Planning Sales for Tomorrow

The other day, I met and talked with a new car dealer about the conditions of the market and asked how he was dealing with all of the doom and gloom. It was amazing to hear him talk about all the good things that were happening at his dealership, despite the slowdown in new car sales. He was excited at how well the service department was doing and the fact that there was an increase in the volume of maintenance work orders. The business was still serving the customer, and serving the customer was what made him the happiest. Serving the customer first was of utmost importance.

During a recent meeting with dealership management staff, one of the managers suggested that in order to reduce operational costs, the department was looking to reduce the advertising budget and cut back the number of ad placements in the local newspapers and some radio spots as well. With that, the owner stopped the meeting and told all of his mangers that they were to continue with the advertising budget as had been outlined in the business plan. This was no time to keep current and prospective customers in the dark about the availability of product and services. It did not make good business sense to forget about the customer and it was made very clear that advertising and marketing needed to remain strong, especially during a slower sales period. For this business owner, it was all about sales for tomorrow instead of what was sold yesterday. He was looking forward not backward. He was thinking about the dealership customer base first and looking forward at better ways to serve them.

Listening to this car dealer, I couldn’t help but think about our advertisers and their business needs which aren’t much different than the needs of the car dealership. Every business has a customer base that needs to be constantly reminded about products and services. In the past, some prospective clients would avoid advertising and use the excuse: “We’re not interested in advertising now, because we have more orders than we can handle.” We’ve all heard that line before, and now I wonder how many of them are still around and if they still suffer from order backlogs. I would think not! Maybe now would be a good time to put them on your hit list and remind them about the importance of planning for tomorrow’s business cycle instead of yesterday’s success.

Market conditions are not the best today, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t get better tomorrow. As a sales representative for the best publishing company anyone could ever work for, you have a responsibility to deliver this message to your contacts and keep reminding them how important it is to look ahead and prepare for tomorrow. That’s what makes you the Best of the Best!

Keep making the calls!


Tony