2009 Sales Prediction - Battle of the Bulge

It's a new year but if feels different compared to the previous ones - obviously.

From an enterprise sales perspective it will be no doubt an interesting year. Companies have cut back - in some cases rather severely - and many of these companies have been and will continue to assess all expenditures more closely than ever before.

Even in the first quarter of 2008 I noticed that a number of prospective clients were looking for clear, demonstrative ROI before pulling the trigger on a project. I believe this activity will continue as each project goes under the "executive" microscope before they pull the trigger.

A friend of mine is a sales trainer and licenses the Solution Selling Methodology. He was having a real tough time in early 2008 acquiring new clients. He educated me on his situation and the general sales situation. He said his business like other sales organizations were suffering from "Funnel Bulge". Every good sales person continues to qualify their opportunities and move them down the funnel for a decision - close or loss - but at least some decision.

My friend visualizes the bulge as follows: "Imagine an overweight size 18 woman trying to squeeze into a pair of tight size 4 stretch pants". Kind of a scary thought but the imagery certainly stayed with me.

This bulge refers to the tremendous amount of indecision that we are faced with from a sales perspective. The sales pipelines from a pre-2008 perspective are indeed quite healthy - but we are in a new sales closing era now. My friend's advice is to obviously continue to add to the pipeline - but now more than ever - we really have to concentrate on the "bulge". In many enterprise sales scenarios it may have taken sales people 9-12 months to get the prospect to this decison point. We can't "blow it" at this point. It's time to go back to sales school to sharpen the saw and brush up on your closing and client alignment techniques.

We have to do this with a high degree of sensitivity as the last thing you want to do is piss off your future client and blow it at this point. I know there are sales guys who do well no matter what the economy is. It's time to keep motivated and concentrate on the "Battle of the Bulge"