Consumer spending and the housing market are two leading indicators of economic recovery. So what does it mean for sales when one’s up and one’s down?

Consumer spending rose for the sixth time in seven months, according to the Department of Commerce. The consistent increase is a positive step toward economic recovery, one that most analysts attribute to:

• consumers having more money to spend on personal shopping
• job loss decreasing during the month of November, and
• a slight rise in employee salaries — based mostly on employees working more hours for slightly higher wages.

While these are all positive signs, the increases are slight and experts still haven’t seen any watershed moment to suggest a major bull market is on the horizon.

Housing sales have dropped to their lowest point since April, according to the census bureau. Plus, the totals for November dropped more than 11% from October, clear proof that the housing market — a major indicator of economic prosperity — is still in dire straits.

So how can salespeople leverage these two contradictory trends to their advantage? It helps to focus on the fact that consumer spending and confidence levels continue to inch their way back up.

Leading economists estimate the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 4% in the final quarter of 2009. Combine that with a 2% jump in the third quarter, and salespeople can make a strong case for the fact that now’s the time for buyers to invest in solutions that can help them maintain an edge on the competition.

Source: “Consumer Spending Rises, but Home Sales Drop,” by Catherine Rampell, New York Times, 12/24/09

Tags: confidence, consumers, customers, economy, housing, sales, spending