All industries have been influenced by the COVID-19 crisis to a greater or lesser extent. This slowed down B2B sales significantly. And while some states begin to open their economies gradually, there is a lot of uncertainty about the duration of imposed isolation and regulations going forward. Naturally, sales people across segments are adapting their sales practices during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
A global crisis or a recession stops business-as-usual. Rather, it calls for a sales strategy reset. The business climate is changing now and this gives the opportunity to enterprises to evaluate their opportunities and blind spots.
A Different Perspective
Most likely, your clients and prospects have cut costs partially, to minimise the effects of the COVID-19 crisis until it improves. Roughly 50% of enterprises have announced budget cuts and anticipate some revenue loss in 2020. Planned investments are for the large part delayed or canceling. This makes your sales strategy from Q1 inapplicable to the present market reality. What is more, just going on just as usual is dangerous for your business. Here is why:
- Clients need to feel flexibility on the vendor side
- Pre-COVID sales objectives can demoralise your salesforce
- Some part of your pipeline is extremely vulnerable right now and it’s better left alone
How To Reset Your Sales
Selling during a pandemic lockdown is not impossible even if it is challenging. And some of the considerations we discuss here can benefit your company evolution also after the crisis is behind us.
Envision the worst, but hope for the best.
As much as we want the crisis to be over soon, it may take many more months before the global economy is back to some form of normal. Many companies plan for a recovery period well into 2021. This is why businesses should plan for the worst without a deadline for the end of this complicated situation. Staying realistic in times of uncertainty may pull leaders and teams through, without creating false hope.
Review your 2020 sales goals
Instead of stressing about unrealistic revenue goals and trying to stick to your pre-crisis plans, evaluate the situation now. Estimate what your clients get from you now and how their needs might evolve in the future. As ever, your client base should be the starting point for making your short term plans (weekly or even daily) that can be adapted quickly.
Creative Solutions
When it comes to answering clients’ needs, imagination is paramount. More than ever, go off the beaten path. We are in an unprecedented global situation where every segment and individual has been affected in some way. Consider how you might support your clients in new ways, look for opportunities where you didn’t previously and remain flexible.
This is not synonymous to taking advantage of clients’ weakness and uncertainty. Rather, see how you can offer value and strengthen relationships beyond this crisis. Maybe your Customer Advocacy & Success team can help clients maintain revenue. By all means, tweak your service offerings to answer current market needs.
Team Transparency
What we must do during and after the crisis is talk to our people. If someone leaves the team or there are reduncies, be sure to talk about it openly. Recap internally what happened from the beginning of the crisis, how you reacted, organised remote work, what went well or not. Sales teams need closure and new horizons, so support them beyond COVID-19.
Each time you reset your strategy, goals and KPIs, talk to your people and be grateful for their loyalty. Winning teams share hard times and success.
Outsourcing
A flexible and extremely effective option for resetting your sales strategy now and for the future is to outsource sales functions, e.g lead generation or qualification. Sales services providers are experienced in market strategy shifts. They can support organisations during COVID-19 but also they can help a quick ramp – up for after the crisis is over.
If you want to find out more about your sales shift options, talk to one of our consultants.
