How Should We Sell Now?
As a salesperson, the global pandemic is expectedly going to affect the future of my work. I have spent nights thinking about how our reality has been rudely altered and how we have all been thrust into learning new things without any warning.
I know that if well navigated, this new era would not spell doom for my business. But how do I do it? How do I sell and still be grounded in my core, how do I position myself as a trusted partner, not just someone who is desperate to still make money amidst all the gloom? How do I sell now?
Businesses/clients have had to make drastic decisions around the ways they ll now conduct business, from staff now working from home to suspending marketing campaigns and creating new strategies to help secure business continuity. The digital strategy that was awesome in January, socks by Aprils standards. Nothing is staying the same.
One of the questions sales teams are asking ‘ when can we start to sell again? this was also the question I was asking myself until I saw Lisa Earle Macleod Linkedin live class titled ‘is it ok to start selling again?’ Mcleod is the Author of the book Selling with Noble Purpose and this class opened my eyes to the power of using the right messaging especially in a time like this. I am glad to have joined her class.
Now the question to ask is, how should we sell now?
How do we sell in this unfamiliar environment, in the outcome of a universal disruption? We already know that when there is a disruption, things change fast and may never go back.
In the past, it was ok for salespeople to sock up to prospects and clients because you want to sell to them. People were even warming up to the sleek salesperson. They welcomed the authentic nature of the transactional salesperson who buttered you up first before asking for a sale. Many decision-makers have grown used to calls and stalking by marketers… Now how do you pitch to customers that are deciding they don’t have time for ‘traditional’ salesmen.
In this new era, we are entering into businesses/agencies will have to consider changing their sales process. But how do you as an entrepreneur or sales manager justify changing your sales process that has served you well for years?
1. Think about yourself and how you have changed you are not the same person you were before all this, it’s important to recognize that just as you are changing or fighting change so are your customers.
2. Or you can choose to learn the hard way and continue with the old way of selling, pitching and presentations.
To succeed as a sales unit ( this also includes a one-man sales team) you should hold meetings and asking a question around what your customers are going through right now to;
1. Keep revenue going
2. Keep their customers engaged
3. Manage brand messaging consistently to reflect present realities
4. Engage with their employees
In your follow up meetings discuss;
How can you support your customers through the lens of your expertise?
How can you adjust our sales processes?
What valuable thing can you produce this week?
What do you want your customer to overhear you talking about in your meetings?
How is what you are products or services going to serve this customer?
Takeaway: also come up with solutions by having a look at your emails, sales scripts, campaigns. Make sure they are laser-focused. Remember the goal is how to sell in the present reality and you want to shift the conversations that will right now be happening online.
Video Calls is the new normal
All these meetings we have been having with our team have been via video calls. And electronic communication is only effective when it is urgent and more specific than the regular in-person meetings. If you cannot communicate your intent within the first few moments, you may lose the interest of your customer. Avoid rambling and boring the client.
All good salespeople recognize you have to be all about the customer now more than before by deploying speed and faster communication; in your first sentence, address your agenda.
Create a popularly priced “bite-size” sales offerings.
These are things to generate revenue today, even if they’re smaller than your minimums in the past. The key is that the price range needs to reflect the scope (for you to deliver) and the value (for the client to receive). It is better to cut your scope than your rates. Why? Because a rate cut sets a dangerous precedent that lasts the entire length of the relationship. To echo agency owner Charles Kirkland, offer a “painkiller” instead of a “vitamin” — that is, something people urgently need rather than an optional or “nice-to-have” service. This may include a shift toward “staple” services — like lead-gen, PPC advertising, or sales collateral design — versus “nice to have” optional services that clients will defer during economic uncertainty.
Let it go
In the weeks after the lockdown and stay at home, we will see big organizations and governments do their utmost to alter this reality by way of advertising, messaging, tv and media content to cause you to feel comfortable again. We should all prepare to be cultured into thinking all the trauma endured is nothing to worry about.
Organizations also desire things to get back to normal, but the faster you let go of the old and adjust to the current economic impact of the global pandemic the better. Let us completely think differently.
Re-emergence over the coming weeks and months will be fitful, fragile and partial. The people who will succeed in this new era are those do not waste time dreaming of the past or our old ways, who are decisive about the sales strategy to deploy by asking ‘how do we sell now?’, and answering the question.
Organizations also desire things to get back to normal, but the faster you let go of the old and adjust to the current economic impact of the global pandemic the better. Let us completely think differently.
Re-emergence over the coming weeks and months will be fitful, fragile and partial. The people who will succeed in this new era are those do not waste time dreaming of the past or our old ways, who are decisive about the sales strategy to deploy by asking ‘how do we sell now?’, and answering the question.
