Selling in 'The New Normal:' Sales Tips for Organizations Trying to Close Business and Achieve Sales Targets in 'The New Normal'

Waiting for the economy and business opportunities to get back to normal? About fourteen months ago Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE coined the term "The New Normal" in order to focus and re-engage the world's largest conglomerate. GEs business leaders were focused on the slow economy. Immelt stopped talking and took action. Team leaders were told the conversation needed to change from: "The markets slow" to "There's an 90-locomotive order in Egypt - let's go get it." Other top executives Selling to Zebras, LLC have worked with have come to the same conclusion; forget about waiting for normal to return: This is the new normal. What does that mean exactly for sales?

Hartland, WI (PRWEB) January 6, 2010

Jeffrey A. Koser, CEO and founder of Selling to Zebras, LLC, and the co-author of the award winning book "Selling to Zebras", releases tips for sales organizations trying to deal with "The New Normal".

What does that mean exactly for sales? It means that business is grappling with unemployment in the U.S. that is at a 26 year high of 10.0%. It means adjusting to the reality that financing organizations have tightened credit making corporate debt almost three times more expensive than it was in 2005. And it means companies will have to find a way to grow their business in 2010 when global GDP is expected to shrink for the first time since World War II.

Award winning author Jeff Koser says, "In the "New Normal" strategic professional sales organizations have learned that their best efforts and previous approach to selling customers in complex sales cycles used successfully in the past, no longer work; sales levels, margins and average deals sizes are down and sales cycles are longer with many ending in non-decision."

How big is this sales problem? Sales organizations currently operate at 15% forecast close rate efficiency.

Calculated as follows: Sales Won/(Sale Won + Sales Lost + Non-decision) = 15%

This means that sales, pre-sales, sales support, sales management and executive management now put time and resources into something that 85% of the time isn't going produce revenue!

Jeff Immelt says "let's go get it." But--Sales is asking "How do you go get it?"

How should companies that sell complex solutions address this problem?

Koser suggests; "Sales should come prepared to explain to a prospect why the next dollar they spend on any solution should be spent on their solution."

Who has a compelling need of this magnitude? Answering that question is the key to success in "The New Normal".

Take the following steps to find the answer;

1. Talk with existing customers.
2. Clearly identify the critical business problem(s) solved by your company
3. Quantify the results into a clear economic benefit
4. Go find similar prospects, with the same business problem, solve it and document the achieved economic value
5. Repeat

This process is simple but not easy.

Koser offers a tip for starting this process; The first action is to create a "customer audit process". When a customer's business is originally won, promises are made by a person in a position of power regarding what the solution that was sold will do for their business. Find out what promises were made, who made them, and conduct the audit to determine how well expectations were met. The audit will uncover the critical business issues solved and the specific quantifiable value created for a customer.

Implement this idea and start having success in The New Normal!

Selling to Zebras" is being talked about as "…the book may be most valuable to CEO's and General Managers whose companies' performance relies so heavily on the ability of their sales organizations' ability to close deals." - Kenneth C. McMillan is the CEO of Tartan Management, a TEC Chair, and Vistage member (http://www.vistage.com).

"Jeff and Chad Koser wrote a book that I consider one of the best sales books I have read in the last decade. What made this book interesting was their methodology and process for identifying a company's best prospects. They developed a very scientific analytical model that can be used by any company." - Marc Kramer, Wharton School of Management

About Jeff Koser and Selling to Zebras, LLC: Jeff is the founder of Selling to Zebras, LLC a sales tools and consulting firm established in 1999 that works with CEOs, top executives, and sales forces of both large and small organizations including: HK Systems, Plunkett Raysich Architects, Smart Choice MRI, StarCite, Inc., Thomson Reuters--through it's Sabrix division, Vivisimo, Inc. Jeff and his family live in Hartland, Wisconsin. Koser is the former Chief Operating Officer of Baan USA, Inc's Supply Chain Software Division.

Contact information: Jeff can be reached @ mobile phone (414) 659-1494, http://www.sellingtozebras.com

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