Gartner lists three key priorities for chief sales officers (CSOs) in response to high inflation and recession risk. They include adopting flexible planning techniques, retaining/retraining high-performing sellers, and embracing strategic cost management.
“Economic headwinds require sales organisations to take bold, pre-emptive actions that strengthen the core of their business and point the organisation toward growth — that’s still the CEO’s top strategic priority,” said Noah Elkin, VP in the Gartner for Sales Leaders Practice.
Adopt flexible planning techniques
The first priority for sales organisations is to fully incorporate greater flexibility into their strategic planning activities and outputs. CSOs should routinely reassess the organisation’s ability to respond to economic disruptions and develop a communication plan to keep every part of the sales organisation aligned on strategy changes.
Key CSO planning actions include reviewing data on key sales talent and productivity metrics to ensure the team is tracking toward growth targets and requiring the sales leadership team to build an action plan that reflects the urgency of preparation in the face of inflation.
Retain and retrain high-performing sellers
Frontline sales managers play a significant role in not only developing and managing sellers to have the right conversations with customers about potential inflation impacts but also being clear about addressing sellers’ questions about inflation before they become distractions.
An August 2022 Gartner poll of 74 sales and business leaders found 54% cited “meeting quotas” or “customer retention” as what worries them the most about an economic downturn. CSOs can cater to their sellers’ concerns by clarifying any common misunderstandings about inflation and offering accurate facts about any adjustments to quotas.
CSOs should proactively develop a strategy for talent management that encourages managers to promote recession-proof skills and encourage innovation and ideation in customer interactions. The goal is to boost sellers’ business acumen and listening skills by ensuring they can uncover vital information about how customers are preparing — if at all — for a downturn.
“Sellers need to know how a downturn would affect customers’ needs and their relationship with the organisation,” said Elkin. “By doing so, sellers can uncover new business opportunities and provide more meaningful services to customers.”
Embrace strategic cost management
“Cost-cutting is always an option to weather an economic storm, but it tends to focus on short-term results,” said Elkin.
“Instead, strategic cost management offers a way to balance cost cuts with targeted spending increases on growth areas. CSOs should focus on protecting talent and technology investments that are essential for achieving long-term growth goals.”
Noah Elkin
A key example of a CSO cost-management activity is evaluating the “must-protect,” longer-term investments that should outlast any period of budget pressure, particularly revenue technologies that will enable the team to achieve growth targets efficiently and at scale. Decrease sales technology expenses by eliminating low-usage platforms.
“Those who continually and proactively manage sales costs can better avoid the disruption that urgent cost reductions bring,” said Elkin.
