Sale in today economy

Having any trouble selling to business customers these days? Join the club. CFO magazine reports that, according to its most recent Global Business Outlook survey with Duke University, 65 percent of CFOs don't expect economic recovery to commence within a year. These are the executives holding the big scissors, and obviously they're plotting to give your buyers' budgets another haircut.


How much difference does it make when customers trim expenditures by, say, 10%? If you're trying to sell a new offering, quite a bit. As a rule, 85% of a typical operating budget is utterly off limits; it's locked into existing and ongoing commitments. That leaves only the 10% to 15% that is discretionary for you to sell into. And what do you think gets cut in a downturn? That's right, the discretionary expense budget, which may as a result vaporize completely.


Lean times call for a different B2B sales approach, say Philip Lay, Todd Hewlin, and Geoffrey Moore. In HBR's March 2009 issue they provide a game plan for going beyond "consultative" selling and instead confronting customers with deeply challenging ideas about their business.


The title of their article, "In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers," is deliberately provocative itself. But this isn't about bullying sales tactics. It's about provoking your customers' thoughts. I predict, after you listen to the IdeaCast interview with Philip Lay and Todd Hewlin (above) and read the article, you'll realize you've seen the provocation-based selling in use already. Maybe you've seen it used on your organization. Any great examples come to mind?