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clouds with silver linings:

L. You, customers may be reducing their staff.

We've have all seen this. What looks like a negative, however, holds the potential for a great opportunity. Fewer staff generally means that some people are doing jobs that they have never done before and that fewer people are doing more jobs. These are both opportunities for the creative salesperson.

If someone is newly responsible for some category ofproduct you sell, you have a great opportunity to educate that person on your product, on the reasons why their company has chosen to work with you in the past, and on the benefits that you have brought to this company. Do this, and it will position you as a valuable resource to that customer. Capture that opportunity by leveraging your position into opportunities to present more of what you sell.

If some of your key contacts are now responsible for doing jobs that they have not done before, they can use help. It may be that by expanding the services or products that you sell to them, you can simplify their jobs and reduce some of the stress on them.

For example, a purchasing agent may suddenly become responsible for buying two or three new categories of product that were previously someone else's responsibility. Now is the time to make a presentation of why that account should buy more from you. Stress that doing so will reduce the number of salespeople that purchasing agent needs to deal with, and will reduce the number of purchase orders, invoices, and all the ensuing time-consuming details. That's a powerful attraction in these circumstances.

One of the most potent opportunities for a salesperson is the customer who becomes overwhelmed with the details and complexity of his/her job. If you can help simplify your customer's job, if you can take over some of what that customer formerly did themselves, then you'll have a powerful opportunity to establish a growing importance in that account.

Be particularly sensitive, over the near future, to the fact that your customers may have more to do. Open up conversations about how you can make a positive impact on their time and stress levels by reducing the number of vendors they deal with. Find creative ways your company can do things for the customer that the customer was previously doing for themselves.

If you can more closely ingrain your company with your customer in these difficult times, you'll become more important to that customer, and you'll enjoy a growing portion of their business when the economy turns around. lt is a rare opportunity.

3. Your compelilors may be cutting back.

A lot of companies are reducing their staff right now. They do so to reduce their costs so that they can survive in a difficult economy. That can open up an incredible opportunity for you to prosper in the long run. For

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