If you aren't listed on the Fortune 500, take heart. This is probably the best time in the past 40 years to knock out (or at least take a big chunk out of) your larger competitors. The recession is going to literally turn the marketplace upside-down, giving the advantage to the underdog who recognizes the opportunity and takes advantage of it. Based upon findings of The Alpha Factor Project, a long-term research project encompassing two previous recessions, the current sales leaders in just about every product or service category should be shaking in their shoes, because in many cases smaller competitors are going to take big bites out their market share in the next year. There are three critical secrets behind successfully taking advantage of this opportunity: Recognize and use your flexibility Recognize the new" needs of customers (that have nothing to do with price) Act now before things get better. What flexibility? You may be thinking that you have little flexibility right now. Certainly, money is tight, immediate demand is low, and fear is the most obvious thing anyone sees in the marketplace. But the reality is that there are customer needs that must be and will be met by someone. You just need to understand how you can uniquely address those needs better than your larger competitors. Your ability to change and adapt to change quickly is your greatest advantage. The larger the company, the more stability and predictability it needs to thrive. The largest companies don't respond well to chaos or to changes in the marketplace. Smaller companies (at least those who have not mistakenly copied large company structures and strategies) can react quickly to chaos and changes in the marketplace to thrive, while larger companies are in survival mode. Use that flexibility to change your sales approach now, before your larger competitors can react, and you have a great chance to create sustainable growth at their expense. What new" needs? Your second greatest advantage is that you can quickly adapt to address the new" needs of customers. Whenever there is a recession, the greatest reasons for changes in the customer relationships are not price-driven; they are ego-driven. Buyers (both consumer and corporate) feel the emotional pressure. They may feel the need to prove that they are smart, or they may really need to feel that they are cared for and appreciated. The company or salesperson who can address these new, amplified needs has a very high likelihood of overcoming even years of loyalty to another company or salesperson. In fact, in our research we discovered that during a recession more companies are actively looking for new suppliers than at any other time. While larger competitors are trying to figure out how to address these new needs and train salespeople to do so, you can be taking the business away from them. These new needs have nothing to do with price, although you may have to use some form of added value" to get their attention initially. But the real key to closing the sale and establishing a long-term profitable relationship will come through addressing these emotional factors more than any price factor. Why act now? It would be easy to believe that the smart move would be to wait until things settle down a bit before investing in any new business development. That would be the worst move you could possibly make, unless you really are in survival mode and only hope to hang on. During the storm is when most people cry out for help. If you wait until the sun shines, you will miss the opportunity. Also, notice that your competitors are hiding out. Most, if not all, have cut advertising, sales efforts, and just about anything else they can. What could be a better time to act than when you have fewer competitors to worry about and prospects are in enough pain to want to do something about it? This is the time to act Certainly, you won't find every prospective customer ready to think about a new supplier, but those who are may be an opportunity you won't have again until the next recession. This is the time to take advantage of this upside down market opportunity. Use your advantage of flexibility to recognize and address the new emotional needs of prospective customers, and you may just find that you have taken a big bite out of business that your big competitor thought he owned just a few months ago.
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