In a recession, it's tempting for sales leaders to focus solely on the short-term goal of hitting their numbers. However, this is actually the time when a long-term focus can help you come out ahead of your competition. Here are five things sales leaders can do to keep the long game in mind during a recession:

Keep your pipeline full: Encourage your team to focus on the right activity

Wise Sales Leaders who’ve been through around the block a few times understand the long game. During these trying times, it is vital for your team to stay focused on conversation-building and relationship-building activities that will keep their pipeline full when the market recovers. Encourage your employees to analyze their prospects, identify gaps and nurture existing relationships through webinars or virtual events, so they are ready when the economy turns around. With this kind of focus on building strong ideas, your team can come out ahead after a downturn.

Play more defense: Focus on customer retention

As a sales leader, understanding the importance of customer retention in times of economic difficulty is essential. Playing more defense during recessionary conditions requires shifting priorities to ensure you’re protecting the relationships that already exist within your business. This means staying open to new and creative ways to serve customers while investing resources into product offerings and loyalty programs that further secure their trust. Doing this isn’t just about hitting current targets—it’s about sustaining business success in the long term. Having these foresightful considerations as part of your approach helps you become an enduring force in your industry despite challenging circumstances.

Equip your team with new tools: Focus on increasing your marketing efforts

One effective and important way to focus on the long game is to increase your marketing efforts in order to reach new potential customers that your sales reps may not uncover. Keeping an eye towards the future, investing in marketing initiatives now can give you a competitive advantage and potentially open up avenues for growth when we come out of the downturn. Allocating resources to marketing efforts isn't just something that should be done in strong economies - it can have even greater rewards in leaner times.

Get active in the community: Focus on networking

One of the best strategies for making a successful comeback during an economic recession is to get active in your community and network with likeminded professionals. This will help you build long-term relationships, form valuable partnerships, and give you the opportunity to jumpstart initiatives that can bring lasting change to the industry. It's important to remember that when it comes time for the inevitable recovery, having a strong professional and personal network will be invaluable – so start building them now!

Plan for the future: Focus on long-term planning

When times are tough, it’s important to remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Great businesses have a 10 year goal (BHAG), a 3 year goal, a 1 year goal, and a quarterly goal. Despite the challenges posed by recessions, with conscious planning and wise action, success can be achieved in even the most trying of environments.

Ask SalesFirst Recruiting for Help

Sales leaders in times of recession should focus on playing the long game. If you or your company needs any help putting a sales plan together to weather the storm, please reach out to SalesFirst Recruiting at www.salesfirstrecruiting.com!