Although the recession is officially over, it doesn’t much feel like it. To survive and grow in what remains a challenging economy, you need a high-functioning sales team.

How do you achieve this without breaking the bank? The bad news is that it will take effort, time and diligence. The good news is that it really won’t cost much. And there’s more good news: you don’t have to come up with any new tactics. Instead, the most effective way to build an effective sales machine is by adopting a number of classic tactics—ones that are classics because they work, and because your competitors likely aren’t using them.

Here’s what you need to do:

Get closer to your clients

You’re more likely to make a sale if you understand how your clients see the world these days. How are they feeling? Here’s a way to find out: ask them. Want to know how to do this cheaply and effectively, and to put a sale on the board? Pick up the phone and call the client yourself. Five minutes of effort and a lifetime of value. Imagine how you’d feel if one of your own suppliers were to call to ask you what you thought. Why not be that company?

If you can’t or don’t want to do this, organize a focus group. To make sure it’s worthwhile for your customers to attend, don’t make it an overt sales pitch. Instead, generalize things by asking your clients—or have a professional facilitator do the asking—questions about trends in their industries and how your company will factor into these.

Another proven way to build and insulate client relationships is to get the big guys talking. Make it your goal on your key accounts to get someone above the level of sales rep involved in the sales process—anyone from the head of a department that’s key to servicing the account on up to you, the CEO. Involving one of your big guys — or gals — is convincing evidence that you consider the client more than just a number on your income statement.

Ensure that this tactic doesn’t eat up too much of your time by having the salesperson manage the introductions and information flow. For the modest time-investment of an off-site visit, the potential return is huge.

You should also consider another classic tactic that’s especially relevant now that it’s even tougher than normal to land new business: the 3-by-3. The idea is that when a rival strolls in with a lone sales rep and tries to compete, she’ll run into three guards at the gate—all of them yours.

The idea is dead simple: have three of your top people meet with three of the client’s top people. For instance, your sales rep would, as usual, work to build a relationship with the client’s decision-maker—the department head or whoever signs off on purchases. But then you’d build two other pairs of relationships between people each at about the same level. Your VP of engineering might build a relationship with her equivalent who runs the client’s product-support group, and your VP of customer service might build one with his counterpart who manages the front-line users of your product.
By cultivating these relationships, you’ll add value for the client by understanding its needs at a host of levels. And you’ll make it much harder for your competition to break in.
How do you get your clients to agree to 3-by-3 relationships? The key is to find a way to share information that crosses the buy-sell boundary, that offers your client insights and analysis helpful to running and growing its business. For example, your VP of operations might invite the client’s support-team manager to an upcoming conference on customer service. (Of course, this is a good idea only if your firm’s own customer service is top-notch.)

Work your sales team smarter

In such a tough market, you can’t afford to run your sales department in a loosey-goosey manner. What the times call for is good old-fashioned sales discipline.

Start your sales meetings on Mondays at 8 a.m. or Fridays at 4 p.m
Anyone who has ever been a salesperson will know the reaction you’ll get when you announce this plan: your reps will hate it. But it works, because it sends a clear message that it’s time to get down to some serious work.

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