lustratus REPAMA

Posts Tagged ‘economic slowdown’

I don’t mean to be crass here and I know that I’ve asked this question before, but I have to wonder whether we are experiencing as deep a slowdown as the media would have us believe.

Perhaps it hasn’t reached my part of the software industry yet but right now I’m working with four companies who are all doing incredibly well.  They’ve all had great years and are looking forward to a better year.  I have to balance that by saying that I’ve also got contacts in my network who have been hit by some real problems – but most of them are really closely tied to the investment banking market.

But most surprising for me is the UK job market.  I’ve been trying to help someone in my network to recruit for a sales position in the UK.  Because we work with lots of companies I have a very broad and deep network and from time to time I’ll try to help companies who are looking for good people.  I never try to pull people out of existing roles, but I’m happy to ask my network if they know someone “good” who is looking for a role.  Anyway the role I’m looking to fill looks excellent.  Good company.  Good pipeline.  Good people.  Good backers.  Good proposition.  But I’m struggling to find candidates.  “All the good people that have jobs and are staying put” I keep hearing.  So either this is the calm before the storm, or things are still “OK” out there.

I’m sure if we all believe it enough we can turn this slowdown into a real crisis but right now, in my network, things aren’t as bad as they might appear.

(This blog inspired by Troy McClure’s self-help film “Get some confidence, stupid!“)

Danny Goodall

I was discussing the economic slowdown with some friends over the weekend.  We were trying to predict the likely depth, length and impact but we came to the conclusion that logic and a sound understanding of economics alone couldn’t help.  You’d need to apply complex chaos psychology first.  The issue, we realised, is that whilst people anxiously focus on the harsher trading conditions, we’re not focusing on the positives – the things that will bring us out the other side.

I’m not going to suggest that all we need to do is shut our eyes and wish it away but if we stop anxiously focusing on the negatives, we can turn a bad situation into a better one.  That said, I do recognise that it would be churlish to suggest to someone that has just lost their job that they should simply look on the bright side of life.  But someone’s loss has to be someone else’s gain – even if they were previously on the losing side.  It’s the way of things.

I believe that in enterprise software sales, generating interest is going to be tough for a little while yet.  But it is at precisely this time that market dynamics can be completely turned on their head.  The share of voice and vendor pecking order that “naturally” exists in a given segment can be completely, positively turned around when our staunchest competitors are focusing on the problem and not the opportunity created.

And as it is such a precious commodity, once we have generated a sales lead and it is handed over to the lead maturation process and ultimately the sales team, we better be completely sure that a) we’re saying the right things when we’re on our feet in front of the client and b) we know what the competition will be saying. This means laying traps for the competition, focusing on the things you do well and providing proof of the claims you make.

I think long-time marketing guru Seth Godin has captured it well when he talks about focusing on the wrong boxes.  And I think that the NLP fans out there would refer to the need for positive perceptual filters.  Either way I think it’s time to stop focusing on the red box and pay some attention to the others.

Danny Goodall