Given the new reality of the business climate, everyone is looking at their expenses to figure out the best places to tighten their belts. While deciding to lay off your sales staff may seem like a place to turn because you may not want to carry their salaries, business owners who resist the temptation to do so are making the smarter decision. Here are a few reasons that having salespeople right now is going to pay dividends in the future:
- While it may seem like we have all been isolated forever (this will pass, promise), you don’t want to be caught flat footed when the economy opens back up.
- Your sales team is your revenue generator, not a business expense.
- Your yearly goals may have adjusted but they aren’t going away. You need your sales staff to close deals and bring in much needed revenue.
- Sales is all about building relationships. Your customers have a connection with the sales team, not just your brand.
- All the business intelligence they have been gathering can’t fit in the notes section of your CRM, much of it lives in their heads.
- If you lay them off your competitors will find them and benefit from the relationships with prospects that they have been cultivating.
- If you plan on hiring salespeople again, why go through the 5-figure investment to get a new person up and running when you already have someone on staff?
It might seem like your sales department is the most logical place to look at when trying to cut back, but those businesses that do will be left at a great disadvantage when the economy opens back up. Even if it means your salesperson helps with low level tickets or general customer service for the short term, don’t make the mistake of turning off your engine when there will be so many opportunities available on the other side of this pandemic.