So, how are we doing in this credit/tech crunch?

 I will not ask the silly question who has not been hit by this down turn - I assume that most hi-tech organization these days are feeling the pressure. What will 2009 hold for us is hard to tell but obviously we need to make a few changes in the way we conduct our businesses – funding is going to be hard to get and customers will cut back on their spending for sure – the perfect recipe for a headache.

I would like to focus this discussion on the way (I think) sales organizations should reinvent themselves due to this new market situation and my next post would examine what support they (Sales) will need from their product colleagues to be successful.

I think that more and more sales organizations are going to adapt a “laser approach” rather than a “shotgun approach” – meaning extreme focus on markets or specific customers which a sale can be achieved with higher probability rather than expanding over too many territories and opportunities.
This means:
•    Less territories to focus on
•    Increased efficiency in managing territories
•    Reduce operational costs

The first 2 bullets are linked together, which means we need to identify the markets carefully and have our sales people more in the territory to meet customers than flying around between territories (more air miles for the sales person but less over all effectiveness in selling). More than that, territories which seemed previously unappealing may now be the most appropriate ones to address – everyone wants to sell in Western Europe but maybe now the opportunities are in Africa – can this shift in approach help hedge the downturn? Who said that these days a sale to MTN (in South Africa) is less appealing than to T-Mobile (in the UK or Germany)?

Reduction of (sales) operational costs is a favourite one for CFOs. I think that more organizations will tackle this goal by relying on larger networks of agents and representatives which will deliver local sales at overall reduced costs. The sales people may be tilted more towards channel management rather than direct sales. What do we save – mainly travel costs which have a devastating effect on profitability. What is needed – versatile sales people and open minded sales management.

Tal