I still keep bumping into them: account reps, sales consultants and management consultants. These are the poor, despondent souls who have joined the growing ranks of the unemployed 7 million. Their faces mirror the sad look of Chicken-Little. Their skies, self-esteem and attitudes have fallen to new depths.

Yet, each time we cross paths, they ask me the same, tired question: what’s your secret for getting new customers during this Recession? I tell them: Become a problem-solver and prove your value to your customers and prospects!

Effective Problem-Solvers Share these 4 Success Habits:

First, they have a bullet-proof attitude. My glass is always half full. Like everyone else, I’m feeling the pinch of higher prices but I refuse to dwell on the bad news. Even when doors are slammed in my face, I stay motivated because I know positive change is coming. In my 41 years in business I have experienced and even thrived through 7 lean times, not too different from now. Staying focused and productive will lead me out of this wilderness back to the Promised Land of Prosperity!

Recently, President Clinton while being interviewed by CNN’s Larry King, said, “No one has ever made money betting against America.” We still live in the most productive and resourceful nation on the planet. We will survive and live to thrive, again. Count on it!

Second, they know their best prospects. Wake me up at 2 am and with incredible accuracy, I’ll rattle off my best customers’ demo and psycho graphic characteristics. I stay laser-focused on my narrow niche and I let nothing distract me. Clients and prospects, like these, have paid my bills since 1967 and they will continue to do so.

Third, they stay connected. Read my Feb 22nd blog to see how I do it. Even when decision-makers tell me, Gordie Allen:

• We aren’t budgeting for any new projects, now.
• We aren’t hiring sales people.
• We don’t need your sales training services.
• We aren’t opening any new offices.
• We have a hiring freeze.
• Stop by in a month………6 months, or next year.

Guess what? Whenever I have put the right, new projects at their feet they have always moved mountains to find the funds. How do I discover what’s hot and what’s not? It’s simple, I just pay attention.

Fourth, they begin by asking fresh, open-ended, questions to discover what has changed with their clients’ processes. For me, questions about their: new competition, distribution channels, product life cycles, product upgrades; special promotions, and the longer or shorter decision cycles which challenge their sales teams. 

My secret: I listen intently for key trigger phrases or cues. Problem-solvers, like me, hear opportunity knocking whenever a decision-maker says, Gordie, our problem is. The word, problem, is music to our ears. Here’s why: if this problem is causing enough severe pain, it is my opportunity to make it go away. I become their Doctor Feel-Good! Problems are nothing more than disguised opportunities.

I could ramble on about other, effective question-asking techniques. Here’s a better idea: buy and study The S.P.I.N. Selling Fieldbook, by Neil Rackham, ISBN #0-07-052235-9, published by McGraw-Hill.  Complete the homework assignments and you can become a master asker, just like me.

I forget where I heard or read this saying but I changed it because it beautifully sums up my attitude: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, then I build a door.”