Customer Management Tips for Uncertain Times

New article on CRM Buyer.

There is little doubt that these are increasingly uncertain times for managers. In 2008, U.S. businesses cut nearly 2 million jobs — amounting to 11 straight months of shrinking payrolls — and some economists predict that we could lose another 3 million jobs in the next two years. In the past four months, we’ve seen continued triple-digit fluctuations in the Dow, and in November the Supply Institute announced that the Factory Index was down to the lowest point since 1982. If this wasn’t bad enough for business, it was confirmed this month that we’ve officially been in a recession for over a year.

In a recessionary environment, sales and marketing managers should prepare themselves for
lengthened sales cycles and decreased pipeline velocity. Tried and true tactics that have always worked — e.g. month-end discounting, bundling and promotions — will begin to sound increasingly desperate as sales reps struggle to make the quotas that were set months ago in the budgeting process. Customers — those in a buying mood — will buy on their own terms, and it is increasingly unlikely that they will be “sold to.” Therefore, price erosion will take hold as vendors struggle to adapt the new competitive conditions.

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