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Marketing > 9 Strategies To Grow Sales In A Recession

9 Strategies To Grow Sales In A Recession

July 8, 2022 Jacob Statler Leave a Comment

Last updated on August 7th, 2023

Strategies To Grow Sales In A Recession

Looking to keep sales consistent during a recession? This article lists multiple tips for keeping revenue up during a slow period. 

Wondering how to tackle sales consistency when a recession is breathing down your neck? 

Maybe you’re facing uncertainty about your operations.

Fortunately, the 9 strategies outlined here will make selling in a recession much less doom and gloom. 

By the end, you’ll know the best practices for continually landing customers and the industries that tend to thrive in these times. 

Table of Contents: 

  • How Does A Recession Affect Sales?
  • How Do Startups And Small Businesses Weather Recessions?
  • How Do You Make Continual Sales During A Recession?: 7 Strategies You Can Use 
  • 6 Recession-proof Products & Services
  • 6 Industries That Thrive During The Downturn
  • Final Thoughts On Sales During A Recession

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How Does A Recession Affect Sales?

An economic recession results from an extended period of slowed economic activity, elevated unemployment, and a reduction in customer spending. 

When we look at downturns from your business’s vantage point, you may experience: 

  • Cash flow slowdowns 
  • Decreased service demands 
  • Trickle-down effects (example: Employee layoffs could cause a company to cut back or stop marketing services since they want to save capital or don’t have the staffing to support new customers.)

And with reduced sales revenue, it may cause your organization to cut costs of its own. 

For that reason, maintaining or continually exceeding revenue is a must. 

And it starts with your ability to maximize selling ability through an updated sales strategy or even targeting a new market altogether.

Recessions typically carry a negative connotation in the business world, but we can’t forget a positive fact:

Recessions bring more opportunity as competitors get scared and cut growth spending.

And what’s growth spending, you ask?

It’s putting capital in areas that will bring you more capital in a predictable fashion, think:

  • Profitable marketing campaigns 
  • Exceptional sales talent 
  • Sales and marketing technologies that reduce the need for human involvement (ex., CRM automation). 

So the big picture is that yes, a recession can have its adverse effects but it also brings opportunities that can change your business for the better.

How Do Startups And Small Businesses Weather Recessions?

Cash flow is king with startups and small businesses, and this is emphasized even more during a recession. 

Cash reserves are arguably the MOST effective way to extend your company’s runway. 

And for that reason, spending needs to be cut in areas that aren’t an asset for the business (assets should bring in money or maintain the business in some way).

One area where you may look to cut spending is your business’s technologies. 

Think of evaluating your techstack and taking inventory of how much your business spends on different software throughout the year. 

Then consider the software’s value to the business relative to its price and consider more affordable alternatives. 

For instance, are you using multiple software for your marketing, sales, and customer support needs? 

Opting for an all-in-one CRM like VipeCloud could save you thousands of dollars each month while maintaining the same level of company production. 

Cutting back on low ROI expenses is a must, and your ability to sell will keep cash flow where it needs to be.

Let’s now cover what it takes to make sales consistent during a downturn. 

9 Strategies To Maintain And Grow Sales During a Recession

1. Have Additional Products Or Services To Upsell 

Start by increasing the average account value of your customers through upsells. 

This will increase cash flow which you can save as cash reserves or invest in other company areas.

Remember that upselling is an art form and also has some science to it. 

Here’s the “art” part. 

Your customer service has to be at an elite level where you meet your customers’ needs and make them feel that you’re their best option during these times. 

So instead of competing on price, you can compete with your established relationships and exceptional customer service. (In fact, you likely charge more for your product or service.) 

Next (the “science part”), you can use systems like CRM, to help track customer sentiments and actions so you can find optimal upselling opportunities. 

A good example is using customer behavioral data in your CRM.

Customer behavioral data in the CRM

You can assign certain interactions a score and use a more systematic approach to the way you manage leads — this is called lead scoring.

2. Focus On Marketing That Directly Impacts Sales Pipeline Metrics

99% of sales time should be spent on prospects truly qualified to buy. 

So consider nurturing and building closer relationships with prospects that fit your buyer personas the most. 

This means your reps should increase their touchpoints and conversations with qualified leads. So If previously your reps did 5 touchpoints, aim for 8-12. 

(But remember, every deal is different — some experts even say deals can take up to 13 touchpoints.)

Why?

Engaging more with your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) helps you build more trust and better relationships, which increases the likelihood of a lead closing.

3. Define Your Market

This is about pinpointing the most manageable client segments to win and to serve. 

Narrowing down your segments this way will help you speak to them better in your marketing:

  • Who is your customer avatar? (age, gender, job title, etc.)
  • What problems does your customer avatar face, and how do they feel about it?
  • Where do they want to be?
  • How does your solution help them?

Knowing who your avatar(s) is will make selling easier because you can offer talking points that buyers care about (how you solve their situation).

As you define your market, also research how their industry is affected by economic downturns:

  • How can you be an asset during these times? 
  • How can you convey your product’s perks to them? 

4. Upgrade Your Team With Seasoned Reps 

During recessions, prospects may be evaluating solutions even closer. 

Depending on the customer segment, you could experience more objections and slowed average buying cycles.

For this reason, having seasoned reps with proven track records can make converting them easier. 

In economic downturns, many companies are letting go of strong sales talent, which is the perfect opportunity to get talented hires. 

They’ll be able to contribute their sales and leadership experience to your organization. 

They may also require less initial training, leading to a faster ramp-up time to begin selling effectively. 

We have an entire post on assembling your dream sales team if you want to learn more about building a talented sales team.  

5. Offer Discounts 

Discounted offers are one of the most popular ways to convert a deal. 

Since businesses are looking to save in these times, deciding whether to go with your company or competitors may come down to price. 

Consider what discounted offers you can give to your customer segments.

Here are some examples:

  • Discounts based on more extended contracts with your company 
  • Free trials or sign-up discounts 
  • Loyalty discounts 
  • Product or service bundling discounts
  • “Join email list” discounts

Discounts can be effective but remember that giving discounts to the wrong customers could hurt you in the long run if they’re not in your ICP.

6. Don’t Forget Referrals 

Referrals can help you reduce marketing costs since you’re leveraging a customer’s network. 

Referral customers statistics

Additionally, referral customers convert 30% more than leads from other marketing channels and bring a 16% higher lifetime value (CLV).

So your sales strategy should have some referral program integrated into it. Have ways of incentivizing your customers to refer your business to their network. 

You can do this through ways like:

  • Referring leads to strategic partners that serve your ICP.
  • Pay referral commissions
  • Simply asking customers if they know anyone that might be an interested connection

On the front end, you’re getting warm leads. 

And on the back end, if they convert, you’ll likely be getting customers who’ll be adding revenue for longer than average. 

In this timeframe, you can upsell additional products or services to make your referred accounts more profitable. 

7. Pinpoint New Markets 

“Action and adaptability create opportunity.” – Garrison Wynn

Sometimes, recessions can open the door for you to test new markets. 

Maybe your current customer segments just aren’t in the position to buy due to the economy. 

And spending weeks and months chasing the same customer segments can sometimes make you lose a ton of money and time.

Instead, find new industries that tend to thrive during a recession (or are at least qualified to buy your solution during it.) 

For example, a SaaS company could broaden its product use-cases to help other B2B industries, leading to discovering new profitable client segments. 

Finding new markets has a research element and may require changing your operations or business model entirely. 

8. Track Marketing Channel And Sales Productivity 

There are many marketing and sales strategies, some more effective than others. 

For that reason, data is the best teller of what campaigns perform best. 

This is where the power of a CRM system comes in.

CRM campaigns can be tracked with metrics that tell you what’s going right and wrong.

For instance, if you’re marketing using email campaigns, your tracking metrics give you: 

  • Open rates
  • Click-through rates 
  • Attachment downloads 
  • Replies 
  • Bounce rates 

Focusing time and resources on high ROI campaigns will help you fill up your pipeline and sell faster. 

You can also view CRM reports to get a panoramic view of your team’s daily activities.

9. Focus Your Value Proposition On ROI

Your value proposition is a clear and concise statement of why your product or service is valuable for your customers. 

It’s one thing to say why it’s the “best”, but it’s even better to talk about the outcome in your value prop. 

And “outcome” means the return on investment your prospects will get from your product or service (even better if you also relieve a pain point your customers think of). 

Here’s an example:

Company Y and Company X both sell ad software. 

Company Y’s value proposition is:

“Our ad software helps you easily track ad ROI, thanks to its simple features.”

Company X’s value proposition is:

“Our software saves marketing agencies up to 35% on ad spend, boosts ad ROI, and doesn’t require a lot of technical know-how.” 

Company X has the better value proposition because it’s ROI focused and speaks to some pain points that prospects may be having (i.e., getting no ad ROI and having to be technically savvy to use an ad tool).

6 Recession-proof Products & Services

Here are 6 services that withstand recessions. Working with businesses with these services can mean gaining a recession-proof client. 

  • Consumer Staples (food, clothing, cosmetics, hygiene products, pet care, etc.) – This category deals with the everyday needs of people, so it’s almost impossible for the need to disappear.
  • Cleaning Services – A necessity for residential spaces and commercial buildings. 
  • Accounting – Recessions can bring financial uncertainty. For that reason, people want their finances managed well. 
  • Sports And Fitness Services – People still spend money on their health and fitness during recessions. 
  • Telecommunications – Deals with making communication a possibility across the globe. With the internet, smartphones, radio, and more, most businesses wouldn’t exist without telecommunications. 
  • Courier Services – Transports and delivers goods from place to place. We rely on trucking, warehousing, and on-demand delivery to distribute commercial goods in our global marketplace. 

6 Industries That Thrive During The Downturn

From an industry perspective, here are 6 that withstand an economic downturn. 

  • Health Care 
  • Grocery 
  • Discount Retailers 
  • Cyber Security 
  • Trucking 
  • Financial services

Final Thoughts On Sales During A Recession

The name of the game is cash flow, and to manage sales well to bring in cash flow, you need a CRM that’s built for it. 

That’s why there’s VipeCloud, an all-in-one CRM where you can track your deals, sales cash flow, and forecast sales efforts to anticipate future revenue. 

Feel free to request a demo if you’d like a walkthrough of how it works.

VipeCloud’s all-in-one CRM can also be tested out free for 15-days, no card required! 

About Jacob Statler

Jacob has been using CRM to help scale his marketing agency since 2019. Since then, he has been sharing his learnings about how small business owners can improve their sales, marketing, and client relationships using new tactics and evergreen strategies. He has written over 120 articles on sales strategies, marketing, small business tactics & CRM insights.

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