanks to Mike for a great reference, of which he said, “I have read this article at least 50 times.”