Adapting your B2B Sales Strategy During the Pandemic
It’s likely that the handshake is a distant memory that we may not again experience for a long time to come. The COVID-19 pandemic has completely disrupted not just daily life but especially business practices for everyone including sales professionals.
Most companies have adapted their daily processes to include working-from-home set-ups and Zoom meetings – ours included. Business continuity, rather than business growth, has been on the top of many business owners’ priorities with such uncertainty in these unprecedented times.
But now is not the time to dig your heels into the sand – it’s more important than ever to explore ways to effectively adapt to these new circumstances while ensuring your business can continue to grow.
Here are some of our recommendations for actions to take that can improve your sales prospects during these challenging times:
Key actions that can help your sales pipeline during COVID-19
Be proactive.
The top habit of success is to be proactive so keep reaching out, while bearing in the mind the shifting sands/landscape. You may also need to re-invent your services and look to be more digital minded. Everyone jokes that it’s a great time if you are a Zoom salesperson! 😊
Undergo some training
For those who have lost their jobs or been furloughed, it is a great time to learn new skills or improve on your current ones. There are many free courses being made available online.
One great skill to focus on is how to sell or look to set up your own business. This is also an area where Research Runner can help and provide the expertise and skills to make sure you succeed.
Maintain human interactions.
It’s a good time at the moment just to be reaching out to people to talk human to human really and building future relationships together. The key is not necessarily to sell at the moment but to look to build up new contacts and build on existing relationships.
Ring friends and family (and even old clients!) who you haven’t spoken to recently, which can help your brain benefit from having outside conversation.
Expand geographically.
Have you always focused on local business? With new digital ways of communicating and working, companies can become more flexible and reach out to more people nationally or even globally.
This can be done effectively with a combination of outsourcing marketing and sales along with their internal resources. It may depend on what sector you find yourself in, but we are always talking to companies to help give them guidance as we have a great overview of the global marketplace.
Take advantage of WOOs.
WOOs – ‘’window of opportunities’’- are out there – the business landscape is changing with demand shifting in almost every industry. These WOOs may not be there for long, so it’s always best to be able to move quickly as a company to look to sow the seed to grow future business.
If you keep an open mind you will also find others who can co-create opportunities and learn together. Always be curious and learn, but number one is to be proactive- sink or swim!!
Clean up your CRM system.
Are your contacts current? Are they segmented for effective communications? Are there past clients that you haven’t reached out to lately or potential clients that you haven’t added to your CRM? Now is a good time to really consider how your CRM is working for you and your team.
Audit your online presence.
Business today is basically 100% online, which might be a significant change for your company. When was the last time you took a hard look at your website, your social media channels and your online reviews?
Take this opportunity to audit your online presence in comparison to your competitors. Support is available via digital agencies or online courses to help you understand how you could improve your business’ digital profile.
Outsource your lead generation.
This is an obvious one coming from us! However, we have noticed many business owners and sales managers realising that they need that extra boost we are able to offer during these trying times.
Choosing an industry-leading sales firm to help secure you new business ‘meetings’ frees up your time so you can concentrate on running the business effectively. It also keeps your sales pipeline full while you have time to adapt the business to the new normal and gives you time to spend on other ways of improving the business.
Focus on your wellbeing.
Salespeople and business owners tend to be extroverts with bundles of energy, and we know how claustrophobic it can feel to be confined to your home. Try to keep active as much as possible and take time for yourself.
It might also be a good time to evaluate your daily routine, before and after the pandemic. Do Zoom calls make more sense than travelling to meetings, now that more people are becoming used to them? What hours of the day do you feel most productive and could you incorporate any new insight into future routines?
We hope this advice motivates you during these trying times.
If you’d like to discuss any other ideas or learn more about our Sales Relief Packages, please contact Julian Haste on jhaste@research-runner.com or Nick Rowley on nrowley@research-runner.com for a friendly chat.
