A bloody war in the Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, global oil and gas prices surging, grains in short supply driving up food costs, rare metals shortages, inflation taking right off, increased spending on guns rather than butter – none of this looks good. By the way, did I mention we have a world Omicron virus variant pandemic raging still, while 25% of Americans are unvaccinated and 42% of the US population are obese. Even non-academic, totally amateur economic observers like me, can see the signs of a world about to tip into a recession. If you are in sales, this can’t be making you more sanguine about the future.
For many of us in Japan, the pandemic has torn through our industries like one of those mid-western American tornedos you see on the news. They lay waste to everything in their path, yet miraculously spare some houses in the same street, while totally obliterating the others. Some industries have sailed through Covid but most others are on the ropes, looking for an end to the bout, so that the pain will cease.
Buyers working remotely during the pandemic and emergency declarations have made networking almost impossible, as has been contacting them to start a business conversation. In my experience, the Japanese glass of water is always half-empty and any excuse to do nothing is seized upon, like a drowning man grabbing a life-preserver. “Doing nothing” means not buying from us. Any hint of trouble and the faucet for various areas of spending is immediately turned off. How do you sell in such a hostile environment?
“With great difficulty”, I would venture and it is likely to get worse over the course of the next year or so. The impact on our salesperson mindset is going to be extremely negative, unless we take steps now to bolster ourselves and prepare for “winter is coming”. Great advice, a wonderful homily, a passionate declamation or more hot air and by the way, so what?
Here are a couple of tools to use to steady our mindset before the economic recession hits us like an avalanche:
Live in “day-tight compartments”.We turn off the nagging worries and horrible memories of past recessions, which can paralyse us by stealing valuable energy from today. We know bad days are coming, we have seen this movie before, but we don’t allow our fears to impinge on what we can do today.
We concentrate 100% of our time and energy to make things happen today. We investigate past recessions of a similar nature and we look for industries or firms who have managed to continue buying regardless. We may even have to get out of our industry and get a job in another which looks better able to withstand the assault of economic rationalism. If we are going to lose our source of remuneration anyway, it is better to choose the timing and get a job somewhere else. Professional salespeople are always in demand.
Cooperate with the inevitable.Complaining, despairing, whining are all natural reactions to a coming recession, but none of them are much help. We are better to accept that we have no control over external forces like geo-political events, wars, global economic trends and instead think about what we can control.
We can begin by contacting our current clients and find out what they are thinking about the future. Are they preparing by reducing expenditures or are they thinking this is an opportunity to expand? Your recession induced meltdown is my buying opportunity, your jettisoning of staff is my hiring chance, etc. Not every company is affected the same way and we need to know who is who and we need to be doing that right now.
We also know that after the banks beat up companies by calling in their loans during the Lehmann shock, Japanese companies swore “never again” and they are well cashed up. There is a buffer there that didn’t exist during past oil shocks and recessions. What is the situation for your clients at the moment? Are they well protected by cash or are they nervous and about to start hacking into their investments and expenditures to shut things down? We need to know the lie of the land here, so we know who can continue to buy from us.
I hope I am totally wrong and we don’t sink into a global recession. However, rather than wait for the morning news broadcasts to tell you what is happening, let’s all seize the moment and work on our frame of mind. We can control 100% of what we put into our brain and if we decide to, we can replace negative thoughts with more positive ideas. Let’s get our mindset ready for whatever may come at us and be prepared for a possible Armageddon and let's start today.
