Business cycles are like waves on the shore line, they come and go in various sizes and velocity. For some businesses today's climate has created a sense of perplexity about what the next wave holds for them.

While people have varying degrees of comfort with risk, change, and managing the unknown, sales professionals need to adhere to the adage about swimming at the ocean, "never turn your back on the waves". Keep your eyes focused on your goal, watch for and interpret the signals you can see and hear, adjust your objectives and move ahead; but don't turn your back and try to hold your ground blindly if you sense change is occurring in your environment.

What steps can you take to adjust to a potential or existing slow down in your business cycle?

1. Never quit selling.

Pause to evaluate the status and pace of your direction but maintain positive momentum.

Continue to rely on your sales plan, if it is still viable. A valid sales plan can often be relied on with modest flexing to match the changing environment. However, if the environment you work in has experienced volcanic shifts a fresh plan may be called for.

If you don't know which you need to do (shift and adjust, or scrap and recreate) then take time to evaluate thoroughly and decide the direction you will take. Most importantly, keep moving ahead; sitting scared and frozen in place doing nothing is a sure way to end up troubled.

Work to gather current information from your front line staff, suppliers, customers, public data, competitors, and professional associates. Poor over the information you collected, identify the pieces of data you feel you don't know; digest it all. Relying on your management team and trusted professional service providers and consultants, define a revised set of objectives given the current state of affairs. And while you are investing in this planning time, define what indicators you will look for to help you know when the environment is improving for your market, or when you should make further adjustments in your business.

2. Let customers know you are still there for them.

Continue to communicate with customers and approach sales with persevering vigor. Do not cross out names on your pipeline if they turn you down; simply move them forward on the call list so you keep checking in with them.

Always make your approach to customers fresh, upbeat and appreciative of their business, even if they decline to buy; and if they invite you back be sure to be timely in the call-back.

3. Add value to the products or services you previously sold.

Find fresh ways to approach products or services already purchased from you and still being used by the customers. Selling update features or ancillary equipment and timely maintenance contracts can add incremental cash flow to your business and offers customers improved efficiency and ways to manage their cash flow. Maybe you can even sell features or equipment that can improve on your competitor's previous sales. Think creatively for sources of new sales dollars, even if they are smaller than you would normally pursue; in slow times volume may be more lucrative when larger sales are not accessible to you.

4. Educate those who may buy in the future.

Continue to call on prospective customers; it helps them create a clear idea of the purchases they can buy, when they can. Because you spent time and effort developing the relationship with them during a slow time they will remember you, and you will have used your time today wisely.

5. Be wise; build your knowledge about what you sell and who you sell to.

Research and reading often pile up on 'to-do' lists that age and ultimately become stale before we can ingest and apply the knowledge the material offers. If your days are not as long or intense as normal, build time into your calendar for increasing your knowledge and be consistent about honoring that time. Frittering unstructured time away on feeble efforts such as reading mundane emails is just that-feeble. Be as intent on pursuing your industry and customer knowledge during a slowdown in the economic environment as you wish you could when a robust set of sales calls demands your time.

As business cycle waves lap at your business door observe, evaluate, and keep your sales plan valid and flexible. Continue to communicate with and care for your customers. Be expectant about future sales and prepare for them by continuing to build your knowledge. Define what signals you will look for to adjust your business plan again or that will tell you positive shifts are underway. Being adept in handling changing business cycle waves can offer clarity of purpose and keep your sales momentum moving ahead.

Cheryl Kane, MBA, is a business consultant, trainer, and speaker who welcomes your questions about this issue and suggestions for future topics for this column. If you want to know more, contact Cheryl at website www.cherylkane.net, email: cherylkane@cherylkane.net, or phone: (704) 795-5058.