How Do You Sell To Someone Who’s Just Taken A Gut-Shot?

From the desk of Roy Furr, Friday, 7:06 am

I gotta get this off my chest before I explode.

If you haven’t changed the way you speak with customers and potential customers in the past 6 weeks or so, you better.

Or this recession is going to turn into something much, much nastier for you. (This headline from yesterday is telling: “Soros says deep recession inevitable, depression possible.”)

Take this lead for a letter I’m writing for a product that has nothing to do with investing or the stock market:

It’s no joke. We’re in tough times.

As I write this, the Dow’s been pummeled — it’s down 59% off its 52-week high. Major tech player Cisco’s stock is down 54%, despite sales increases. Microsoft is doing worse than Cisco — down 56%.

The banks that aren’t bankrupt yet are too scared to lend. And all our houses seem to be losing value by the day.

And the economy’s biggest gurus are saying we’re either headed for recession or depression.

Is there any bright spot?

Listen.

All this crap going on with the economy is what’s on people’s minds. It’s on your mind. It’s on my mind. And it’s on our customer’s mind. It’s likely these last 6 weeks or so have been hard on your business. And the next few months aren’t going to be easy either.

(It’s a completely normal human reaction to cinch those purse strings tourniquet-tight when you’ve just lost 30% to 50+% of your nest egg. That’s real dollars, folks — most of your customers have lost between $10,000 and $100,000 in the past 6 weeks.)

But now is also a time of incredible opportunity for heads-up marketers and sales people.

Right now you can bring your tribe, your group, your teeming mob in close.

You can speak to them in the language they’re using. You can continue the conversation going on in their head right now.

And they will listen.

They will bond with you.

And they will, sooner or later, buy.

It may not happen in a flood once you connect with them. But building rapport by sharing in their sorrow now — saying “I understand you” without saying it directly — will lead to more sales sooner.

You’ll get the rebound purchases and “stretching the budget” buys that putz marketers still singing jingles like everything’s okay won’t get until things are actually okay again.

Sure, the great depression sucked.

Murderously high unemployment (yes, people died). Failing banks, businesses, and financial futures.

It changed the way an entire generation looked at jobs, money, employment. And then sent shockwaves through the generations as everyone adjusted and reacted to the norms the great depression created.

But even in the midst of the great depression smart companies were growing.

New companies exploded in new profits.

And there were many who actually lived well —

Still eating at fancy restaurants…

Still driving fancy cars…

Still buying fancy houses…

(And actually living within their means while buying these — but that’s another topic for another day.)

There is a calm in the chaos, and opportunity in the desert. It just takes some thinking on your feet. Some adjusting. Some taking a moment to lift your head up, surveying the landscape, seeing where people are still hungry and ready to invest in a good, reliable way to satiate their hunger.

Don’t make the mistake of acting like nothing is happening. Because things are happening. And they’re huge.

Now you get to decide what impact it’ll have on you.

- Roy

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