San Francisco Business Times: Starting a Business : Business Advice

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Let's be honest: Things are bad, and it is miserabl e out there in the world of We are in a globalk recession that will last forsome time. 1. The economhy eventually will improve andget better. 2. Most companiese rely on salespeople to help with the bottom Continuing sales of a producyt or service for an organization along with great salespeoplr will be needed even more during thes etough times. I think it is important to look at a strategh as old as business itself that will helpa company, its the salespeople employed and the customers that a company does busineses with. The first thing, which is of the utmostr importance, are your customers.
Whether you are the CEO reading the salesperson or a persoj in customerservice - this is the time to protec your customer base and make sure that they are period! The one way to do this is to get in toucj with your customers. Do not attemp to do this by mail or It istoo impersonal. If you want to builx relationships withyour customers, then build them the way they are supposeed to be built - by peoplse dealing directly with people! You need to ask your customerss a simple and direct question: "How are we doing for you? Be and tell me the truth." Next, for the salespeopl who still are employed, you are going to have to work Yes, I said it - harder.
This means not only visiting your existing customers and checking their true levelk of customer satisfaction but also goin g out and gettingnew business. the economy is slow, and we are not buyintg as much of anything as we did a fewyears ago, but the fact remainxs that there is still business being done out