Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but don’t fall victim to these four common pitfalls.

Nicholas Read, author of Selling to the C-Suite, warns against falling victim to these four classic mistakes organizations can easily make during a whirlwind economy:

1. Increasing advertising/marketing budgets. In B2B sales, most buying decisions take a long time — in many cases much longer than the average ad campaign. Fortunately, in this age of social media, it’s possible for companies to promote new benefits as often as they like without adding costs.
2. Slashing prices. Cutting prices is a short-term solution that diminishes profits and eventually causes buyers to question the value of your goods/services.
3. Cutting expenses. A lot of sales expenses are necessary in order to close deals. Cutting T&E almost always has a negative impact on overall closing rates.
4. Pushing more productivity. Rather than risk burnout, focus on the fundamentals and provide salespeople with better leads and more opportunities to succeed.

Source: “Selling to the C-Suite” by Nicholas Read.

Tags: advertising, budgets, economy, marketing, mistakes, productivity