Are You Building a Stronger Team Today?

During times of economic uncertainty, most technology businesses batten down the hatches and try to hang on to what they currently have. Now is not the time to try new things, they might say. As you probably figured out, I disagree. Now is a great time to try out new things. If times are slow, this is an excellent opportunity to get your business ready for the upswing in the economy. Because there will be an upswing in the economy. The economy is cyclical, it goes down, then it comes back up. Will you be ready when it comes roaring back?

For example, do you have your business development processes documented? Now is a great time to hammer down how you want things done. There are two advantages to doing this now:

• While times are slow, you have your people available to help document the sales and consulting processes, as well as time to get everyone up to speed on the same way of doing things.
• As the economy comes back and you have to hire additional sales people and consultants, you can quickly get them up to speed and get more productivity from them faster through effective mentoring.

What about your lead generation systems? Now is an excellent time to look at your lead generation systems. How many do you have in place? If you have only 3-4, start looking at other methods to generate leads. The more methods you have to generate leads, the less volatile your lead generation efforts will be. You’ll have a steadier flow of leads than if you rely on only a couple ways of getting them. Most competitors use the same way of generating leads and by creating different lead systems you can get more and better qualified leads.

Build your testimonial library. Update your testimonials to represent new products and services you’re offering. Put together a testimonial contest and get your sales team to get out and create new testimonials. Create video testimonials to support your business development efforts. If you don’t have current testimonials from your best clients, now is a great time to get in touch with them and see if they’ll give you one. It also gives you a chance to see if there’s anything you can help them with right now.

What I’m saying is that even though things may be slow right now, it won’t always be. Get your systems in place now to support your growth when the economy gets back on track. It will give you a competitive edge in your market.