The most popular and easiest-to-implement strategy for surviving a recession is expense reduction. The better they feel about immediate improvement to the bottom line, the greater the temptation to continue down this path. The organization atrophies in its ability to operate as well as its morale. This article will discuss a different route — investing in the group of people that are in a position to reverse declining revenue. It will convey why it is effective and how to approach this strategy.

The Secret to Surviving this Recession
Recession survival 101 focuses on expense reduction. While this knee-jerk reaction seems harmless, it can lull decision makers into a false sense of comfort. The better you feel about your immediate improvement to the bottom line, the greater the temptation to continue down this path. And as you increasingly rely on this strategy, you weaken your organization’s limbs and slowly atrophy its ability to operate as well as its morale.

But alas, you can only sit back, wait, and hope for a turnaround for so long. You’re right. At some point, you must do something about the one thing you can control—your sales force—the single connecting point between you and your revenue. It seems counterintuitive to increase spending right now. But investing in the group of people that are in a position to reverse declining revenue is a responsible decision. In fact, the only reason to have a sales force is to alter the customer’s/prospect’s decisionmaking process.

You’re faced with an economic crisis, and doing what you can instead of doing what you must could lead nowhere. You would have already launched this initiative if you could have. Reach out to a sales development expert. After all, if you drove up to your office and saw property damage caused by the worst hailstorm of the past century, you’d call your insurance agent. And you certainly wouldn’t want to represent your company in an IRS audit or in a lawsuit.

There are many ways to help your sales force succeed in reversing declining revenues in these difficult times. Your company can not only get more of the smaller pie that’s still out there, it can nibble at your competition’s pies.

You don’t know the IRS Tax Code. You’re not a member of American Bar Association. And you don’t know how to change sales performance. But you do know how to find resources that are critical to your company’s success. Just do it.

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Feel free to forward this to a colleague who wants to optimize revenues and margins.