It's happened very quickly but we now seem to be gripped by the changes that are taking place because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
It's scary, and I, like many of you are at home. I've moved all my face-to-face meetings to virtual and I'm sure you have too.
I said last week at the conference "Covid-19 is dictating the pace of change of business" and there were nods of agreement across the audience.
The question I keep asking people is “what are you going to do to sell in a world where there are no face-to-face meetings?”
Of course you can get conference call software but Business to Business (B2B) Enterprise sales requires depth of relationship. Or put another way, Trust.
Sales and marketing is the engine room of any business and for a business to keep functioning goods and services have to be bought and sold.
So here are some suggestions to enable you to get that depth relationship.
1. Get people to update their LinkedIn profiles. After all, this is your shop window to the world. With no face-to-face meetings and more people using social your business needs to show it’s best position. There is a saying that everybody is in sales, everybody is also in branding.
2. Don’t make the mistake that this is all about you or your products. This is about your buyer. As it’s your “shop window” answer the question “what is it your buyer would like to see if they looked into that shop window?”
3. Connect, connect, connect, you should spend time connecting to your prospects, customers and account influencers. Again, if you are not going to have face-to-face meetings then you need to get the depth of relationship somehow.
4. Literally lift your analogue territory and put it on LinkedIn. This exercise usually turns up opportunity as people see your new profile and say “i didn’t know you did that?”
5. One trick that is so often missed by a business is the need to connect wide and deep in accounts. Leaders know leaders and the leaders in your business need to make connections as a leadership level.
6. Don’t forget to connect to each other across the business, this allows each of you to sit in each other’s network.
7. Reconnect to people you have not spoken to for a long time.
8. Finally, now is the time to write that short blog. 300 words, one idea, showcase your expertise. Prove you are that expert, share your experiences.
It’s terrible to hear about the Covid-19 deaths people are losing loved ones. People are stuck on cruise ships, which I’m sure the novelty would wear off very quickly. This is also a time where we can sit back and hope or try and take control and turn the challenge into an opportunity.
We will get over this, leadership and life is about an ever changing environment and with some clever preparation we will overcome it
As people around Australia increasingly begin working and studying from home or self-isolating as part of the national response to COVID-19, demand for connectivity is rising rapidly. To play our part, Telstra is giving our consumer and small business customers additional data as well as offering unlimited home phone calls to pensioners. We want to help our customers, who find themselves having to work from home, stay connected.
https://exchange.telstra.com.au/supporting-our-customers-during-covid-19/
