Times are still hard in this industry. 2012 is shaping up to possibly be better than last year, but trading remains very competitive and there are busy weeks are there are slow weeks. It will be a year of ups and downs. But what do you or your sales people do during the down parts?

Do you just sit and hope the leads start coming back in? Do you hope the phone will ring with customers wanting to place orders? Or are you a bit more proactive and go after the business? Hopefully you’re the latter. But I know that a lot of sales people in this industry aren’t that motivated enough when times get tough.

Sales people are guilty of being lazy a lot of the time. I’m not saying to press the panic button and go out knocking on doors. That tactic doesn’t really work anymore. But ringing customers that haven’t placed an order with you is one way to gauge reaction from your clients to see where you might have gone wrong with them and why they either went elsewhere or haven’t yet placed an order with you. You get a foot in the door, so to speak, and can enter negotiations on price if price is the issue.

If you’re a manger, are you doing enough to keep your guys and gals motivated? Do they need a kick up the arse?

I’m going to be totally honest here, I am guilty of not being proactive enough in my early days of selling. It’s easy to get in that, ‘woe is me’ attitude and get moody about the lack of leads or sales. But at some point you need to slap yourself in the face and go at it again.

Now is not the time to throw your toys out of the pram when leads go dry. Get creative and get proactive and try to do something about it!