My personal view is that as we hurtle into 2009 and all of the financial uncertainty that we are destined to face on a daily basis, the organisations most likely to survive and even thrive, will be the ones who are willing to adapt and be prepared to change direction when market conditions dictate that they should.

Inevitably, that means smaller companies will do better, because they will not be weighed down by unnecessary beaurocracy and the “decision by committee” mentality; they will not have to wait for corporate boardroom decisions to be taken, often miles away from the frontline; no hanging around waiting for budgets to be approved, leaving the competition to steal the lead etc. etc.  

Compare the braking distance of a juggernaut with that of a small family saloon – you get the picture.

I also believe that smaller companies are more capable of building stronger, sustainable relationships with their customers, and we can certainly say that 2009 will also be the year of “Customer Focus” – it’s what me learned colleague Colleen Francis refers to as “Love the one you are with”

But what exactly does “Customer Focus” mean?

Customer Focus Creates Competitive Advantage:

• The one term that sets top performers apart – customer focus
• Outstanding sales results depend on:
- The ability to think from the customer’s point of view
- Understanding the customer’s agenda, buying cycle and best interests
• Beyond a superficial reading of immediate customer needs, salespeople must gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate
• At the heart of customer focus is the art of listening constructively – the best salespeople are masters at capturing information
• Customer focus means taking the customer seriously – to-day the salesperson who clings to the product orientation of a decade ago is losing ground
• As client companies branch into new markets and unfamiliar territories, they are demanding unique, flexible solutions from their vendors – customised to support specific goals
• Another myth which can be exploded is that whilst customers value flexibility, being too flexible can undermine the sales relationship. On the whole salespeople imagine that customers value a vendor’s responsiveness above all. However recent research shows that their primary concern is reliability.

In summary, in order to maintain customer focus the best salespeople become facilitators, creating a partnership that extends the selling relationship within the customer’s company. The motivation to achieve this should be strong – it costs seven times as much to attract and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one!

The right to do business has to be continually earned and never assumed – that is certainly a message we will all need to heed in 2009.

Today’s News: We are changing the format slightly here on the Blogit: On Wednesdays I will be providing you with a book review and also giving away FREE, one of my ebooks – so, you have the chance to build up a collection of fifty two books over the course of 2009.

However, I am going to retain the two JF Guest Author Spots, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The JF Uncut posts at weekends, will not be regular features, but rather I’ll post if there is something I need to get off my chest! 

Tomorrow: My first guest of 2009 will be my good friend Paul McCord – best selling author, sales guru, senior Top Sales Expert and a fellow member of the soon to be launched “Global Sales Council”

I am often asked what motivates me to religiously post every day to this blog; or regularly write and submit new articles to a small, select number of article communities: The answer is always the same - ”recognition”

Not unaturally, it gives me immense pleasure to receive recognition for my writing, so having spent much of December promoting the work of others via: “The Sales Book Awards“, “The JF Awards” and of course, “Top Sales Article Of The Year” I hope you will indulge me for a few moments, whilst I share some personal successes from 2008, which have provided me with what I seek most – recognition.

On New Year’s Eve word came through from Social Media Today, who own The Customer Collective 

The Customer Collective’s Most Read Bloggers of 2008
  Jonathan Farrington – 14866 Views
  Jonathan Salem Baskin – 9736 Views
  Andy Beal – 9434 Views
  Charles Green – 9299 Views
  Paul McCord – 9063 Views
  Dave Stein – 8616 Views
  Augie Ray – 7804 Views
  Mike Volpe – 7777 Views
  Ardath Albee – 7295 Views
  Jill Konrath – 6388 Views

Also on New Year’s Eve, I received a message from Eyes On Sales listing their most popular articles of 2008:

-The Twelve Golden Principles Of Selling By Jonathan Farrington

-Never, EVER, Start a Call With “I Just Called to See How Things are Going” By Wendy Weiss

-How Can You Sell When You’re Not The Lowest Price? By Dave Kahle

-The Secret to Sales Success – Even When Times are Tough By Jill Konrath

And of course, those messages followed Salesopedia’s announcement of their most read articles in 2008

Salesopedia Lists 2008′s Most Popular Articles  

Check out these “Reader’s Choice” award-winning articles, selected based on the hit counts of all 1250+ published on this site in the past year.

The 10 Commandments of Networking, Ivan Misner
Fearless Sales Prospecting for a Soft Economy in Recession, Scott Metcalfe
The Most Important Element in the Entire Sales Cycle, Jonathan Farrington
The Art of the Question – 8 Key Rules, Rick Johnson
Enticing Voicemail Messages, Jill Konrath

Over at Best Management Articles ”Successful Consultative Sales Professionals Fulfil Three Basic Roles” became the most read article ever Although I was knocked off top spot on BuildYourOwnBusiness after two years.

At Ezine Articles  I have published 168 articles, which have been read 133,683 times and been re-published 2614 times – which I find pretty amazing, particularly when you consider that I haven’t written a new full article for more than eighteen months. I do have a very large repository – and you thought that was just a rumour

But you know what? All of that pales in comparison to the buzz I get from checking our site stats – sad but true!

Yesterday I completed the year-end reports for all of our sites and there are some pretty astounding numbers:

Unique visitors to this blog increased from 154.585 in 2007 to 501.048 in 2008 (+308%)

Top 10 Sales Articles increased from 91.296 in 2007 to 180.539 in 2008 (+98%) – not bad for a site with just one post per week – I mean, once you have seen who has been nominated, you are not going to come back, unless you get hit with a bout of amnesia.

We don’t have comparison figures for Top Sales Experts and The JF Consultancy because obviously, they are both too young, but I can tell you that TSE is probably going to hit 500k visitors in 2009 and JFC will be around 200k. And then of course, we will have The Global Sales Council – but more of that soon.

Now I know that these numbers do not compare with article community sites, because they are not article community sites – where visitors might pop back several times every day, so we are very proud and feel totally vindicated for the long hours invested in SEO, site renewal and for continually striving to improve the content.

But you know the most important ingredient? – It is you, so please continue to support us in 2009 and in return, we will endeavour to provide you with precisely what you want and need.

That really is it until Monday! - JF