Its official. The news just came out. Yes, we are now in a recession!

Duh. As if you didn't know.

Companies big and small have been laying off their employees right and left all year.

The stock market sucks.

And now they tell us we are in a recession.

Big deal. I say that now is a great time to be selling.

Why?

Well first consider when the worst time to sell to is. The worst time to sell is when people are complacent.

When someone is complacent, they are comfortable. And if they are comfortable, they are not in pain. And if they are not in pain about anything, then they don't need or want anything. And if they don't need or want anything, then they won't be buying anything!

The best times to sell are when people are in pain because their business is either expanding or contracting. For the latter half of the 90s, businesses were expanding like crazy. Although this is something we consider to be a good thing there is pain associated with it. The pain is in keeping up with, or being prepared for the growth.

As a result, people and business bought like mad in the late 90s.

Now businesses are contracting. There is even more pain in this. If you can help businesses (or individuals) to reverse the contraction, make more money, or make the contraction less painful by saving them money, then you have an opportunity for a sale.

The difference is now businesses are tighter about their money. You have to get to the real decision-makers faster, and establish value faster. During boomtimes you can be a bit sloppy in your selling. During contractions you can't afford to not be at the top of your game.

I know this is obvious to many of us, but sometimes its easy to use news that "we are in a recession" as an excuse for why our sales suck.

If your sales are sucking wind at the moment, figure out a way to uncover some pain that you can solve now for your prospects with your products and services.

If you can't figure out a way to do this, then go sell something where you can.

Today's economy is different, and there are different motivations driving it. Move with the trends, not against them.

1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.