If you’ve been in business at all in the last 5 years then you have likely experienced one of the most unpleasant things that can happen in business: your phone stopped ringing. It is a very frightening feeling when you are sitting at your desk, staring at the phone. In sales we refer to the time when the phone stops ringing as “crickets,” since it gets very quiet when no one is calling. But what you do when the calls stop can ultimately determine whether you are going to make it through until business picks up again.
Once you get over the shock and fright it’s best to focus on sticking to the fundamentals. Set short-term, realistic daily goals and celebrate even the smallest victories. Reward both your own efforts and those of your team/employees even if they do not lead directly to a sale. Always focus on the positive and avoid falling into negative thought traps by blaming your situation on things you cannot control.
Here’s an example: a large residential real estate company I know placed signs saying, “It’s not the economy” all over their various offices. This was not meant to gloss over the very real economic situation that made business more difficult. Instead, the company wanted to encourage its’ employees not to use the bad economy as an excuse for failure and to focus on where they could improve.
It’s not enough just to create short-term goals and think positively. You also have to put a system in place that allows you to measure and track your efforts and hold yourself accountable. Many people just want to sit and wait and wait for that phone to start ringing without actually doing any work to generate business. To these folks I say, “Don’t expect your ship to come in if you never sent a ship out in the first place.”
Other people like to make excuses. The economy is always a big one during tough times and, as I said earlier, it’s not necessarily a poor excuse. But my favorites are the people who criticize everyone around them to justify why their phone isn’t ringing – their coworkers, their boss, even their industry. The bottom line is, even valid excuses won’t get you anywhere. Blaming your troubles on the people around you won’t make your phone start ringing again. You’ve got to do that yourself.
Another important thing to remember when the phone stops ringing is that everyone, from the president of the company down to the workers in the mailroom, is in sales. When times are hard everyone in the company is affected. If the sales don’t come in that mailroom worker might lose his or her job. So could the president of the company, for that matter. Don’t hesitate to take advantage of all of the talent on your staff when times are hard, because they’ve all got skin in the game whether “sales” is in their job description or not.
Last but not least remember: “Never, never, never, never…give in.”[1]
Have a great weekend,
Ro