Four Tips Revenue and Sales Leaders Can Do to Prepare for Recession

Based on the International Monetary Fund, the world economy is predicted to contract by more than 3 percentage points this year , from 6.1 to 3.2 then decrease in 2023. The rate of inflation is expected to stay at a high level.

There are a variety of things you can do to make sure your teams are prepared for changes in your prospects as well as customers' purchasing behaviors and priorities.

I spoke with 's former Vice President for Revenue Operations about this, and you can watch our entire conversation on the end of this article. I've also expanded on some of the strategies we talked about.

1. Review Segmentation and Find New Opportunities for Growth

There's a good chance you're looking at other data sources to see whether your total addressable markets (TAM) is decreasing. In the case of your particular market, there may be open reports, market surveys or public announcements on expected changes in budgets as well as tech spending.

But in volatile markets they could be obsolete in the moment they are released.

Another source for newer perspectives is through industry thought leader interviews and blogs. What are industry CEOs and advisors saying on LinkedIn about their businesses?

As for internal data at a higher degree, you need to be consistently monitoring the rate of retention you have on your net as well as bookings and size of deals. The thing that many businesses do wrong is not staying on a high a level with regard to their market.

The different segments in your TAM are going to be affected by external factors exactly the same way. In particular, we've learned that some sectors are more resilient to recession than other ones. If you've not yet discovered these sectors within your ICP it's a great starting point.

There may also be specific areas or countries are where you operate that are less impacted by inflationary pressures or the economic slowdown.

Account-based sales companies are accustomed to having sales regions defined. If you're a location-independent firm, it's likely that you spend less effort on sales and marketing efforts in relation to where your customers or prospects are coming from. In a market that is more constrained and with more competitive markets, knowing the best regions to target can be a huge gain.

Naturally, in highly turbulent markets, the state of certain industries or regions can change rapidly. This is why it's crucial to test the ROI of any investment you're making in the quickest time possible.

2. Accelerate Your ROI Measurements

You don't always have time to prepare for sudden events in your market, but the key is to speed the speed at which you are able to measure the impact of your investments now.

• If you're used to measuring the ROI of new product investments after six months, change that to six weeks. What leading indicators can you employ to assess quicker?
• If you beta test the new product for six months prior to releasing them to your full client base, check if there's a way to get an MVP ready for production within 3.

You should think about ways to evaluate the financial and time-based purchase you're planning to make to ensure that you fail or succeed more quickly and change direction as you need to at a much faster pace.

The other benefit of this is getting new value for your clients at the speed that is feasible. If your customers are tightening their budgets, you want to prove that you will continue to add new value.

3. Training Your Sales Team to manage new Prospect Priorities

The value propositions that work particularly well during growth times are not as effective in periods of slow or zero growth. Do your sales teams know how to pivot?

As an example, those that have traditionally been the most focused about the way a product helped companies increase their revenue could become more interested in the ways it can help reduce the time of employees and other assets.

As a whole, we'll be seeing increasingly more discussions centered about cost and the amount an organization will pay if they go with one solution over another. The company might be seeking an ROI that is quantifiable as opposed to potential development opportunities.

What we're notencouraging you to do is lower your prices, which will cause your clients to become accustomed to devaluing your product.

Sales must be more thorough than ever before in their ROI calculation, and educate customers about how they can justify the price of your product, and on practical, tested ways in which can benefit the company.

4. Find New Ways to Add or increase value

The rate of inflation is rising all over the globe with no signs of slowing down. So along with decreased rates of growth, you'll be facing increasing internal costs.

There is a chance that you are in a position that you have to increase the cost of goods or services or come up with new ways of increasing revenue from your existing customers.

No matter what method you choose to use it's important to tie it back to value.

Offer more education about the Value You've Added to the Product

If you do decide to raise prices, make sure to tie the numbers back to the extent to which the product you offer has progressed.

• Whenever possible, personalize the added value messages for certain users.
• Create content around platform upgrades or new features. which customers may have missed.

Offer Training and Case Studies on features that are not used or add-ons.

If increasing prices aren't the ideal strategy, look at alternative ways of increasing revenue from your existing clients.

Based on internal data Based on our data, upsells, or add-ons, usually represent between 30% and half of customers' company. These are avenues where you'll have the ability to prove your prices and maintain the average deal size that you're trying to capture while notraising the overall cost of your products.

• Are you able to identify customers that would benefit from the next tier or a different plan?
• If you're in the process of preparing for a renewal conversation What can you do to come equipped with evidence that your customers aren't making the most of the services offered by your business?

The bottom line: Concentrate on Value and Prepare for the possibility of being flexible

There is a bright side: periods of steady growth tend to follow recessions. The only thing you need to prepare yourself to deal with them.

The companies that are the most ready for market shifts are those with the best price positioning. They've invested in their product as well as on their relationships with customers. And they're able to prove that value.