In this Issue

📣    When In Doubt, Sell
🛒    Just-In-Time Buying
🏢    Gain Executive Access

📣  When In Doubt, Sell

The most important time to prospect and drive sales is when you’re at your busiest.

Sales activity often declines when business is booming. You get too busy serving your existing customers to hunt for new business.

This leads to an inevitable trough in revenue and business.

The cycle is brutal. Highs followed by lows. You go from being busy selling to busy delivering and then back to busy selling again.

To combat the cycle use busyness as a signal that it’s time to double down on sales outreach, marketing, and customer acquisition. Behind every peak is a trough, unless you sell ahead of it.

The same logic works in a downturn.

We may not be in a recession, but you can feel the toll of this Uncertainty Tax: decisions are being delayed, projects are being canceled, and sales opportunities are harder to come by.

The solution is to sell more. Dramatically increase the volume of sales activity to combat a slowdown.

One Stat to Watch

20%

Canadian national home sales are down 20% in the past four months, from November 2024 to March 2025. This is a good example of how consumers stop buying when they are scared or uncertain. Expect more trends like this in other sectors in the coming months.

🛒  Just-In-Time Buying

Even if you started 2025 with a full pipeline, few businesses have escaped this year with their sales funnels intact.

The uncertainty is causing decision makers to slam on the brakes.

Companies are proactively reducing all types of spending by eliminating, postponing, decreasing, or substituting purchases. They are hunkering down and effectively coming to a halt.

Don’t use slam-on-the-brakes behaviors as a reason to stop selling. In fact, do the opposite. Increase the volume of sales activity, and look for the smaller, essential purchases.

Customers are continuing to buy, but they are prioritizing urgency and need. It’s like “just-in-time buying.” They are making smaller, essential purchases last minute.

Just-in-time buying requires reconfiguring your value proposition to focus on reducing risk. Look for ways to help your customers “de-risk” their purchases with smaller transactions, flexible payment terms, or increased support.

Sales can be had in the toughest of markets, but you have to work extra hard for every deal.

🏢  Gain Executive Access

When every purchase is being scrutinized, top-down selling is more important than ever.

Managers are losing their decision-making authority. Even small purchase decisions require executive approval.

Selling to executives requires different skills, a different value proposition, and different relationships.

If your sales team is used to selling to procurement and middle management, the shift in purchasing behaviors puts them at a disadvantage.

As leaders, the fastest and most effective way to support your sales team is to sell with them. Encourage your salespeople to book executive-to-executive meetings.

‍When two CEOs meet, deals happen.

Adding more sales work to the CEO or leadership team’s plate isn’t easy, but it’s essential when every sale is hard fought and hard won.

🤔  Thoughts on Today’s Issue?

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