Some companies can see beyond the downturn

Looking for some positive news in this time of economic turmoil?   Well, today’s Financial Times had exactly that, reporting that 10 deals worth 27 billion were announced yesterday the 20^th April 2009.

What is says is that some of the world’s biggest companies can see beyond the downturn.  They are confident about their futures and are actively shaping it:

·         Oracle agreed to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4bn

·         GlaxoSmithKline paid $3.6bn for Stiefel Laboratories

·         PepsiCo offered $6bn to buy out investors in its two biggest bottlers.

It is all about confidence, but as sales people, it is too easy to assume that our customers and prospects don’t have the bottle to take important and even risky business decisions at this time.  That is a dangerous assumption. 

The spurt in M&A activity shows that companies are as capable of making good business decisions today as ever, if the business confidence and rationale exists.  Our job as sales people is to make sure it does.  As Dale Carnegie would say ‘if all you have got is lemons, at least you can make lemonade’.