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Are You Recovery-Ready?
By Tom Reilly, author How To Sell and Manage in Tough Times and
Tough Markets
When will this recession be over?
I’m reminded of Churchill’s speech after the 1942 British victory at El
Alameinin: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The indicators I watch all point
to our beginning the climb out of the economic trough we have been in. Will it
be a fire-hose thrust as the spigot opens or a long, slow slog? I don’t know.
But I do know that you must be ready and first in line to drink from that
spigot. Are you ready for the recovery?
Being recovery-ready means three things. First, are you lean? Have you shed
yourself of the fat you accumulated during our recent expansion? Companies get
lean when they re-examine their infrastructure, simplify and sculpt for
efficiency and growth. Salespeople get lean when they abandon bad or lazy sales
habits.
Second, are you focused? Organizations focus when they direct all of their
resources at their core business and shed the excess of success. This includes
markets and line extensions that never made sense. Salespeople focus when they
concentrate on their high-value target accounts and shed their profit piranhas.
Third, are you prepared mentally? How is your attitude? How much studying have
you done? This slack period has been a gift of time for those who used it to
train and increase their knowledge. If you haven’t used this time prudently to
reinvent yourself to relevance, how will you do this as the spigot opens? You
will be too busy scrambling for business. Those who used this time to increase
their differentiation of skills and knowledge will capture most of the value
during recovery.
During the last recession, 15% new industry leaders emerged. Do you think they
had a plan and made themselves recovery-ready? You know they did.
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